WHAT YOU WILL FIND ON PERFORMANCE QUEST FITNESS & ATHLETICS' BLOG

A collection of websites, articles, blog posts, videos, comments, studies, etc. from other forerunners in the areas of performance that will be covered, along with my own rants, raves, thoughts and ideas about selected topics. Also this blog serves as a showcase of the accomplishments and achievements of the hard-working athletes of Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics.

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

How Much Weight Should I Use?

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1ST, 2011

Open Class 9:00am / 11:00am / 3:00pm / 4:00pm


NOTE: I will be filling in for the CrossFit Redding Coaches for the remainder of this week as Redding Barbell/CrossFit Redding's own Hailee Lollar will be traveling to Mobile, Alabama with Coach Bryan to compete in the American Open! For more on Hailee click HERE. The 9:00am / 11:00am and 3:00pm classes will be the CrossFit Redding classes that may or may not involve running, kettlebell swings and pull-ups...and the 4:00pm class will be a regular Performance Quest class.

If you've ever come into a workout with me before and asked the question, "How much weight should I use," and were met with a blank stare or a reply such as, "You tell me," this article is for you. HOW MUCH WEIGHT SHOULD I USE?


Coach Justin

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

CrossFit Redding's Hailee Lollar to Compete at American Open

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30TH, 2011

Open Class 4:30pm / 5:30pm / 6:30pm

NOTE: I will be filling in for the regular CrossFit Redding classes this week as Coach Bryan will be traveling to Mobile, Alabama to coach our very own Hailee Lollar who will be competing in the American Open Weightlifting Competition! If you see Hailee tell her congratulations and wish her luck. She has worked very hard to get here.





Coach Justin

Getting Organized




TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 29TH, 2011

Open Class 3:00pm / 5:30pm / 6:30pm

Athena: 4:00pm


Sunday, November 27, 2011

Digestion And The Gut...Know Your Pie-Hole

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 28TH, 2011

Open Class 5:00pm / 6:30pm



The Digestive Tract

Bear with me folks. I believe I've covered just as much as I'm going to cover on endocrinology and we're fast approaching all the gory, gruesome details of what it is about grains, dairy, potatoes and legumes that makes them so stinkin' detrimental to health. However, before I jump straight into all the fun stuff, I want to take the next few posts to briefly give a foundational introduction to your pie-hole...the all-important digestive system. Now quick! Throw your hands up in the air and yell, "YYYYYAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!" I can only imagine your excitement right now!


Gastrointestinal tract: The GI tract refers to mainly the stomach and the intestine, but also to the structures from the mouth to the anus as well. Basically, the GI tract is one long tube that keeps the contents of what we eat OUTSIDE the body. Kind of odd to think of it as keeping contents outside our body when it is on the inside but the GI tract is literally a barrier between our body and undigested food particles. Without the GI tract undigested food particles would leak into our blood stream, which is literally poison to our body. One problem, that we'll soon explore, is that the some of the foods we eat quite literally punch holes in our GI tract and allow this seepage of poison into our bodies anyway. I bet by now you can guess which foods I'm talking about.

Mouth: The mouth is where it all begins. This is the first part of the GI tract and begins the physical and chemical breakdown of food.

Stomach: The chemical breakdown of proteins occurs in the stomach.

Small Intestine: The primary function of the small intestine is the absorption of minerals and nutrients from food.
Coach Justin

Friday, November 25, 2011

Cortisol - Strategies For Management



SATURADAY, NOVEMBER 26TH, 2011

Open Class 10:00am


Strategies for Cortisol Management and More


  1. Sleep in a pitch black room and don't stay up late: Rsearch shows that after only two nights of inadequate sleep a person's body begins to react as if it has type II diabetes! But what is inadequate sleep? It's literally the point at which you have to wake up to an alarm instead of when your body naturally tells you to get up! The cumulative effects of this are increible when we think about how many years people go having to wake up to their alram nearly every morning. And it's not all about how much you sleep either. Just like most everything else that I teach, quality typically counts for more. Even the smallest amount of light will disrupt your meltonin production and staying up too much past dark (sunset) throws off your circadian rhythms. This mean absolutely NO LIGHT! AND THIS IS VITALLY IMPORTANT! No cell phone lights, no computer lights, no alarm clock lights and cover your windows with blackout curtains. This means no lights even if the electronics are on sleep mode. If you have to get up to go to the bathroom do your best to leave all lights off or as minimal as possible. There are a whole host of things you should/should not do before and during sleep as well. Among the most important are watch TV or sit at the computer. Read this article, 33 Sleep Aid Secrets, for some of the more important tips to get better sleep and why. Sleep may be the number one factor influencing your health. Yes, even moreso than exercise and nutrition!

