Is fasted cardio just a fad? Or is it superior for fat loss?

The fitness industry is constantly jumping from trend to trend. As coaches we need to develop core values based upon scientific principles and stick to them. When new stuff comes up, we need to think about it, see where it can fit in with our clients, apply it, and collect data to see whether it is working or not.

One of the current trends is training in a fasted state for weight loss. To reemphasize that last part, this tactic is used only for weight loss. Those of you looking to increase performance are best served not applying this approach. For those of you looking to drop a few pounds, let us look at what the science says.

What the Science Says About Fasted Cardio

A study performed in 2010 compared fasted training to fed training over a six-week period. Researchers looked at some key areas and compared the two groups. Training was always performed in the morning and consisted of two sixty-minute sessions and two ninety-minute sessions. 

"Both the fasted and the fed groups increased their glucose tolerance, but the fasted group increased it substantially more."

The fed group was given a breakfast of 675 calories, made up of 70% carbohydrate, 15% protein, and 15% fat. On top of that, they were given 1g of maltodextrin per kg of bodyweight about ninety minutes before training. The fasted group received this exact same cocktail in the midafternoon. The areas the researchers compared were glucose tolerance, GLUT4, muscle glycogen, metabolic enzymes, body composition, and exercise capacity. The results of the study were quite interesting.

Both the fasted and the fed groups increased their glucose tolerance, but the fasted group increased it substantially more. GLUT4 is a glucose transporter that allows glucose to enter muscle cells. The more of these we have, the more glucose gets taken up into the muscles, as opposed to being stored as fat. GLUT4 transporters increased by 28% in the fasted group and only 2-3% in the fed group.

Glycogen stores increased more in the fasted group when compared to the fed group, but there was no significant difference between intramuscular lipid stores.Increased intramuscular lipid stores are seen in obesity and can lead to insulin resistance and mitochondrial dysfunction.¹ 

"Glycogen stores increased more in the fasted group when compared to the fed group, but there was no significant difference between intramuscular lipid stores."

The only differences in metabolic enzymes were seen in translocase/CD36 and carnitine palmitoyltransferase¹. These two enzymes play a role in our abilities to metabolize both fat and glucose. The fasted group saw an increase of approximately 30% and the fed group did not see an increase. All other metabolic enzymes tested remained the same.

As expected, the fed group had a greater increase in VO2max, but the fasted group showed a greater increase in fat oxidation. As I stated previously, fasted cardio is not a way to increase performance, but instead to lose weight. With less glucose present, it is no surprise that the fasted group showed greater fatty acid oxidation for energy.

The Practical Side of Fasted Cardio

There are other studies that show similar results as the one presented in this article. After reading that study and hearing that other studies back up these findings, you may be ready to jump right into a fasted cardio weight-loss routine - but it’s not for everyone.

"[K]ey areas to assess are sleep, vitamin D, stress levels, exercise routine, and diet. If all of these are squared away, then give fasted cardio a try."

I have messed around with the fasted cardio component with myself, as well as with clients, and I have experienced a mixed bag of results. For some it worked great, but for others it didn’t. This is something you may have to mess around with for a period to see if it helps. Before doing that, I encourage you to assess your lifestyle and improve upon areas that may be weak. Some key areas to assess are sleep, vitamin D, stress levels, exercise routine, and diet. If all of these are squared away, then give fasted cardio a try.

There are some key points to keep in mind if you do decide to try it:

• This study was performed in the morning, and I encourage you to do the same. Waiting until the afternoon or evening to work out while fasting all day may be too much of a stressor and could have the opposite of the desired effects. 
• I also encourage you not to make the fasted cardio something intense. Low-level aerobic activity between 70-80% of VO2max should suffice. Anything more intense may also become a stressor. 
• Make sure you take in carbohydrates with your first meal. I ran into this problem with quite a few clients. We use a paleo diet template, and I encourage my clients to get their carbs in the afternoon or evening. This created the habit of them having a large salad with meat and very little carbohydrates for lunch. This didn’t work well for coming off a fast. So, if this sounds like your current lunch make sure to add some fruit or sweet potatoes to it.

Those of you who have tinkered with fasted cardio I would like to hear from you. Let us know how you implemented it, for how long and how well it worked for you. Your experiences may be able to help someone else trying to lose a few extra pounds.

How do sleep and nutrition effect recovery?

So here we are, part 5 and the final segment of the Recovery Series. Having already covered Ice Baths, Massage, Compression Clothing, and Active recovery, we are now left with two of the most important aspects of performance and recovery – Sleep and Nutrition.

