Trunk Training

He's ready for beach season!

            “My training program consists of blah blah blah, core work, and cardio. I don’t like to lift heavy because I know it’s bad for the body. I focus more on my core because I want a six pack; I have a little layer that I am trying to get rid of…” or "I want to do more core because it's beach season... I need a six-pack bod!"

            The quotes above are both mine... … … Kidding. They are generic quotes of many people who go to the gym prior to the two shirtless seasons: spring break and summer. While there are more things wrong with the quotes above, but let’s just focus on that pesky word "core" for now. “Core” is the most over-used, useless word in the fitness world. Everyone wants to “hit the core hard” but what does that even mean? I know, it’s the middle of our body, our center and thus, our ‘core’; but as far as a fitness term goes, it is useless. I’m going to borrow a term that I heard a powerlifter say once about the “core,” and that is: it is the trunk. So, from now on, it is our trunk.

           Our trunk is what transfers energy from our lower body to/through our upper body in the real world and in sport; it is where that sexy six-pack lies; and it is also where a host of other muscles are that stabilize all movement that we do. Yes, movement. If our “core’s” weren’t working as some people say when “diagnosing” a back injury, then how do we move? How can we lift anything up? How can we function in daily life? The answer is: we couldn’t and wouldn’t. While it is much easier these days to survive with a weak trunk than it was in generations past, we still must have a functioning one to, well, function.

          As Andy said, the gym is littered with people that do thousands of crunches, v-ups, planks, and other garbage like that but to no avail. If you want a six-pack, listen up: 1)your body doesn’t burn fat in specific areas just because you are working them, 2) if you want to burn fat, crunches are an awful way to do so, and 3) six-packs are due to great genetics or great nutrition. If you want a six-pack, get born with great genetics or clean up your eating. There you go, I know that's what you wanted to hear.

           Now, as far as training the trunk goes, there are ways to do that. I am not anti-trunk-training, I just don’t like wasting valuable gym time doing silly things. If you are going to do something, you should be able to progress it somehow with weight –if you are going to do a crunch, if you feel it is 100% necessary, do a partial weighted one so you don’t put the pressure on your lumbar vertebrae from bending them the wrong direction. Other than that, you can train your trunk with heavy lifting. Yes, heavy lifting. It doesn’t necessarily have to be maximal, but the heavier you lift, the more your trunk will be worked. Lifts like the front squat, the overhead press, back squat, and my personal favorite, the deadlift, are all incredibly hard exercises for the trunk. If your trunk was not working or not functional, you would literally break during your warm ups sets for these exercises. Other exercises like unsupported rows, dumbbell or barbell, weighted push-ups, and even pull ups are great ways to hit the trunk.

This is Lu Xiaojun, he weighs 77kg

This is Lu Xiaojun with 205kg over his head... he must work his core...

                                            

             Those are all great ways to tax the trunk and make it stronger, but another way that is perhaps more ‘functional’ if you will, is to throw a little strongman training into your workout program. Now, as a disclaimer, please have someone who is familiar with the training assist you before trying nearly all of the things you see in strongman. Whew, ok, now that we have that covered… Strongman is a great way to work your trunk in a manner that you could possibly encounter in your everyday life, just heavier. Things like the yoke walk, the farmers carry, the atlas stones, the wheelbarrow load and race, and power stairs are all things that originated in everyday life. People used to use yolks to carry heavy things for long distances when doing a farmers carry would not suffice. Both are great ways to fire up the trunk and make it work extra hard. Think about it, do you ever have to pick up a slightly heavy laundry basket and put it on a washer? Most people will say yes to that and that’s where atlas stones come into play; they are very similar to doing that, just much, much heavier. The atlas stones are also a great way to work that six-pack to make it strong because that is exactly what those muscles are there for: to resists your upper body going too far backwards. In the atlas stones, that muscles play a huge role in moving that stone towards the platform once it is lifted. The wheelbarrow load and race is a great way to work your trunk in a way that you would while you are working in your yard picking up debris and other stuff, putting it into the wheelbarrow, then moving on to the next object to pick up. The power stairs are much work the rear side of the trunk, but are still working the trunk nonetheless. They are heavier way to mimic taking something too heavy to flat our carry, up the stairs.

Strongman training is can be a really fun way to increase trunk strength and make things in everyday life a bit easier and less exhausting; however, it is not necessary for a strong trunk.

