IOL Strength and Conditioning

I spent last Sunday with Charlie Weingroff, a doctor of physical therapy who’s exceptionally generous with his time, constantly sharing information to bridge the gap between those of us in the fitness world and his peers on the medical side. Last weekend he was presenting a three-day workshop covering Gray Cook’s Functional Movement Screen and some of his assessment ideas to a group of personal trainers at Equinox, a high-end fitness club in Palo Alto. On Sunday I was his client model, and he spent the day hauling me up off the floor, and shoving me back down again.

The movements he looked at were the toe touch, backward bend, standing rotation in both directions, single-leg stance on both sides, neck flexion, shoulder mobility, overhead squat, inline lunge and upper and lower rolling patterns.

The entire review was fascinating, me showing dysfunctional movement in nearly all cases when I was expecting little or none, and ending with improvements across the board in a short amount of time. Of course, Charlie was lecturing, giving examples and demonstrating a variety of techniques, so the process took much of the day, but amazingly, the success could have been accomplished in less than an hour. By the time he was finished, which included some hands-on physical therapy movements, the asymmetries he found in standing rotation and single-leg stance were gone, and I had solid twos across the board.

All except the overhead squat—that one even Charlie gave up on for the time being, so I’m sure as heck not going to worry about it.

I had the most trouble with the rolling patterns, particularly the upper body rolling. That took a long time to coax out of me, with Charlie using a variety of props designed to sneak an instinctive response. I did literally dozens of these, which without weight may sound like nothing, but when you’re working too hard to try to provoke movement, it’s exhausting. And man, was I sore the next day—all the little musculature between the ribs and around the serratus were brutalized by all that excessive effort.

Check out this video of Mark Snow demonstrating the rolling pattern; note the legs aren’t being used at all in the upper body rolling. It’s a lot tougher than it looks. Get on the floor and try it; leave your legs quiet as you try to roll with the upper body… you’ll see. Yet today, after Sunday’s learning, those movements are a step from effortless; I could do triple the reps from Sunday without soreness. Once you get it, you’ve got it, and that’s the real beauty of this stuff.

He left me with my corrective assignment:

• Chop and lifts, half-kneeling, back foot with the toes turned under
• Rolling pattern practice from all four quadrants
• Deadlifts
• Kettlebell Swings
• RDL stretching with belly breathing
• Supine band kneeups
• Reach/Roll/Lift Arm in semi-quadraped
• TGU stretch for T-spine rotation

And as long as I’m on the floor, I’ll comply with Gray’s recommendation to make the getup a cornerstone of training.

Here’s a look at Gray discussing the chop and lift:

Now go over to Functional Movement and grab the 4-part Chop and Lift article pdfs, here.

Already I can feel a difference, and in fact, a movement specialist friend of mine, Feldenkrais teacher Suzie Lundgren, noticed a difference in my movement last week. And that was before I’d told her about spending the day with Charlie. This stuff is remarkable—I thank Charlie for working with me, and I thank Gray for developing the movement pattern program as a foundation for guys like Charlie and his peers to work from.

Incidentally, Charlie’s presenting the same material to Equinox in Manhattan this weekend, which he’s having filmed for DVD. I’ll let you know when the dvd set is available, or you can subscribe to his website updates via the sidebar subscription box on charlieweingroff.com. That’s a new site; he’s planning to update it regularly with Q&As for strength and conditioning coaches and corrective exercise specialists, and will also be recording his training log online. I expect we’ve got a lot to learn from our pal Charlie.

Plenty of people teach the Turkish getup, but lately many of the techniques originate from the work of Gray Cook, Brett Jones and Mark Cheng in their two-dvd and booklet set, Kettlebells from the Ground Up.

Two examples of Kalos Sthenos spinoff: I spent some time last summer with Dan John, who teaches only the bottom part of their method, which we filmed as part of his kettlebell form dvd. And just yesterday I got another glimpse of the getup teaching from Charlie Weingroff in a workshop I’ll write about in a week or so after I’ve had time to practice his suggestions.