Let’s get down to it.

To begin I’m going to talk about hydration. It’s often spoken about how important it is to stay well hydrated, yet people will often let this be the first thing to slip when they start to focus on other things. It often seems to drift into the back of their mind as soon as they have something else to think about.

 

Well hydration is damn important. So drink some water people! It can help aid you in fat loss, keeps performance high both mentally and physically¹, and when recovering it is essential to replace the fluids you lose when sweating – so try to make sure you get a good amount of water in as soon as you can. I know that after a good game of club rugby on a Saturday all you want to do is sink a pint of Irish black gold, and believe me that would be my first thought too, but before you get yours hands on that beautiful well deserved pint get some water in.

(Alcohol in general is obviously not good for performance, or for recovery, but I’m just being realistic here – especially now that “Dry January” is over.)

 

Nutritionally speaking the best way to explain it is through a very cliché quote;

“You wouldn’t put diesel in a petrol car”.

And it’s true, when practicing a sport or exercising, your body is the car. And for that engine of yours to work at its best it needs to be adequately fuelled.

 

Now there is a huge amount of information about nutrition out there on the Internet, and within that there is contrasting advice and endless different diets. Honestly, it’s a bit of a pain in the arse. Wouldn’t it just be amazing if there were one way that fits everyone? In my opinion it would. But that isn’t the case, and there is a reason. Different people react differently. For instance some people have food intolerances, some react better to carbohydrates, some better to fats, some can work well eating the majority of their carbs late at night, others would get fatter by doing the same thing.

 

So it can take a bit of time to find out what works for you. Trial and error, and not just trialing for something for one day and saying it doesn’t work. You have to try it, allow time for adaptation to occur, and then make a decision based upon results. This goes for weight gain, maintenance, and loss.

 

That being said – there is some basic information that can be very transferrable, and that should be put into place when trying to improve recovery.

First off – you need to eat! Even if you were lay in bed doing absolutely nothing but breathing and thinking all day your body would still burn calories. This is called your basal metabolic rate. The amount of calories you would burn doing the absolute minimum. So if you’re not eating, you will gradually lose weight and your everyday bodily functions will start to suffer if not properly fuelled.

What foods do we need? Well the obvious answer first up is to look at your macronutrients – Carbohydrates, Protein and Fats.

When you consume carbohydrates, the body can break it down into glycogen, which then is utilised for energy production (I’m putting it simply – its much more complicated than that in real life, but for that stuff go read a text book).

Protein is made up of amino acids, these are the building blocks for muscle repair. So to make sure you maintain muscle or build muscle, you need to get protein in from somewhere such as meats, eggs or supplements.

Fats – oh here we go! So fats get a lot of stick in the press. Low fat this, low fat that. That’s great, well done, but the body needs fat. Simple. Fat can also be used as fuel for the body, as well as insulation. Different fats that we get through food can also be used to help keep our joints healthy, and keep our brain functioning.

 

So how much of each should you be eating? Unfortunately it all depends on you. Protein should be a mainstay. If you are a sports person, or if you train regularly, you will need more than the average person as your muscles are being used on a regular basis. Carbohydrates can fluctuate, for me personally I feel like crap if I eat loads of carbohydrates, but equally if I eat a low amount I feel rubbish too. So I rotate them so I eat more on hard training days to fuel my workouts and replenish afterwards, but less on off days as I don’t need that fuel. I then rotate fat consumption to balance my carb intake.

 

If you feel like you are always tired, or you’re losing weight or strength, you probably need to eat more. If you’re gaining weight, but are having no performance improvements and just getting fat, you probably need to eat less. But finding something that works for you takes time. My advice would be find a balance, try it for 6-8 weeks, then change if necessary.  Eat more carbohydrates when you’re training hard, plenty of protein every single day no matter whether you’re training hard or resting, and get fats in through good sources such as nuts and fish.

 

One last thing on nutrition – eat your vegetables! ^{(Nutrition references 2-5)}

 

The final section of this article is my personal favourite, and the most important. Sleep. Everyone needs to sleep. It is absolutely fundamental to performance, and to general health. Lack of sleep not only leads to tiredness (obviously), but it can screw up your hormone balance, which will lead to performance changes.

There are plenty of people who aren’t getting where they want to be in sport or business, and they will give an extra 2 hours a day training or working in the office at the expense of sleep, and this will then just pile on top itself to manifest into something bad. If they had an extra hour or two each day, their concentration throughout the day would actually increase, and likely their productivity.