This is strongman Mariusz Pudzianowski... He carries heavy things for his trunk work

               As I said earlier, please be safe if you are going to do strongman. I love it, but I am not niave to its dangers either. If you don’t want to do that, lifting heavy will do just fine. Benedikt Magnusson holds the world record deadlift at 1015lbs. I watched a documentary on him once and saw him lifting small statues that take two people to carry usually, putting them under one arm, and then walking to the next item to look at it… he and his new bride were looking at things for their house. His trunk is strong from powerlifting and deadlifting, that he was able to maintain his posture while walking and make the statues look much lighter than they were. One thing is for sure though: he isn’t wasting time in the gym doing crunches or any of those other silly, waste-of-time movements (they don’t deserve the term exercise). So go out, stop wasting time, and kill two birds with one stone: get stronger while building a stronger trunk!

Benedikt Magnusson smiling with 1015lbs in his hands...fun.

The "core training" myth

In my time working at a health club, I have seen a multitude of non-sense in people's fitness regime  I have also been condemned for, questioned, and have not been taken seriously because I often go against the grain of traditional fitness mindset.

Exercise science is relatively young in terms of how long and how serious it's been studied. It wasn't until the 1960's or so that it was recognized as a legitimate area of study. We have come a long way since then, and unfortunately, some of the same old ideals have been buzzing around health clubs across the continent like that mosquito in your bedroom at 2:00 am.

It is time to end the myths, teach people the proper way, and change the way people approach a training regime. Periodically, I will delve into the tired old fitness techniques, dissect them, provide evidence why they should be forgotten, and give you a sound alternative.

The myth I will be debunking today is the great myth of core training.

I will be asking Chris, who I am sure has some colorful commentary on the subject, to provide the advice on how to get a stronger core. (atlas stones anyone?)

Let's start by defining what the core actually is. The core is the middle section of the body. It is the foundation of all our movements. It's the muscles we all wish we had bulging through our tighter than necessary t-shirts. The core muscles are the rectus abdominus, transverse abdominus, interior, and exterior obliques. Depending on who you ask, the core is also the extenders of our lower back, but that's another issue.

Ok we identified the muscles, now let's look at their function. The muscles of the abdominal wall are very efficient at one thing mainly. The one thing is stability, every step we take, every time we bend down and pick something up, heck even every time we sneeze or laugh the core engages. Stuart Mcgill, outlined this very well in a study he took part in. They looked at EKG signals (an electric impulse that tells us our muscles are activated) in the abdominals with common exercises. What they found was that almost any exercise activated the core for stabilization. No surprise here but some people need it painted black and white.

This function should tell us something, that maybe a good way to train the core is to challenge the stabilization with heavy loads in other movements. That would be "functional training" wouldn't it? Instead much of core training revolves around endless crunches, v-ups, leg lifts, and whatever else you do to flex your abdominals. An interesting insight on this type of training is that performing these movement over and over produces an increased likelihood of disc herniation and many other back issues. It is not a movement that we were designed to perform regularly.

Another paradox with core training came from a 2008 study where they used division 1 football players and assessed if core training increased athletic performance  What they found was that there was no correlation between athletic performance, ie speed, agility, strength between those who partook in the core training (in conjunction with regular lifting) and those who did none. Another study that I've come across found that core training had no reduction in injury among trained athletes.

I will wrap it up with this, if you're still going to the gym, getting on the bosu ball, and doing endless crunching, twisting, and leg lifts you ought to reconsider. I know you can "feel the burn" but what you are really doing is wasting your time with inefficient exercise. We all can make our lives more efficient. Start with your fitness. Now that this myth has been debunked I'll hand it over to Chris with the how to's on core strength.

Cheers!
Andrew

The science behind what controls our appetite

As with many of our bodily functions, the process in which our body tells us we're well fed, full and no longer hungry can be surprisingly complex. There are a number of processes which take place to control our appetite. I will be exploring a few of these processes, the mental, the physical, and the hormonal.