  2. Reduce your amount of stress: "All of us have a personal relationship with stress, but few of us know how it operates within us or understand how the onslaught of the modern world can stress us to the point of death!" Some stress is going to happen no matter what - it's unavoidable. However, much of the stress we deal with today affects us simply because of poor management. It is believed today that your body is wired to only be able to deal with one or two major stressors at a time! Think about the impact of this for a moment. That means that if my nutrition isn't dialed, my boss has given me a deadline on the big Szyminski account, and my relationship with my wife/husband isn't going so well that I've overextended myself. And this doesn't even take into account kids, exercise, or even the one I mentioned before - sleep. For a little more insight on stress check out these articles: Kill Your Stress...Before Your Stress Kills You!, 12 Compelling Reasons To Ditch Stress From Your Life, How To Feel Better When You're Stressed, and also consider watching this documentary titled, "Stress, Portrait Of A Killer", which my geeky self found to be extremely interesting.

  3. Training: This includes variety, avoiding injury, not doing too much too soon, not overtraining/taking proper rest, periodization, etc.

  4. Nutrition: Foods you have an intolerance to increase cortisol and this is a stress to your body. For more on nutrition read...MY BLOG!

  5. Supplemental Protocol: Siberian Gensing, Macca (Adaptagen Blend), Magnesium (shuts down cortisol production), Black tea (blunts cortisol release from stressful release 50%-75%).

  6. Mental Output


Coach Justin


PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Holiday Paleo Recipes

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23RD, 2011

Open Class 3:00pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm

NOTE: There will be no class tomorrow during Thanksgiving day. If you want to get a workout in come do the Turkey Trot with me. There will be classes Friday.


Holiday Paleo Recipes

Seasons Drinkings

Paleo Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving Is Just Around The Corner

Recipes For This Week

Sex With Your Pants On, And Now That I Have Your Attention...Recipes!

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Monday, November 21, 2011

Endocrinology - Cortisol...So Easy A Caveman Can Do It

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22ND, 2011

Open Class 3:00pm, 4:30pm, 5:30pm, 6:30pm



NOTE: I will be coaching the CrossFit Redding classes at 3:00pm, 4:30pm, and 5:30pm today. 6:30pm will be our regular Performance Quest programming. You're more than welcome to choose which time and option works best for you. Also, I will probably be filling in for CrossFit Redding for much of the week this week and potentially next week as well.



ENDOCRINOLOGY

You Are Your Hormones



Cortisol


Now that I've covered as much as I think I'm going to cover on what I consider the most important hormone in our body - the Master Hormone - Insulin, I'll shift gears and do a little segment about the next most important hormone - Cortisol. These should be the only two hormones that I cover this extensively and for good reason.


Cortisol is released by the adrenal gland in response to stress and has both short-term and long-term implications. Short-term implications include responses that are associated with the "fight or flight" response and are generally beneficial for a number of reasons. A major problem however is that our lives today contain so many stressors as well as different types of stressors that humans were not intended to or designed cope with. This results is a chronic stress state in which cortisol does not effectively return to normal levels.


Normal cortisol secretion is high in the morning and decreases as the day progresses. When cortisol secretion is in this normal state it acts by releasing glucose from the liver, releasing fat from the liver and tissues, and is an anti-inflammatory. These are all beneficial.


However, when cortisol becomes a long-term stress hormone the result is decreased immune function (pro-inflammatory), increased gluconeogenesis, blunted insulin sensitivity, inhibited fertility, increased blood pressure (from sodium retention, aka: high blood glucose), decreased serotonin, and more.


Oftentimes people tell me that they get sleepy but whenever they try to go to sleep they feel fidgety or anxious. This is what I call "tired but wired" and results from abnormal cortisol secretion.


It is easy to liken chronic stress to eating a pizza...EVERY MEAL! That is to say that eating high carbohydrate and high fat meals alone are NOT good.


And that is just the problem today. Literally EVERYTHING is a stressor. An altered adrenal profile can be caused by things like overtraining, sleep disturbance, undereating or overeating, driving, your job as well as emotional stress just to name a few on a neverending list.


Let me put it to you in terms of performance since that is what hits home for so many of you. An altered adrenal profile causes immune compromise, sleep disturbance, the inability to lose fat (insulin resistance), connective tissue breakdown, decreases libido and WILL DECREASE PERFORMANCE! Most importantly, if poor adrenal function is allowed to continue for too long, a crippling condition may very well arise known as "adrenal fatigue". Succumbents of adrenal fatigue become bedridden in its later stages with death as a possible result.