For those of you wanting sporting gains, our muscles repair when they are resting. And we get a boost of naturally occurring growth hormone when we sleep. Combine those two statements and you should realise that you need sleep.

 

So there we go. A little bit longer than my usual articles, but we have covered a lot in this one. I’ve put a few references together at the bottom, including a couple of podcast episodes which are fantastic for understanding the importance of sleep, so have a flick through them if you want.

 

As I mentioned at the start, this was the final part of the Recovery Series. I hope you have enjoyed reading them, and please share them around as much as you can. It would be great if these could reach more people, as a lot of athletes don’t understand the importance of recovery to their performance.

 

Next week we will be looking into something new, so I’ll leave you hanging on to find out.

 

Thanks again for reading, and feel free to get in contact.

 

Rob Nitman. BSc. ASCC.

 

References:

 

1.      Gibson-Moore, H. (2014) Hydration and Health. Nutrition Bulletin, 39 (1).

2.      Dr. Israetel, M. (2014). The Renaissance Diet. E-Book.

3.      Bean, A. (2013). The Complete Guide to Sports Nutrition. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, London UK. 7^th Edition.

4.      American College of Sports Medicine. (2009). Nutrition and Athletic Performance. Medicine & Science in Sport & Exercise, 49 (3).

5.      McLaren, D. (2008). Protein, Carbohydrates and Muscle Recovery. The Journal of the UK Strength & Conditioning Association, 10.

6.      Barbell Shrugged. 158 - The 1 Thing That Will Make You Better at Everything. 07 January 2015.

7.      Barbell Shrugged. 113 - 1 Quick Way To Naturally Increase Testosterone: Sleep. 16 April 2014.

The Achievement Goal Theory: One of Many Pillars to Talent and Psychological Development

I would like to start off with a definition of Achievement;

Achievement is subjectively defined, and success or failure in obtaining the goal is a subjective state based on the participant’s assessment of the outcome of the achievement behavior (Maehr & Nicholls, 1980).

The Achievement goal theory assumes that the individual is an intentional, goal-directed organism who operates in a rational manner, and that achievement goals govern achievement beliefs and guide subsequent decision making and behavior in achievement contexts (Tenebaum & Eklund, 2007).

In other words, the environment in which an individual is placed in, can develop specific beliefs that guide an individual on how they view their own development, which can lead to decrease or increase in their personal motivation.  Therefore, the environment in which a child develops can play a huge role in how they will approach a task or activity and what they will take away from the task based on their own personal perception.

One of the biggest issues I see with youth sports today (however this can be applied to many different areas of life) is that coaches tend to create the wrong environment needed to help nourish an athlete’s development.  These environments lead to anxiety, decreased motivation and intrinsic effort, lower levels of moral functioning and cheating, and burnout, to list a few.

So what I want to do in this article, is break down the achievement goal theory in a simple way, and explain how to get the most out of your athletes (or employees, etc.).

There are two different goal orientations; task orientation and ego orientation.  In other words, an individual is either task- or ego-involved with a specific situation.  A task-oriented individual tends to construe competence based on self-reference criteria and are primarily concerned with mastery of the task, to they are more likely than ego-oriented individuals to develop perceived competence over time (Elliot & Dweck, 1998).  An ego-oriented individual feels competent when they compare favorably to in the relation to others, so high perceived relative ability or competence is less likely to be maintained in ego orientation (Dweck, 1986).

Research shows that task-oriented individuals tend to be more resilient when it comes to challenges and perceived competence.  When they look at a task as a challenge and a way to get better, while focusing on the process of getting better, they don’t get discouraged when they make mistakes.  However, with an ego-oriented individual they lose self-confidence easily when they make mistakes, because they focus on comparison and being better than their peers.  Therefore, when they are of less stature than their peers at a specific task they feel defeated and tend to stop doing the task, demonstrating a decrease level of resiliency.  Ultimately, quitting or giving up.

Some of you now might be asking now, what does this have to do with youth coaches?  Well the environment you create throughout your clubs, trainings, matches, even just how you talk to the players develops one of the two orientations or a mixture of the two within an individual.

There are two difference motivational climates: mastery and performance.  Mastery (task-orientation) climate is a structured environment that supports and focuses on effort, cooperation, and put emphasis on the process of development through learning and task mastery.  Performance (ego-orientation) climate refers to a structured environment that supports normative comparisons, intrateam competition, and a punitive approach by teaches and coaches to mistakes committed by participants.