I’ve been curious to discover the differences between teaching styles, and especially to learn it from the guys who spent the time to break down the getup so carefully. You’ll have to wait a few weeks to get the personal impact of my Kettlebells from the Ground Up dvd review, because there are plenty of layers that need private, attentive practice, but I still have a pretty good idea what we’ll find.

This dvd and booklet set is directed more toward the general exercise public than their other projects that target the fitness professionals, but it’s still an advanced look at how we move. Using the Turkish getup with a kettlebell, we’re re-learning how to move from the ground up, fostering good posture, body mechanics and symmetry, left side to right, and front to back. They teach this as a coordinated effort from a foundation of alignment and movement mapping, and watching them move through the positions, you can tell their practice has paid off beautifully.

Gray does a short commentary on primal patterns, those movements we have from birth as part of our central nervous system. These patterns are well represented in every getup, moving us through rolling patterns, shoulder mobility, the active straight-leg raise, the ability to sit up, lunge and stand up. And as we load the getup by adding the off-center weight of the kettlebell, we’re using weight to teach us where our patterns are lacking. This is the most important lesson of the dvd, and it’s part I suspect very few people will pick up on their own.

At each of the seven steps, they’ve designed feedback to point out the weak links. Within the getup, using arm circles, neck rolls, leg raises and long stability holds, we can discover kinks in the flow, and can work to smooth out the bumps. This is mobility, flexibility, stability, strength and breathing practice—working flexion, extension and rotations in all planes of human motion… all in one exercise.

You can work the getup without knowing any of this, and if you’re attentive and you work toward perfecting your form, you don’t need the dvd to be successful. But if you’re not one of those who’s particularly tuned in to your movement skills, or particularly if you’re a trainer who works with others and will benefit from the regression tips, this will be a good investment.

You can order the set, $79 for the two dvds plus 36-page manual, from these non-affiliate links to Perform Better or Dragon Door.

About that cost

You may remember my aversion to high prices for consumer items, and I feel like I need to address that here. I’m less sensitive to this for professional media directed at trainers and coaches, and while this dvd set and manual are marketed toward the general trainee, its level of instruction is higher, offering the specifics of progression and tweaking we’d expect from a product geared for pros.

But more than that, I got behind the numbers after I did some scratch-pad math. Gray and Brett don’t sell direct to the consumer. This means they get wholesale pricing on all their sales, so slash 50% off the top, across the board, leaving $40 as the gross profit.

Next, subtract the costs of filming and editing, graphic artwork for the dvd, label and booklet, a photographer for the booklet photos and payment to Mark for writing the text. There’s the cost of the booklet, printed with full color photos on thick, glossy paper with a lay-flat coil binding—an expensive proposition for a 36-page manual. Finally, add the cost of the double dvd.

I haven’t a clue how many copies they’ve sold, but spreading the cost of production over an initial 1,000 copies, they each could take home maybe $15 a copy… depending on how much of the work they did in-house. $80 is a lot, $15… not so much. I’m okay with it after all.

Especially as I realize most of the TGU techniques now taught throughout the industry came from their study of the getup for this presentation. Whether this is worth it to you personally, I’d say that depends on whether you plan to actually use the getup—buying, watching, but not doing… well, you know where that goes.

These are brilliant guys who make it easy for the rest of us to soak up their creative thinking. I’m a fan for sure.

More from Gray and Brett

• In this episode of the Strength Coach podcast, Gray and Brett get together to discuss Kalos Sthenos

Gray on the getup

• Gray discusses TGU form in this Dragon Door podcast (right click and save to download to your computer or click to listen online)
• Brett Jones explains the purpose of the Kalos Sthenos DVD set in this Dragon Door article
• Brett discusses the corrective nature of the getup here in his blog
• Gray and Brett join Charles Staley, Phil Stevens and Rob Fortney in Episode # 46 of IronRadio

Gray on general movement skills

We’re now several years into the fish oil revolution, far enough for most everyone to have heard of it and many to be taking it. Let’s take a couple of pages to talk about why omega-3s are good for us, and since there was a fish-oil purity lawsuit filed that gave us something to talk about last week, we’ll do an introduction to fish oil processing.