Ever wonder why our body craves fatty, sweet, and rich foods? The answer is likely because of evolution. Because food was once scarce, we would struggle to get sufficient energy. As a hunter gatherer species, we required a lot more calories to function than in today's times. This constant struggle to get food led our body to evolve to crave things that are high in calories. Fruit, which is obviously very sweet, rich fat loaded with calories, (bacon anyone?) turn on our pleasure response and release dopamine. This response is what makes us feel good after a great meal. It tells us we did a job well done in up taking energy. Unfortunately  this very mechanism which advanced our species to what it is today is in turn destroying us. People get the dopamine response after their pizza and burger binge, they crave the sweet fatty treats. This leads to massive over consumption. As we keep flooding our brains with dopamine, we get less sensitive to this feel good response. This leads us to crave even more the next time. It is the same paradox that we see with drug abuse. Science has tried to find ways to curb this with artificial sweeteners, and reduced fat, this however, doesn't fool our bodies. Once we consume a "false sugar"  void of the calories our body expects, it just leads to a bigger craving. The same principal goes for fat.

Now that I have explored how we are set up for failure on a mental and evolutionary standpoint let's consider the physical aspects. We have all heard before that it takes 20 minutes for our stomach to recognize that we're full, but mechanism for this is less understood. In our stomach we have what are called stretch receptors. These relay the information to our brain about how much our stomach has expanded. The delay of information may be another one of those evolutionary paradoxes. When food was plenty, we could pack a lot more in without feeling the fullness effect until a little later. Unfortunately, food is very plenty today and we often forget to slow down and actually enjoy our food. People eat quickly, and ignore how much they're eating until they feel full. This is what leads to the bloated, "food comma" people often experience. I admit this is a major problem of mine so before I extol all of you, I will confess that I am still working on this one.

The third, is our hormonal reaction to food. I will exclusively focus on one hormone which plays a large role in telling us we feel satisfied and full, leptin. Leptin is released when our body is nourished and our stomach is full. It tells us that we are properly energized and we need not more. It reduces the appetite but it's function isn't mainly for appetite and satiatey  Leptin levels fall as we begin to get very hungry or reduce our calories over a long term period. This reduction tells our metabolic rate to slow, we reduce the amount of energy we expend, and we conserve energy. This is the dieters paradox, we begin to lose weight and eventually we get to a point where our body slows down the metabolism because it believes it's starving. This is also why when dieters return to a normal diet, they regain weight faster than they lost. Letptin is a tricky hormone, research has shown that levels are very high in obese individuals but their receptors seem to be resistant to the effects of feeling full. It seems as if high circulating levels of this hormone lead to resistance, or that a high level of stored body fat trigger our body to ignore leptin as a means of telling us we've had enough.

How do we regulate these systems? We seem to be set up for failure. Originally, these mechanisms evolved to keep us alive, it's why our species survived and has developed into what we are today. The trouble is, our innovation vastly outpaces our evolution. We simply can feed ourselves as much as we want whenever we want and our body hasn't caught up. Here are some of my basic recommendation.

1. Use full fat, but use it sparingly. We are designed to crave the fatty oily feel of rich meats, they are ok to eat but like everything else in moderation. A slice of bacon can go a long way, full fat yogurt should be used as a condiment rather than base, and butter as flavor enhancement. Use proper judgement.

2.My second recommendation to get the most out of your food is to slow down, enjoy it, and mindfully experience every flavor, texture, and arroma. Limit the distractions as you eat. Take a small break between bites, and chew food thoroughly. This not only enhances digestion but, you'll be much more satisfied, you'll eat less, and the feel good brain chemicals will be extended through a greater period of time, leaving you with a long lasting effect.

3.Third, forget about snacking all the time. We have been told time and time again, keep small frequent meals. This isn't always the case, as we can see from the leptin paradox, the high levels circulating because we're always full seem to make us resistant to its fullness feeling effects. There are certainly exceptions to this, if you're active on a hike, bike ride, or working all day it is important to be fed. However, most of us aren't doing this day in and day out. Get the most out of your three daily meals, eat a robust breakfast, moderate lunch, and healthy dinner. Skip the convinience foods, the processed carbs and you will feel much better. Eat big at these times and use snacks to your advantage, a pre-workout shake, a post workout bowl of quick carbs and protein are ways to enjoy a quick snack.

A Brief Introduction to Set-Matching

          Hello again. So, I have been on a writing hiatus for a while, although meaning to attempt this article/post about three weeks ago, for a couple of reasons. First, three weeks ago I got sick after training; it was an interesting sick. I didn’t ever feel like vomiting, but I my body temperature was very high, my back ached, and my joints would stiffen up while I slept the sickness off and then pop when I woke up. The reason I didn’t write that weekend is because of just that, I was sleeping my sickness off. The second reason, and it ties into the first, is that I had a competition the following weekend in Indianapolis. It was a great competition and I felt awesome, minus a cough that stuck with me. I ended up placing second and qualifying for nationals which will be held later this year. I was happy with second place because I performed about as well as I could have.