A mastery climate allows for an optimizing environment for the individual to fully develop to their full potential, while giving them the tools and mindset/beliefs they need to approach challenges in the future.  It increases an individual’s well-being, sportsmanship, persistence, task perseverance, adaptive achievement strategies, and attenuates overtraining, self-handicapping, as well as, other negative responses.  While the performance climate does the exact opposite.

In a sense the mastery climate develops a growth mindset individual, while the performance based climate develops a fixed mindset individual (see fixed vs. growth mindset article).  Now I am not saying to take all of the performance based ideas away from your training, but put the focus on the development of the players and make sure they focus on this.  It will allow them to excel greater than if they are focused on being better than their teammate Tommy.  If they focus on their own process of development and are guided correctly, they will not only develop to become a better player but also it will supply them with the right beliefs and mindset that they can use later in life.

If you take anything from this article, take away the idea to have individuals you are working with focus on the process of development and mastery.  Like I mentioned before comparison is the thief of all joy!

This was a brief intro into the achievement goal theory, more to come later!

 Expertly written by Brittany Persaud

References:

Dweck, C. S.  (1986). Motivational Processes affecting learning.  American Psychologist, 41, 1040-1048.

Elliot, E. S., & Dweck, C. S.  (1988). Goals: An approach to motivation and achievement.  Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 5-12.

Maehr, M. L., & Nicholls, J. G.  (1980). Culture and achievement motivation:  A second look.  In N. Warren (Ed.), Studies in cross-cultural psychology, (Vol. 2, pp. 221-267).  New York: Academic Press.

Tennenbaum, G., & Eklund, R. C.  (2007). Handbook of Sport Psychology: Third Edition.

Glute Activation: Reduce risk of injury and increase performance

Hello again. This article follows on from previous articles on foam rolling and mobility, flexibility and stability. These three areas have been discussed as part of a pre-training routine, in order to reduce risk of injury and enhance performance.

This article will look at what glute activation is, how it can be achieved and why should it be considered as part of your pre training routine.

What is glute activation?

Your glutes are a powerful muscle group, made up of the gluteus maximus, gluteus minimus and gluteus medius.  These muscles play an integral role in your performance, as they are heavily involved in powerful movement such as sprinting, jumping or change of direction.

If these muscles are weak or inactivate (gluteal amnesia), other muscles are forced to compensate, leading to an increased risk of injury and decrement in performance levels. Therefore it is important to strengthen these muscles and ensure they are ‘active’ ahead of exercise.

How can this be achieved?

There are a number of stretches and exercises we can do in order to activate our glutes.

Pre-activating muscles with near maximal exercises / lifts have previously proved effective, through enhancing neural drive. A disadvantage of this is that muscles are exposed to a risk of fatigue and you must have access to gym equipment.

By activating muscles using body weight exercises, your routine can be done anywhere and anytime, with no equipment required.  For example this can be done on the pitch before a game, as a part of your pre match warm up. Mini bands can be used to add an external resistance to the body. These bands are not too hard to find and won’t break the bank either.

Here are a few examples. Try to ensure all exercises are performed in a controlled manner.

Glute Bridges (double / single leg)

Image: http://slim.top.me/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/glutebridge.jpg

Clams

Image: http://www.hep2go.com/ex_images/007001-008000/800/image_007155.jpg

Hip Abductions

Image: http://www.thera-bandacademy.com/elements/clients/images/TCSideHipAbd-13_302__200901DD_023051.jpg

‘Fire Hydrant’

Image: http://www.menshealth.co.uk/cm/menshealthuk/images/e5/fire-hydrant.jpg

‘Donkey Kick’

Image: http://media1.onsugar.com/files/2013/11/26/035/n/1922729/6b0fef282ccd0c21_donkey-kicks.jpg

Side Steps

Image: http://www.beexercise.com/storage/tubewalk_300x300.jpg?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1281376334182

Monster Walk

Image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0H_-Xjv80STHFVxPFlaAQ_05KH-i0qbVioH8kmGlGCuM_4WIfzNWMTrQnH8yD3rTodnoZuuXsOWmvqdAGR4qTe09YeZUtBa_TV8Tw_2mmCxVzhul7DjxeGltEWT1nLZgVvzmsr0aqQ/s1600/Monster.jpg

What does the research say?

A study by Crow et al. (2012), examined the effect a low load warm up, to activate the gluteal muscles, had on performance with a group of Australian rugby players.

Seven exercises were used in the warm up to target the gluteus, including some of the exercises listed above; glute bridges, clams and hip abductions.

Results of the study showed that this warm up significantly increased lower body peak power and improved jump height scores in a weighted (20kg bar) squat jump test.