Omega-3 is an essential fat, called that because the human body can’t make it. There are two types of omega-3s, a plant-based oil from flax seed, walnuts or canola that yields ALA (alpha linolenic acid), which converts to EPA and DHA in the body, and fish-based oils that consist primarily of EPA and DHA and require no conversion.

EPA and DHA are two fatty acids vital for good cellular function. High levels of EPA and DHA help with immune system response, are important in lowering inflammation, and play a role in all biological processes. The benefits of omega-3s are well documented by about 8,000 research studies—not exaggerating here, you can look ‘em up if you want to. The bottom line you’re going to find is the combination of EPA and DHA is thought to—

• Strengthen the heart, reducing risk of heart disease and stroke and lowering blood pressure
• Manage blood chemistry, such as cholesterol, triglycerides and blood sugar
• Be a factor to skin health, from dryness to eczema
• Contribute to eye health, better vision, reducing the risk of macular degeneration, and better hand-eye coordination
• Fortify the joints and bones
• Play a role in brain health, including possibly working as an anti-depressant, providing mood elevation and increased sustained attention
• Assist in bringing down inflammation
• Ease or completely relieve allergy symptoms
• Provide better energy levels

While omega-3 oil may be best known for its ability to normalize lipids for cardiovascular health, the inflammation relief could well be the kicker, because systemic inflammation may cause many of the troublesome health issues you can think of, from joint pain to heart disease, Alzheimer’s and cancers.

The best source for these omegas is oily, cold-water fish like herring, tuna, sardines, anchovies, salmon and cod. But instead of eating herring, our Western diet is high in Omega-6s and low in Omega-3s. Because these basically metabolize the same, the higher 6s overpower the 3s, which compromises tissue function, increases inflammation and swelling and speeds up the cellular aging process.

Since we’re 100% cells, cellular aging is bad juju.

EPA and DHA

EPA is Eicosapentaenoic Acid, good for heart health (lipids, smooth blood vessels, heart muscle function), joint flexibility and decreased joint swelling, assists in immune system response and helps maintain metabolic health.

DHA is docosahexaenoic acid; it improves mood, helps with the nervous system, enhances memory and clear thinking, is good for eye health and contributes to infant health during pregnancy.

As important as all this is, many people are completely unaware of the value of fish oil; others are confused between the omega oils, and many don’t care for fish as a food. When you put all the factors together, it’s easy to see how we got so deficient—the sales material I got from one of our suppliers, Nordic Naturals, quotes an estimation of 80% of Americans being deficient in Omega-3s.

The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that people with no history of heart disease eat oily fish at least twice a week. Don’t do that? Supplement.

For those with documented heart disease, the AHA suggests one gram of EPA plus DHA daily. Those who need to lower their triglycerides should use two to four grams of EPA, plus DHA, again according to the AHA. The AHA recommends even more for those with high triglycerides; for those people the Association suggests 2-4 grams of the combined EPA/DHA, and to make it easier to get, there’s a prescription fish oil you can get from a doctor if you haven’t been able to reduce your triglycerides on your own.

As a comparison between foods and supplements, the values of EPA and DHA in two Nordic Naturals fish oil softgels is equivalent to a half-can of sardines, 44 one-gram flaxseed softgels or a 10-ounce bag of flaxseed. In terms of comparison, well… it’s clear there is none.

Quality vs Quantity

As long as we know we should be getting fish oil, let’s talk about quality versus finances and see if we can figure out how to proceed.

Consumer Reports did a review of fish oil in 2008 and reported in all of the 52 products they tested, there was no detectable mercury. All passed contamination limits for lead, dioxins and PCBs, both the cheaper and the more expensive brands. What they did find was a difference in the amount of EPA and DHA concentration per serving; non-concentrated fish oil contains approximately 20-30% of EPA and DHA, whereas a highly purified oil will get to as high as 85%.

This is where you have to do a little homework: When using one product you may be able to get all you need from two or four capsules, but with another you may have to take a dozen or more to get the same quantity. Incidentally, this is product-specific, not brand specific; some manufacturers carry multiple levels of concentration, resulting in multiple price breaks within the same brand.