         Anyways, on to the post.

         This post will be on the method that I have been using for the training of me and a few others around me that I train or help train on a regular basis. Let me first put my disclaimer out there that I am a very intuitive when I train and when I coach, so there are some aspects of what I do that I am not yet able to articulate –I will, however, work to do so in later posts.

         This method is something I call set-matching. It was first brought to my attention about a year and a half ago by a buddy of mine, Graciano Rubio. He told me about an article that he had read by Pavel Tsatsouline talking about doing what we now call set-matching as a way to change up the reps that you are doing; in essence, to stave of becoming bored with your rep schemes. Well, I decided that I would try that. My brother, myself, Jeff, and Graciano every so often, would use this to train a couple different exercises each day that we were in the weight room. We really enjoyed it because of how we felt and the progress we were seeing. Well, that Christmas break I wrote up a workout that was twice a day for six of the ten day workout. We used set-matching for squatting, deadlifting, RDLing, front pressing, push pressing, pull ups, and pushups; during this ten day period I squatted nearly 100,000kg –in only my work sets– and my total work set loads for all the lifts combined was around 330,000kg. On the last day I was going as many matching sets as I could until failure with my bodyweight on the bar, 100kg. Because of the training, I was able to do 20 sets (even after doing 15 sets of my bodyweight on front squat the day before) and on the 21^st set, I did 50 reps of my bodyweight for a total of 240 reps at my bodyweight and 24,000kg of tonnage done. It was quite the ten day span leading up to Christmas.

         I have not looked back since that Christmas break back in 2011 and my strength has benefitted greatly because of it. I have also been able to work and refine the set-matching method and use it to increase my strength in nearly every aspect of training. The one major con to set-matching is that is can take a long time because of the fact that warm ups sets do not count and because you can end up doing a lot of work sets; other than that, I have had no complaints other than that it is uncomfortable and hard. Oh well. Get used to being uncomfortable if you want to get better. A coach I work with who produces some of the strongest athletes I have ever seen once told me, “An athlete must be willing to suffer in order to taste success.” I don’t know if that is his quote or not, but I liked it.

          Since that Christmas break, I have come to use set-matching with most any exercise that I do. It is silly to use with some exercises, such as bicep curls, but if you want to see improvements in an exercise, set-matching can be successfully used. You can use set-matching with almost everything; I use set-matching with the power clean and jerk, clean and jerk, snatch, power snatch, squats, deadlifts, RDL’s, overhead pressing, pull ups, pushups, bench press, sprinting and different strongman events.  Another great aspect of it is that you can use it to compete with a partner. They don’t have to be as strong as you, they just need to set up next to you with their respective weight; once you do that, you each set-match until someone can’t go any higher, then you start again. Or, if you aren’t looking to die each day or use the competition aspect too often, you can use a partner to monitor each other’s rest periods instead.

         Some things that I have found are that set-matching seemingly to delay the onset of the mental fatigue that comes with high numbers of work sets therefore allowing you to do more sets, you can use it for size or strength, it can (and most likely will) increase your work capacity, and it can increase your confidence in your strength and abilities –a much larger part of lifting than most people give credit too. The mental aspect of set-matching is just this: say you have been prescribed 8 sets for your first time through and 4 sets for your second time through –being 1-8 and 1-4 respectively–; how nice is it to think that after that set of eight, you only have one rep to start with and only go up to half as many reps the second time through? I understand there are other ways of looking at those sets, but let's try to stay positive. The increase in work capacity comes from the amount of rest that you do and don’t get. Generally, if you aren't lifting with a partner, your rest should be similar to the amount of time that it just took to do the set. This increases work capacity because of the fact that you are resting less than you are going to be going on your next set…that is, until you start over again at one. Another little thing that can be done is resting a few minutes between your first and second, and on rare occasions, second and third time through. With heavier weights and set-matching, however, you will want to work more on the lifting and mental preparation part of it than you will the work capacity part of it; it then becomes more of a confidence booster (at least for me) because of the fact that you are not only doing an incredibly heavy weight once, you could be doing it up to three times as well as getting under the weight many different times (often 6-8 different times if I am training heavy). By the time those three rep or one rep maxes come around they almost seem easy. One set of three reps? One set of one rep? What? That is easy. My body can handle that if it could handle six sets of a weight that is just under my three rep or three to five sets that are just a bit under what I am trying to one rep.