These results highlight that a warm up incorporating gluteal activation exercises has the ability to increase performance levels significantly.

So why not give it a go your self?

If you would like any tips on the exercises listed above or any other details regarding glute activation, as always, I am more than willing to help.

Thank you again for taking the time to read this article! Goodbye for now.

Reference

Crow, J., Buttifant, D., Kearny, S. and Hrysomallis, C. (2012). Low Load Exercises Targeting the Gluteal Muscle Group Acutely Enhance Explosive Power Output in Elite Athletes. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 26(2), pp.438-442.

Active recovery - What it is, and how it can be used?

Welcome one and all to part 4 of The Recovery Series on the Macro Man Fitness Blog.

In the past few weeks we have covered compression clothing, ice baths, and most recently massage.

In this article I’m going to talk a little bit about active recovery, what it is, and how it can be used to help aid recovery.

Active recovery is a fairly simple concept – it is enabling your body to recover from hard exercise by doing some mild exercise. One of the most common for this is swimming, but also cycling and walking.

The basic idea is that you are doing some form of exercise that allows you to raise your heart rate, and increase blood flow. So just going for a very slow and lethargic walk won’t really cut it.

By increasing heart rate and blood flow it can help to flush away waste products from the muscles such as blood lactate¹.

A large amount of the research uses cycling as the selected exercise choice, and recommends working between 30% of your lactate threshold² or 30-40% VO2 Max^3,4,5. But for the regular trainer, this means absolutely nothing and can be a bit of a pain to find out. So – how else can we judge how hard to work?

Without being research driven, as it is completely different from person to person, it is recommended at a level where you are breathing heavier than normal but would still be able to hold a conversation. This shows an increased breathing rate, and therefore blood flow as you begin to breathe faster to supply greater oxygen for the increased pulse rate.

So if you decided to go out and cycle to recover, it would be a cruising speed, not just turning the pedals over to stop you from falling, but also not fast enough to be physically challenging on your muscles or aerobic system.

If you went out for a walk, it would be somewhere between the slow stroll home after leg day at the gym, but not as fast as the hypnotic hip movement of speed walkers at the Olympic Games. A walk with a hyperactive dog would probably be about the right level.

Now earlier on I mentioned swimming, and I haven’t really got back to it yet.

Next week we’ll talk about …

Just kidding. Swimming can be great when used as a recovery tool, because it is a form of exercise that can allow you to either be partially or fully submerged in water, so using either the lower body or whole body to propel yourself, it raises heart rate, and it is non-loaded.

What do I mean by this? If you’ve ever swum you’ll know the feeling of weightlessness in the pool. This is because the water takes the weight of your body, so there is no pressure going through your joints in activities such as aqua jogging, unlike if you were road jogging where your knees can take a beating.

I am not saying that you’re not working when swimming, because if you were to stop moving completely you’d drown. So don’t do that. Not wise. But swimming is definitely a good way to recover between high intensity exercise bouts⁶.

So there you have it, some info on active recovery. So now your options include, wearing leggings, jumping in some cold water, getting a massage, using a foam roller, or doing some more exercise to help you recover.

Next week is the grand finale of this series, and it will be looking at what I believe to be the two biggest factors in getting adequate recovery – sleep and nutrition.

So head back to the Macro Man Blog regularly, see what the other awesome authors are writing about, and check out the latest installment from yours truly. And of course – share it around. You can also subscribe as a FREE premium subscriber and get our blog posts delivered straight to your email address!

Thanks for reading,

Rob Nitman. BSc. ASCC.

References:

1.     Martin, N.A. et al (1998). The Comparative Effects of Sports Massage, Active Recovery, and Rest in Promoting Blood Lactate Clearance After Supramaximal Leg Exercise. Journal of Athletic Training, 33(1).

2.     Spencer, M. et al (2006). Metabolism and Performance in Repeated Cycle Sprints: Active versus Passive Recovery. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 38(8).

3.     Fairchild, T.J. et al (2003). Glyocgen Synthesis in Muscle Fibers During Active Recovery From Intense Exericse. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35(4).

4.     Gupta, S. et al (1996). Comparative Study of Lactate Removal in Short Term Massage of Extremities, Active Recovery and a Passive Recovery Period After Supramaximal Exercise Sessions. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 17(2).

5.     Bond, V. et al (1991). Effects of active and passive recovery on lactate removal and subsequent isokinetic muscle function. The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness, 31(3).

6.     Lum, D., Landers, G. & Peeling, P. (2010). Effects of a Recovery Swim on Subsequent Running Performance. International Journal of Sports Medicine, 31(1).