Higher Cost Oils

As you might expect, there’s a bit more to the story. Fish oil is sensitive to oxidation, very sensitive, and will easily turn rancid. The tendency toward repeats (the polite way of calling out fish burps) is sometimes an indication of cheaper oil, possibly even rancid oil, and free radicals in your supplement intake is going to reverse all the good the omega intake might have done. However, don’t assume rancidity just because you taste fish after taking your oil; it could be that you need to get some food in your stomach first, and, in fact, that’s not a bad idea from an EPA/DHA supplemental standpoint so you don’t use the oils primarily for energy.

What you may get in a higher cost oil—

• Smaller fish that have short reproductive cycles to minimize the metals
• Lower heat, oxygen-free processing
• Removal of potential impurities such as minerals and trace elements
• Molecular distillation, selecting EPA and DHA fatty acids at the molecular level and binding them to alcohol to allow for a greater EPA/DHA concentration
• Enzymatic and CO2 processing
• Reattaching the fatty acids to glycerol to form a natural triglyceride

That last one is an important one, and it’s one we’re going to be hearing out more over the next couple of years as more research gets published. There are two forms of fish oil, one a synthetic ethyl ester and the other a natural triglyceride. The EPA and DHA we want are in the fish triglycerides, and after the manufacturers extract the fatty acids, these have to be relinked, either with enzymes to create a new triglyceride or with ethanol, the cheaper option that creates the ethyl ester form of omega-3 oils.

Apparently, the synthetic ethyl ester form is more unstable, and breaks down faster during storage. Additionally, once ingested, the body doesn’t convert the ethyl ester form back to triglycerides, and it’s therefore more susceptible to oxidation—the free radical damage issue we’re all aware of but few of us understand. These factors would make the triglyceride form both more stable during and after processing, and better absorbed after ingestion. This potential better absorption may be the reason some people notice no response from fish oil until they switch to a more expensive brand.

The difference between the two forms is the subject of ongoing research, but for the curious, at the end of this I’ll add a list of references I got from Nordic Naturals, a high-quality oil manufacturer, one of our suppliers.

Fish Oil FinancesThe Nordic Naturals ProOmega line we carry includes additional processing steps to increase the concentration of EPA and DHA to about twice the average. Let’s compare that with the Now Foods brand we also trust and carry. The two Nordic products we have are the ProOmega-D in a lemon-flavored liquid oil and in 120-count soft gels. Both also have added Vitamin D, enough to cover most people’s daily requirements.

Now Foods, $11.95, 200 soft gels per bottle, 2 gels represents 360 mg EPA, 240 mg DHA

Nordic Naturals, $39.95 for 120 soft gels, 2 soft gels yield 650 mg EPA, 450 mg DHA, 1000 IU Vitamin D

Nordic Naturals, eight ounces (48 teaspoons) for $59.95, 1 tsp liquid oil yields 1626 mg EPA, 1126 mg DHA, 1000 IU Vitamin D

Because I’m math-challenged, I went with the liquid oil as the standard. One teaspoon of the Nordic Naturals ProOmega (1626 mg EPA, 1126 mg DHA) is equivalent to 5 Nordic soft gels (1625 EPA/1125 DHA) or 9 Now Foods soft gels (1620 EPA/1090 DHA).

The Nordic liquid oil serves up 48 doses at $59.95; the Nordic capsules equals 24 servings per bottle at $39.95, and the Now Foods offers 22.2 9-cap doses for $11.95.

From a financial standpoint, the Now Foods capsules are the clear winner at 54 cents per dose; the Nordic liquid oil comes in second at $1.25 and the Nordic capsules fall behind at $1.66.

Deciding on Quality

Aside from the finances, there are four main things to consider.

1. Do the repeating fish burps cause you to skip your fish oil supplement?
2. Do you decide to skip it when you look at that huge handful of pills every night?
3. Have you heard of miraculous benefits, yet after a couple months of faithful supplementing you felt nothing? Some people report a response after either increasing the dosage by a big factor, or by switching to a higher quality oil.
4. After you review the material on the triglyceride versus the ethyl ester processing, are you convinced the triglycerides are better?