         As far as prescribing sets and weights goes, I do not prescribe weights anymore. I tried to prescribe weights with set-matching and that failed pretty miserably. Set-matching is great because you do a work-weight for the day, but hopefully it is heavier or better in some way than the previous similar lifting day. When I prescribe sets, I will still taper them for a max, or whatever the goal is, but it is more of a pyramid program if you look at the number of sets being prescribed. Initially, I will give them, or myself, sets of 1-8 for one time through on strength movements and, only for me and a select few people that I train, 1-4 on the Olympic lifts. I will then begin progressing along by dropping the number of reps that they will end with, but they will still be doing eight sets for the first part of the program. I will then increase the number of sets as the number of reps keeps dropping. Finally, the sets will drop down to something like 1-3x2 or 1-2x4, so you are doing fewer sets, fewer reps, but seriously heavy weight. After this point in the program I will usually drop down to about four sets or five sets of 1-2 reps, possibly a 3 rep max, and then finally they will work to find their one rep max. I have also come to add variation such as bands and different implements to set-matching as well in these past few months and seen bigger gains and the post with those nuances will come sometime in the future; however, if you have any questions about it, please feel free to ask me whatever you’d like about my workouts or training method. My disclaimer for this is that unless you have been doing set-matching for quite a while and are a well-trained individual, you do not add this variety in.

         Like I said before, I have only empirical evidence and videos showing that for me, and those that I have trained using this method, it works– the numbers speak for themselves.

Here are a couple examples of set matching below. The first will be light prescribed sets that goes until failure and the second will be heavier prescribed sets that are used more for strength.

Failure Sets on a back squat. Prescribed sets 1-Fail (Match to Fail):
Warm Up:                   135lbs x10
                                   225lbs x8
                                   315lbs x6
  Start Set-Matching:     385lbs x1
                                   Then my partner goes, or I rest about 10 seconds
                                   385lbs x2
                                   Then my partner goes or I rest about 15-18 seconds
                                   385lbs x3
                                   Then my partner goes or I rest about 23-25seconds
                                   385lbs x4
                                   .........
                                   385lbs x10
               This continues until one of us either fails during a set or one of us knows that we will fail during the upcoming set. When this happens, we get some water, rest a couple minutes, then start again at one and work our way up again. Now, sets can be prescribed until failure, as above (being written 1-Fail or Match to Fail), or it can be just prescribed sets in which the person will do for two or so weeks looking to get more weight for the same amount of sets than they did the week prior.

Heavy Sets of deadlift. Prescribed sets 1-4, 1-3, 1-2:
Warm Up:                   70kgs x10
                                   120kgs x8
                                   170kgs x6
                                   220kgs x4
                                   260kgs x2
Start Set-Matching:      285kgs x1

                          Rest 30-45 seconds or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set

                                    285kgs x2

                          Rest 1:00-1:15 or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set

                                    285kgs x3

                          Rest 1:30-2:00 or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set
    **Take your time before this next set as it is a very heavy weight for the highest number of reps**

                                    285kgs x4

                  Rest a couple minutes, drinks some water, get mentally ready to do it all again...

                                    285kgs x1

                          Rest 30-45 seconds or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set

                                    285kgs x2

                          Rest 1:00-1:15 or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set

                                    285kgs x3
                        
            Rest a couple minutes, drinks some water, get mentally ready to do it all again...again...

                                    285kgs x1

                          Rest 30-45 seconds or as long as my partner takes do the prepare and do the set

                                    285kgs x2
So, there is your introduction to set-matching everybody. Now go forth, match your sets and enjoy your suffering!

Chris

Exercise and the mind part 2

As I laid out in part one of this series, exercise can have a huge impact on our mental and neurological health.  In this post, I will expand and lay out some peramiters and reccomondations for how to get the most out of your trainng for these outcomes.

According to Spark, the book I referenced to in the first post, the most effective exercises are of high intensity and shorter duration. This seems to be the leading idea in the fitness world. Short bursts of high intensity, followed by a brief recovery period aren't only optimal for weight loss, maximum performance, and a slough of other biological processes but also  for our brains. With high intensity intervals, 2-3 times a week is sufficient, our bodies require a bit of recovery between sessions due to their high output.