I know that you're looking at this thinking that it can't happen to you but I know a handful of people who've had to deal with adrenal fatigue. It is not as uncommon as you might think!

Tomorrow I will give you a brief overview of strategies for managment of this situation. It's not brief because I don't care about you guys. In fact, it is brief because the ways to take care of these deficiencies of not only cortisol, but of insulin as well, are SOOO DARN SIMPLE AND EASY!

HEY! "It's so easy a caveman can do it!" (If you get this...kudos. If not, read some older posts)
Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Meal Management Theory

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21ST, 2011

Open Class 5:30pm

Alright...I had the best of intentions to pick back up with the nutrition posts but after reading this article today I had to share it with you.

MEAL MANAGEMENT THEORY

Also wanted to say thank you for your questions and comments regarding the nutrition posts. I didn't know how well this stuff would take but you all seem to be interested and that is encouraging to me.

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Re-Learning How To Run

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16TH, 2011

Open Class 4:30pm
In CrossFit, we use a running method called the "Pose Method". The Pose Method was developed in the 1970's by a Russian scientist named Dr. Nicholas Romanov, who successfuly implemented his method into the training of many Soviet elite athletes with great results in the 1980's. In the 1990's, members of the USA, UK, Russian, and Mexican Olympic and National Triathlon teams and many other elite level athletes worldwide started implementing the Pose techniques with success.

Dr. Romanov essentially had three rules in developing and teaching the Pose Method: 1. No cushioned shoes 2. No pushing off from the toes 3. No landing on the heel.

There are several other methods or techniques that have been developed that closely resemble the Pose Method. Two of them include the 100-Up method and the ChiRunning method. The 100-Up method includes simple sets of drills designed to teach your body how to run the way it is designed and intended to run. ChiRunning seems to not deviate from that of the Pose Method as far as I can tell, though I'm sure if you ask their respective enthusiasts they would scream at me for saying so.

In our training I will begin implementing drills from all three methods. Below is a video that does an amazing job illustrating why learning how to run the way our bodies are designed to run is so important.



Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 2011
Open Class 5:00pm
Baseball/Softball Class 6:30pm

Coach Justin
PeformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Two Performance Quest Athletes Sign NCAA Division I National Letters Of Intent

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH, 2011

Open Class 5:00pm

Baseball/Softball Class 6:30pm






The next four years are set for two area athletes, before they've even stepped on the field for their senior campaigns.


Foothill High School senior baseball player Dalton Kelly and Anderson star softball pitcher Cheridan Hawkins signed their NCAA Division I national letters of intent this past Wednesday.


Wednesday was the initial signing date of the early period for all sports other than football, field hockey, soccer, track and field, cross country and men's water polo.


Kelly will head south to play for Big West Converence member University of California Santa Barbara, while Hawkins will make the trip up Interstate 5 to Duck country to attend the Pac-12's University of Oregon.


The two spring sport-athletes signed their letters at their respective schools in front of family, friends and administrators who have had an influence on their prep careers.


Hawkins was a highly touted recruit after breaking several school and section records while leading the state and finishing second in the nation in strikeouts during her junior season.
In the end, her decision to head to Eugene instead of San Diego State, Mississippi or Boise State was based on the proximity to Anderson and the chance to play the top competition in the nation.


"It's always been a lifelong dream of mine to play at the highest level of softball there is," Hawkins said.


The records, along with 510 strikeouts and a 0.79 ERA, helped Hawkins lead Anderson to its first Northern Section title in softball since 1989 with a 31-4 record. It was those accolades that led to her earning section MVP as well as the Record Searchlight MVP and National Fastpitch Coaches Association first-team All-American honors.


"I'm very grateful to have the opportunity like this, because I couldn't have done it without everyone - my teammates and especially my dad, "Hawkins said. "He's basically been the backbone in all of this."


Meanwhile, Kelly was on a level all by himself on the baseball scene. He broke two school records, stealing 26 bases in 28 attempts and scoring 38 runs, a mark he shattered with three weeks left in the regular season.
"He's a coach's dream," Cougars head baseball coach Todd buck said. "He works hard every day. You don't have to ask him to do anything twice, and he gets the job done in the classroom.


"He gives you max effort on everything and is a tenacious competitor."


Kelly's versatility is thanks to his speed and his bat, which helped him hit .406 on the year to go with a .614 on-base percentage. He was noticed by numerous Big Sky Conference teams, including UC Irvine, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and Hawaii of the Western Athletic Conference.


