Supercharge your brain, and your body!

So all my articles so far have focused, for the most part, on improving your body.  How about your mind?  Can we figure out a way to improve that too?  What if we improve our mental strength, foster positive thinking and living fully, then in turn improve our self control and willpower in all aspects of our lives?  What if by doing so allows us to be more motivated and leads to making better decisions in the gym and in the kitchen?  Let's find out.

Form a new positive habit:   
This is something that I find really interesting because it can be so easy and have a profound impact on our lives. If you develop a new, positive habit, any habit, it has been shown to essentially be the equivalent of a workout for your brain, making it stronger and more resilient.  Two studies done in 2006, seen here, show that basically anything where you exhibit positive self-control has been linked to overall improved brain function, goal-setting and attaining those goals.  Something as little as making your bed every morning, a new meditation practice(which has many of its own intrinsic benefits), studying and especially exercise!

Learn a new skill or hobby: 
Through the use of mental acuity games and/or the acquisition of a new skill, they have watched the adult brain growing and improving with fMRI.  The brain is not a static organ, it is dynamic and has the innate ability to grow and change at any age, a process called neural plasticity.  A few suggestions to try are: Chess, soduku, crosswords, learn a new language, study a subject with which you are unfamiliar  or learn to play a new instrument.  It only takes 15 minutes a day!  The more challenging it is, the better.  The worse you are at it, the more awkward or embarrassing it is, the BETTER it is for your brain.  This will help recruit unused parts of your mind, thus creating more complex and efficient neural connections. For a fun way to learn how to play almost any guitar song with only 4 chords check out axis of awesome.  This also has a nice interplay with the first tip, as they will typically go hand in hand.  That is, if you decide to learn a new skill or hobby, and stick to it and form a new habit, you reap double the mental rewards!

Change what you eat:  
There is a huge connection between what you eat and how well you think.  There are numerous studies that show how gluten primarily, and more specifically gliadins, overly processed foods and hydrogenated oils lead to a leaky gut.  Check out leaky gut syndrome on wikipedia here for a description of what it is, as I am too lazy to type it out and hey, who can argue with wiki... right?  I want people to read up on leaky gut if they are unfamiliar with it because I truly believe the inflammatory response, and precipitating immune response, is a very serious detriment to both our physical and mental health.   There are many studies available on a myriad of negative effects that this can cause, a huge list of studies and outcomes can be seen here for those interested.  If I could get people to make just ONE change to their diet, it would be to avoid gluten.  At least to try pulling it from their diet for 30 days and see how they feel; I can almost guarantee it will be a hell of a lot better.   But look, its really quite easy, the best way to supercharge your brain through nutrition is to just eat whole, real foods, NOT food products.  Does it come in a can or a box with a list of ingredients that look like a dictionary and in which you need a dictionary to understand?  They probably aren't your best bet.  Eat lots of vegetables, some fruit, good quality animal protein.  Add in some unprocessed starches(IE root vegetables or white rice) if you aren't overweight, tolerate them well and engage in moderate to intense physical activity.  Also, I don't recommend many supplements but a good fish oil containing high DHA and EPA and a quality liquid vitamin D are highly beneficial in gut health, but more importantly, overall health.

On a final note as to the importance of taking care of our gut is the role of neurotransmitters, the chemicals that regulate our mood, like dopamine, acetylcholine and serotonin.  Did you know that up to 90% of them are actually produced in our gut?  So you can either become a heroine addict to get that dopamine boost, or start taking care of yourself...  Hopefully Kieth Richards isn't reading this.  
Check out a really informative podcast from Chris Kresser on the gut-brain connection if you are interested to learn more.   Again, to make it super simple remember to JERF: Just Eat Real Food.  

Relax:
Take a break from work if you've reached a roadblock, just get up and go for a short 10 minute stroll around the office or better yet, outside in nature.  Develop a regular meditation, prayer or spiritual practice.  Meditation, or prayer practice, has been shown to increase theta and alpha wave activity, which are both associated with relaxed attention.  A stress free focus.  