A yes answer to any of the above would suggest a trial run with a top-quality fish oil.

Other than that, if you’re having great success with a cheaper brand, the math is pretty compelling. I wouldn’t have guessed there was that much difference without going through the calculations.

To hear what others in the forum are discovering with their fish oil experimentation or to ask questions, click on over to the fish oil thread in the forum, here.

For those looking for the triglyceride vs ethyl ester form research data supplied by Nordic Naturals, here ya go:

1 Lawson LD, Hughes BG. Human absorption of fish oil fatty acids as triacylglycerols, free acids, or ethyl esters. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1988;152:328–335.
2 Lawson LD, Hughes BG. Absorption of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid from fish oil triacylglycerols or fish oil ethyl esters co-ingested with a high-fat meal. Biochem Biophys Research Comm 1988;156:960–963.
3 el Boustani S, Colette C, Monnier L, et al. Enteral absorption in man of eicosapentaenoic acid in different chemical forms. Lipids 1987;22:711–714.
4 Beckermann B, Beneke M, Seitz I. Comparative bioavailability of eicosapentaenoic acid and docasahexaenoic acid from triglycerides, free fatty acids and ethyl esters in volunteers. Arzneimittelforschung 1990;40:700–704. [German]
5 Visioli F, Rise P, Barassi MC, et al. Dietary intake of fish vs. formulations leads to higher plasma concentrations of n-3 fatty acids. Lipids 2003;38:415–418.
6 Hong DD, Takahashi Y, Kushiro M, et al. Divergent effects of eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acid ethyl esters, and fish oil on hepatic fatty acid oxidation in the rat. Biochim Biophys Acta 2003;1635:29–36.
7 Nordoy A, Barstad L, Connor WE, et al. Absorption of the n-3 eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids as ethyl esters and triglycerides by humans. Am J Clin Nutr 1991;53:1185–1190.
8 Krokan HE, Bjerve KS, Mork E. The enteral bioavailability of eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid is as good from ethyl esters as from glyceryl esters in spite of lower hydrolytic rates by pancreatic lipase in vitro. Biochim Biophys Acta 1993;1168:59–67.

Over the week I collected some of my favorite informational omega-3 fish oil links, some you’ve probably seen before, but others might be a little farther off mainstream and well worth a visit.

• Overview of the recent fish oil toxins lawsuit and response from Nordic Naturals and Now Foods
• Terrific archive site of omega-3 oil research data
• Study links Omega-3 to lower systemic inflammation, CRP markers down
• Another outstanding article on omega-3 oil, the what and the whys of fish oil
• And from NutraIngredients.com: younger biological age, brain health and lung function during sport
• Terrific Omega-3 overview from WHfoods.org—All you need to know about fish oil
• Finally, to keep you occupied until next week, here’s a long IronOnline forum discussion, information and personal successes with fish oil
  

Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section if you have other good ones to share.

By now you’ve caught a hint (I started to write “whiff,” but that just seems wrong) of the lawsuit filed March 2, 2010, in which the Mateel Environmental Justice Foundation claims they had 10 fish oil products tested and discovered the presence of PCBs.  PCBs are man-made compounds that were used in coolants and electrical products such as transformers until they were banned in 1979. These toxins are still in the water, and hence, are still in fish. Here’s a write-up on the lawsuit via ConsumerAffairs.com.

First, my bias disclaimer: The following is coming from a person who takes and sells omega-3 oils, and who has not changed her outlook after reviewing the lawsuit information in the media and a number of websites and supplier-provided materials.

According to the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a food supplement manufacturer’s trade association (I think this means lobbyist), there are no safety issues with fish oil.

“Though the lawyers suggest that the levels of PCBs found in these products far exceed what is acceptable by Prop 65 standards, the actual levels of PCBs found in the majority of these products do not appear to exceed the Prop 65 limit (90 ng/day). Furthermore, they fail to mention that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) tolerance level for PCBs in fish (2,000 parts per billion) far exceeds the levels of PCBs found in fish oil.”