However, high intensity intervals produce fantastic results, some research illustrates it may be much easier than that. In one study with seniors over the age of 60 they found that 45 minutes of brisk walking  three times a week seems to be a "magic" formula for reaping the reward of cognitive function. Interestingly, they found that the brains of the participants grew by 1-2% over the course of the year as opposed to the usual decline of our brains of 1-2% over the course of a year at that age.

As the authors of this study concluded, like with many forms of exercise, there is a law of diminishing returns. That is, after a certain amount of exercise or intensity, the improvements begin to taper. Imagine a typical bell shaped graph. As you exercise you get results, add  more, you get more results. Over time you adapt but, if you add too much too quickly you won't see as steady of progress.

It seems as if the exercise isn't only chemically and structurally changing our brains for the better. There is a psychological aspect to "exercising" the brain. Mental resilience,  pain tolerance, and decision making were also improved in research. Imagine as you begin an exercise program, at first it is difficult, you struggle, you're sore. You break through barriers, you challenge yourself, you feel rewarded after a workout. This accomplishment gives you a reward mechanism which releases dopamine, the feel good hormone. This leaves you with the hunger for more, you keep going, training your brain to fight the urge to give up, because of the reward at the end. This is a brilliant mechanism, which personally might explain why I can never just workout without making it a challenge of sorts.

Now I have gone over a few examples of the amount of exercise lets examine some guidelines and outline a good brain training regime. A full body high intensity workout like circuit training with resistance, sprints, cycling heavy resistance hard intervals, and strongman style workouts are favorable for this. These should be done at least twice a week for 30 minutes. The other days for our brain training program should be filled with low intensity, 45 minute sessions with a cardio focus. They should be regenerative, relaxing, and enjoyable while still challenging our oxygen uptake and cardio fitness. Hiking, cycling, jogging, swimming, are good ideas. The most simplistic program might be alternating the high intensity workouts with cardio sessions. Throw in a day off here and there as you see fit..

Now that I have laid out a plan. It really is simple to get your brain going. This program isn't only for optimum brain longevity, there are many many bodily functions that benefit from these as well. Remember fitness is most importantly about health, not looks. Looking good is an indirect cause of being healthy.

Cheers!
Andrew

Exercise and your mind. Part 1

This is part one of a series I am writing about exercise and the brain.

It was long believed in the field of neuroscience that the brain was static. You were born with an innate ability to process, think, and achieve  Our cells were limited, once they die there is no coming back. You were limited by a set IQ and that was that.

As science often does, this belief was contradicted when researchers took a look at the brain and the hormone activity that happens when we "exercise" our brains. They first looked at the ability for older individuals to "hang onto" brain cells when they kept their mind active with reading, puzzles  and the like. This research proved that the brain isn't on a timeline for failure. This proved that active stimulation of the brain is good for slowing the decay of our brain cells.

With the progression of brain research, we found that the brain can be stimulated in many different ways. Taking an ordinary task and doing it differently can provide such stimulation. This stimulates the brain to release a series of hormones and enzymes which act as a primer for brain cell generation. Very simple tasks can be made into a challenging brain game. Try standing on one foot and brushing your teeth. Or, perhaps using your opposite hand to eat dinner. Although it may be challenging, this type of stimulation can pay huge dividends in our neurological health. It keeps our brain young, strong, and turns mundane tasks into a challenge for it.

Now you might see where I am going with this, next in the progression is the tie between the body and the mind. Recent research is proving that exercise has a huge impact on our mental health. With aerobic exercise, it is now known that our brains release these same chemicals, stimulating the brain to create new cells. Our cerebellum, which controls balance, coordination, and gross motor movements grows. Studies with college students proved that students who exercises prior to studying retained significantly more information than their sedentary counterparts, not only this, but those who studied while exercising very lightly had some of the same effect. There is a ton of research on problem solving and processing that points to exercise as a sure fire way to increase your mental abilities.

If I cannot convince you to start exercising for your minds sake myself, take a look into SPARK: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John, J Ratey. It is a fascinating read about all the latest and exciting research surrounding this topic. From elementary aged kids to senior citizens Ratey shows through specific studies that exercising is not only an essential aspect of our bodily health but our mental health as well. The book goes into greater details than I just laid out, of course you can just take my word for it that exercise is awesome for not only our bodies but for the mind as well.

Now that I laid out the foundation stay tuned for part 2 of this series: How much, how often, and what kind of exercise to stimulate these healthy outcomes!