"I couldn't have asked for a better situation," Kelly said. "It's a huge weight off my shoulders, and now I can really focus on getting a championship for the school."


Kelly continues the tradition of Foothill baseball players playing collegiately. Kelly is the seventh player in the past eight years to come out of the Cougars program and play for a four-year college. The most recent was 2009 graduate Andrew Millner, who also was drafted in the first-year player Major League Baseball draft.


Kelly was a second-team all-Northern Secion selection, a first-team all-R-S pick and played on the Oakland Athletics Area Code baseball team this past summer, which helped him get recruited.


CONGRATULATIONS CHERIDAN AND DALTON!!!


Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Things You Should Know About Chuck Norris...And Type II Diabetes

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 2011

Open Class 5:00pm


NOTE: Make sure to check back Monday to see which 2 hard-working members among our family of Performance Quest athletes recently signed their NCAA Division I national letters of intent this past Wednesday!



ENDOCRINOLOGY

You Are Your Hormones


TYPE II DIABETES


Picking up where we left off and referring back to the October 27th post, ENDOCRINOLOGY CONTINUED AND A QUICK START GUIDE FOR YOU, we are lead straight into Type II Diabetes (diabetes mellitus type II). Defined as hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance Type II diabetics age 3 times faster than the average population!


If diagnosed with Type II Diabetes doctors give you one of two options:


  1. Your first option is to be referred to a dietician whom prescribes you a 60% carbohydrate diet, laden with grains, cereals, wheat, pasta, etc.

  2. Your second option is to take prescription sulfonylurea drugs. Sulfonylurea drugs RELEASE MORE INSULIN!
In fact, both options release more insulin. Both options are like prescribing a tanning bed to a sunburn victim! Think about it...


Sun = Sunburn = Skin Disease
Carbohydrates = Increased Insulin = Disease


So, if the majority of the medical community treating this disease have it so utterly wrong, what is the obvious solution?


Remember, glucagon is the counter hormone to insulin and is released in response to protein and hunger. Glucagon acts to normalize energy levels as its realease normalizes/improves insulin sensitivity and also releases fatty acids from storage and some glucose from the liver.


In other words glucagon buffers insulin. This is important because increased insulin turns off the ability to use fat for energy and will result in inefficient fat loss as well as decreased energy.


The intake of sources of foods that release glucagon are important in combating excessive insuline response. "3rd world proteins" such as rice, beans, corn, etc. that are the staples of vegetarian diets are EXTREMELY poor sources of protein for this as these sources contain incomplete proteins meaning their amino acid profile is deficient. The protein sources that you bite into need to spike the amino acid content of blood. This is done by consuming something that, at one point, contained both a Face and a Soul!


Huh? You say.


That means ANIMALS folks. I guess it would be more correct to say animal meat and eggs (and technically marrow and organ meats as well but I'll spare you on this since virtually no one eats these things anymore and they are not the easiest items to find in your local grocery store).


The insulin/glucagon axis is how we manage evergy both long-term and short-term. The interplay between the two will determine muscle mass, fat loss, fat gain, etc.


A visibly measurable application to the importance of this axis is that people who have a high carbohydrate, insulin-spiking meal are starving in 6 hours and can't make stress-based, pressured decisions. Inversely, people who eat a good protein, glucagon-promoting, dopamine-releasing meal might be hungry after 6 hours but can still function at a high quality and make those decisions. This is obviously going to directly effect your life but think about the indirect implications of what this means. This could be what determines a life and death performance by a public service official. Ask yourself...knowing what you know now, would you rather the firefighter, paramedic, or police officer on call to your emergency eat a bowl of oatmeal and bread hours before dispatch or a chicken breast, vegetables and almonds?
Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 10TH, 2011

Open Class 5:00pm

Baseball Class 6:30pm

Coach Justin
PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Foothill Boy's Basketball Poised For Season

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 2ND, 2011

No Class



NOTE: During this week-long hiatus from Performance Quest training, extending through next Wednesday (November 9th) as I travel to Orlando, Fl to be in my best friend's wedding, I am expecting ALL OF YOU to attend the gym just as frequently as you normally would and take either coach Jordan's Olympic Lifting Class or Barbell Class those days. These are invaluable classes that will make you better. I am planning on returning to the gym Thursday, November 10th.


Here comes basketball season!


Great job this pre-season Foothill high school boy's basketball team! These stronger, faster athletes are going to be tough to beat.


Coach Justin


PerformanceQuestFitness@gmail.com