Now Foods, a trusted supplier of ours and a defendant in the case in which three of their oil products were named (shark liver, salmon and double-strength cod liver, none of which are raw materials in the Now Foods Omega-3 oil we carry), offered the following comment included in a faxed letter from the company president, Al Powers:

“The plaintiffs in the lawsuit claim that our products tested for the presence of PCBs in very small amounts. Unfortunately, PCBs are an environmental pollutant that are found virtually everywhere in nature. The levels of PCBs that were reported in the lawsuit were less than the limits that are allowed for a serving of fish. In other words, you will probably ingest more PCBs from eating fish that consuming fish oil capsules. In fact, you would probably need to ingest over 500 fish oil capsules to match the allowable limit for PCBs in a 4-oz salmon fillet.”

Our other fish oil supplier, Nordic Naturals, responded with:

“[Nordic Naturals] products surpass all PCB standards set by California’s Proposition 65, the GOED voluntary monograph, and all international standards. Nordic Naturals products were not listed in the lawsuit filed in California alleging that eight fish oil companies did not properly label products regarding PCB levels under the state’s Proposition 65…

“Using the most advanced testing methods to detect PCBs, third-party tests show that Nordic Naturals products have no detectable levels at one part per trillion of Non-Ortho and Mono-Ortho PCBs (the most harmful PCBs which are not covered by Prop 65) and total PCBs are well below the Prop 65 limit of 0.09µg/kg (0.09ppm or 90ppb).”

You can use this International Fish Oil Standards site to review the results of their testing on some of the brands of fish oil, those who chose to pay to have their oils tested. Note the various quality levels found under the drop-down selection box. Your brand may or may not be included, but that does not indicate a problem with the oil.

To expand your omega knowledge, you might spend a little time at the Omega Research site, a Nordic Naturals site where I believe you’ll find documentation of every omega oil research study archived, or you could spend the weekend reading the reports here on the International Fish Oil Standards site.

This week we received two inquiries about opening a gym. After 15 years working a struggling gym, I figure my first duty is to talk them out of it.

And then I spent the rest of the week using twitter to show where next to turn. Failing to talk a person out of his or her gym-building enthusiasm, I insist on a Thom Plummer workshop. Insist, literally, because in today’s world, there’s little chance of pulling off a financially successful training facility without some guidance.

$10 will get you gym-building answers from hard-working owners at Michael Boyle’s strengthcoach.com.

Mike Robertson documents a few things to look for in his gym-building experience

Current or future gym owners: Thom Plummer’s blog, books, workshops are Do Not Miss. Check out this blog post where he explains the current state of the gym business.

In this outstanding podcast, Anthony Renna covers some of the ups and downs of building a gym

To ramp up your gym-building enthusiasm, Zach Even-Esh is one guy to look to

In this video, Anthony Renna documents nearly $5,000 of unexpected costs, $30 at a time

While you’re collecting data, input and capital, use the time to build an education. Todd Durkin has an IHRSA webinar 3/11 on running a personal training program. Hopefully that will be available in an archive for later study.

Before opening a training facility, learn good teaching and coaching skills, first through a short mentorship, then a longer internship.

You have to do these before you get opened, because after that, you’ll be sucked dry. You think I’m joking; yes… I know it looks like a big empty box, but, well, the thing is, for it to work you need to fill it with bodies.

**

Oh! And before I check out, here’s a terrific review of Michael Boyle’s Advances in Functional Training at Amazon

For the fun of it, I sent twitter links last week to some outstanding movement videos I have archived. Here’s a look.

Here’s our ever-popular Steve Cotter. Check the jumping pistols at the end

This one’s downhill rolling in a blading suit, amazing!

As long as we’re on a flying kick, how about flying suits? More amazing yet! I think this is clipped from a 60 Minutes show that aired last summer.

Now these might freak you out a little: Weightlifting, the funny and the not-so-funny

Check out breakdancing in slow motion

Whoa! Dude carrying bricks, 22 at a time… on his head!

Remarkable moves, this girl’s flat-out fast

And I leave you with a push off to Ted.com to watch a video of Robert Full, documenting animal movement in slow motion