I just finished a phone consult with one of the finest natural medicine and detox specialists in the world. Dr Bob Rakowski. I wanted to know more about natural solutions to cancer because recently I have several family members/friends who have it. All kinds – breast, colon, liver, pancreas etc. From our 30min consultation, I learned a few things…
Cancer LOVES sugar – in fact it loves it 15x more than any other nutrient. And what were my friends/relatives on? “Ensure” Whats that – it’s 60% SUGAR!! It’s mad that this food is recommended to help give the cancer patient energy when all it does is feed cancer cells the nutrient it loves most!
Digestive tract health is so important, and the nutrient that helps digestive tract health (Glutamine) also helps fix cancer via 7 pathways – one of the most important is that, being an amino acid, it maintains muscle mass which is good for immunity.
Pancreatic enzymes are GOOD! They break down the protein coating of cancer cells and KILL THEM! Yay!
Dr Bob also gave specific supplement protocols for my “cancer clients” and I look forward to helping them get well ASAP. No more chemo, no more radiation, no more illogical food choices.
But better still, PREVENT cancer by PERUSING health! That’s what we do with our weight loss, personal training and fitness boot camp programs where we cover health, nutrition, supplementation for your genetics and body type, as well as exercise:)
Once You See This - It's Probably Not Good For You
Almost everybody knows that sugar is bad for you. And my personal training and fitness boot camp clients certainly know this because we try our best to inform our clients about the negative effects of sugar consumption for their health. But the processed food manufacturers know that customers are becoming aware of this too! Customers are more informed and are getting better at reading food labels.
Here is one trick that you should be aware of…
Manufacturers sometimes “split up” the sugars among the ingredients. It is quite well known that the ingredient with the highest amount has to be listed first, so a food with sugar listed first may be very unpopular. But if a manufacturer seperates sugar into fructose, dextrose, maltodextrin, high fructose corn syrup, different sugar alcohols (malitol, xylitol etc) it becomes easier to hide and none of these individual ingredients ends up high on the list. But add them up and you have sugar-fest that will make you tubby real quick so read labels carefully.
Even more so… don’t even buy many foods that have labels to be read! I mean a vegetable or piece of meat or a fruit has NO LABEL! These tend to be the best foods for you.
Here are a few questions that I was asked by our personal training and Singapore boot camp fitness clients last week. I hope these answers help you with your health, fitness, weight loss and fat loss goals too.
What seafoods are ok and not…for example I love prawns and crabs ..are they ok as meal – yes they are fine as long as you don’t have an allergy to them. They are actually healthy and very nutritious! (and won’t make you fat!
For the snack, can i replace egg with cheese? what other alternatives i have (Yoghurt, etc?) – I would stick with eggs over cheese although cheese is not a bad choice either. Eggs just have a higher amount of protein. I am not a big fan of yogurt because it tends to be highly processed and high in sugar.
If i miss or cheat on my diet like last night. do i make it up the next day by taking less? – If you end up eating a bad meal, RELAX:) guilt probably raises stress hormones and makes you even fatter! Just get back to healthy food ASAP. That is the main thing. The wrong responses are to skip meals, or to continue eating bad stuff since “I already messed up”.
For the coffee before training. Do I take it for big training (like on wed) or do i take it even if I do my intervals trainings/swims – Coffee is fine before intervals.
Is coffee with low fat milk bad? I have a habit of taking it quite often..should i stop? I also use Equal instead of sugar.. is that acceptable? – I would go with heavy cream and cinnamon which slow down the caffine release and increase fat burning. I am not for artificial sweeteners unless absolutely necessary.
My fishoil at home is 1200mg per capsule. How many do I take..taking 4 per meal doesn’t sound right – It is right, depending on your current level of body fat. The fatter you are, the more healthy fats you need to take to increase your insulin sensitivity (and a bunch of other good reasons too!)
Many of the clients at the Genesis Performance Center play a sport of some kind. Because many of these clients are highly motivated types of people, they often play these sports competitively and want to do as well as possible in tournaments. The level of the tournament can range from school leagues to professional (i.e they do it for a living).
Part of the personal training, or athletic training /strength and conditioning program is to get them to peak for the day of competition.Every sport is different, every athlete is different and if you want the program customized for you, then you need to sign up! But there are some principles that hold true for almost any sport.
1. End your training with a “strength and power” phase of training. Some training programs are for growing muscles, some are for building endurance, but the program just before your competition should be one that emphasizes speed, strength and power.
2. Don’t do your conditioning workouts too much, and don’t do them too early. You only need a few weeks to condition yourself for endurance/fitness. Don’t waste your recovery ability on that stuff far from the tournament. And when you condition – ONLY use stuff that will be used in your sport. Long distance running is useless unless you are a long distance runner.
3. Finally, taper correctly for goodness sake. 2 weeks of no training before a competition is not a taper. It’s a disaster. In most cases, drop training 20-80% in the week approaching the competition depending on how you feel. Tapering is an incredibly complex topic and needs to be customized.
Most importantly DON’T PANIC. If you have done too little and there is only a week to go before tournament, its too late! You cannot “cram” for physical performance. Do your best but learn from your mistakes.
But, more common, is that people do TOO MUCH before competition and enter feeling drained. The feeling you want is “I can’t wait to compete” when the game begins.
Things like this can make the difference between winning and losing (and for sure you don’t want to be off yoru game when your opponent is peaking). That is what our athletes training program is for.
It’s no point knowing. Knowledge is useless till it is applied. And that is where the art of coaching meets the science of training.