Make an attempt to lower your cortisol, the stress hormone!  Meditation will help with this as well, but so will a positive outlook on life.  I don't mean to try and push sadness or frustration aside and pretend it doesn't exist, but instead accept it, make a choice to see a positive in it.  Learn something from every situation and view it as a challenge to overcome.  You control your life circumstances; the circumstances of your life do not control you. Also, try turning off all blue light producing devices(yes that includes your iPhones) at least 30 minutes before bed and try keeping a gratitude journal in which, before you go to sleep, write out a list of 5 things you are thankful for that day.  They don't have to be winning the lottery, it can be someone holding a door open for you, a compliment about your shoes, literally ANYTHING.  Speaking of bed, most importantly, GET ENOUGH SLEEP!  This is the most restorative thing you can do for yourself.  Get at least 7 hours of sleep a night, preferably upwards of 9.

All of these things together can improve motivation, productivity, decision making and willpower.  So, how does all of this relate to fitness?  Well, if you improve your overall well being it is reasonable to assume that you will make better choices about diet and sticking to that exercise routine you keep putting off.   The great thing about exercise is that it in and of itself stimulates neurotransmitter production and has the same effect of any other positive habit on your brain.  So where is a good place to start?  Get up off your ass and go lift something.  

Let me know how changing your habits, diet or lifestyle has affected other aspects of your lives!   

 

Four lifting tips for beginners

Before I even consider writing a post about advanced workouts or even a beginner template, I want to give some general advice that can be used to make any exercise safer and more effective.  I will post a nice beginner workout as a good starting point in the next few days.  But for now, onward with the advice!

1. Leave your ego at the door.  You see SO many people in commercial gyms put on WAY more weight than they can possibly lift... properly and safely that is.  Not only does it irk me like nails on a chalk board, but it is also highly ineffective and dangerous.  So what I mean by leaving your ego at the door is to lift intelligently and not to tell your friends that you benched pressed 225lbs today.  

This point also leads well into my next two.

2.  Use a full range of motion.   On a bench press, the bar should touch your chest.  TOUCH it, not bounce off it.  In a squat you should go just below the point to where the top of your thighs are parallel to the floor.  A pullup should be from a dead hang where your arms are completely straight until your chest touches the bar at the top.  These are a few examples, but just think about how your body moves in a certain exercise and you can likely figure out what a full range of motion is.  I also would like to point out that do what is SAFE for you.  Most of the time the reason people don't use a full range of motion is that they are using far too much weight and you are always stronger at the top of a movement, where your muscles are the shortest.  However, it can also be a flexibility/mobility issue, in which case just go as deep as you can with proper form and work on improving range of motion.  You will get better, and faster, results when you take your muscles through their full range.  You spend longer under the weight and work more of the muscle.  You will get better with due diligence.  It took a long time to get out of shape, it will probably take a bit to get back in it as well.

3.  Focus on technique.  It can be hard to know proper technique, but you can intuitively know a few things that definitely are not right.  It is especially important when you are first starting out with resistance training to move the weight slowly and under control.  Keep your spine in its natural position in all lifts.  You never want your spine to lose its S-shape.  Back pain and shoulder impingement are the most common injuries for novice lifters, and advanced alike.  I obviously can't go through every exercise and list the proper technique for each.  You can go on Youtube and try and find a reputable source for the exercise that you are interested in, but you may also find Billy in his garage doing a squat while looking like a crumpled up accordion.  The fact you are curious enough to the take the time to look bodes well, however.  If you see a video, look at their homepage, check out their website if they have one.  You will likely be able to get a feeling for their knowledge and how accurate it is.  Also, you can do the same thing with Google.  For instance type in "proper squat form" and just see all the results you get.  This will also take some filtering from you as to what to look in.  Don't be afraid to ask a trainer at your gym to help you with your form, they should be more than willing as long as they aren't with a client.  Most trainers are pretty nice people and are in the industry because they genuinely want to help people.  This all may not yield perfect results, but it is a great place to start.

4. Protect your spine.  This applies to pretty much any exercise you will ever do.  Brace your core properly.  By that I mean, for most exercises from planks to deadlifts, you have to keep your entire core tight in order to prevent injuries to your spine.  So, the easiest way to do this is to picture your core(abdomen, lower back, pelvic floor) like a corset that wraps around you, and you want to pull those strings to tighten your core, pulling it in.  Unless you are a power lifter, this should apply to virtually every exercise in every position.

These are just a few of many ideas on safe and effective exercise to write about, but I wanted to give some basic skills that you can try and foster for your own workouts.  Some day I will post videos of some major lifts.  Do whats appropriate for you.  You don't have to spend hours in the gym, you don't have to lift things that weigh 800lbs or swing from the rafters of the gym.  Take care of your body and it will take care of you.  All the best in your training guys!