There are 4 general types of clients that we see, either as kids, children, youth or adults. And each type requires a slightly different coaching style to get the best possible response from them.
Type 1: Low Motivation + Low Skill
These clients may be shy, quiet, perhaps lacking confidence and ability (probably interrelated). Excitable coaching methods will probably not work with this kind of person. We need to be more quiet, personal and careful so that this person doesn’t feel targeted by our questions or coaching.
While these clients may take more patience to work with, and may not be the most “gifted”, there is great satisfaction is helping them achieve things they might have thought impossible for themselves. I believe the important coaching style for these clients is to “enable” so that they are encouraged that they can do it!
Type 2: Low Motivation + High Skill
These clients are technically or physically gifted, they are just good at all the things we ask of them. Things just come naturally for them. Sometimes they may not focus enough, or pay enough attention. Perhaps they and kids who were forced to come by their parents, perhaps they are just no longer interested in the current exercise.
The problem for many of these children and kids is that things are not hard enough! the coaching style I like to use is “inspire” or “challenge” for these kids.
Type 3 is High Motivation + Low skill
These kinds of clients are a great joy to work with. They have great attitudes, want to get better and try their best. They just need extra guidance on technical skills. We need to be energetic and eager as coaches to help them become technically proficient and boost their skill level. The key word for the coaching of these clients is “Guide”.
Type 4 is High Motivation + High skill
Of course this is the aim of all our programs, to get our clients, both children and adults, into this “high motivation + high skill” category. From a person lacking confidence and motivation, to one that is both intrinsically motivated, and high in skill.
One thing I try to be careful about is to overly shelter these clients. Instead, high motivation high skill clients need to be give more ownership, more discussion, more feedback, and more “empowerment” for their own development. That is not lazy coaching, that is teaching a man to fish!
There we have it, part of my learning as a (still learning) coach and personal trainer/fitness/sports performance professional. This is what works, and this is how we treat our different clients.
Now I’m upset! I’m not a big fan of the pharmaceutical industry to begin with. Drugs in general mask symptoms and do not treat root causes of disease. But this one really takes the cake.
Is This REALLY Going To Solve Anything?
“Scientists” – probably ones who don’t take their health seriously… have found a drug that simulates exercise and put it into a pill… the magical “exercise in a pill” drug…
Firstly, nobody is going to be great with this kind of thing. Sure you may boost a bit of muscle activity here and there which is great for maybe bed ridden people with serious illness. But nobody is going to get a great physique this way.
Second, human testing is a world away from testing on rats.
Third and this is a big one, it makes the rats LONG DISTANCE RUNNERS! the worst kind of athelete to become for general health. The pill actually causes the fast twitch, powerful muscle fibers, to become weeny, small slow twitch ones. That is what people who exercise properly work so hard to correct in the first place!
This is a huge disadvantage. Don’t be fooled by scams. Many drugs cause more problems than they solve. Disease is removed by increasing health, not by faking it. The analogy that I like most is that drugs simply mask symptoms of a deeper problem.
It is like a tree in your garden that is wilting and all it’s leaves turn yellow and its bark is falling off… do you…
A: Paint the leaves green and the bark brown and pretend all is well?
or
B: Find out what in the water/soil/environment is KILLING the tree and fix that issue?
B is so obviously the answer for this tree, but for our own bodies, we go for A – drugs that mask deeper problems.
Always fix the causes not the symptoms.
The correct types of nutrients, soft tissue therapy and exercise fix just about any degenrative disease. That is what we try to do at the Genesis Performance Center with out personal training, bootcamp and biosignature programs.
I was thinking about this recently. Most of us have degrees/diplomas/certifications in many things. But when it comes to the true value of education, I find many people lacking.
The love for life long learning is WAY more important than the degrees we hold. Nothing wrong with having degrees! In fact many of my best friends have PhDs to their name. But don’t lose sight of the journey that gets us to the degree.
The education where correct habits and character are learnt is more important and ensures more success in life than the degree itself.
Same thing with fitness. Im proud of the clients who lose 17kg a month (he was very overweight or else this would not be safe!), jump 50cm more in their broad jump after training with us for a few months, lose inches in weeks and fix their posture and movement problems quickly with the right corrective exercises. In fact, with some of the acupressure and muscle stimulating techniques we use from Coach Charles Poliquin’s Instant Muscle Strengthening Techniques (PIMST), clients can gain 20 degrees or more of flexibility, or up to 50% more strength within a FEW SECONDS.
But those are “degrees” are simply a client’s short term results. Important yes, but not as important as the life and habits that they find. These they take with them forever and are worth way more than more chinups, a leaner waistline or a better broad jump.
I’m far more interested in education. The love for learning can be grown with the right coaching and the right environment. So can the love for making wise and healthy choices in life!
At the Genesis Performance Center, I recently had a personal training client who was having pain in her hip. The pain comes at the top portion of a squat or dead lift movement.
Any time there is a pain in the front of the hip (anterior hip pain), don’t forget to consider “femoral anterior glide syndrome” as a possible cause.
The pain seems to be at the front of the hip joint and does not seem to come from a muscle or ligament.
SOLUTION: Think about how the femur (thigh bone) is made secure in the hip socket. It is held tight and back in the socket by the function of the glute muscles. That means your buttocks have to work well to keep the bone in place.
So, during your warm up, do more glute activation (you can even do these between sets as I instructed my client to do) and during exercises like squats, lunges, or pulls, remember to focus on a contraction of the buttock muscles to keep the femur tight in the socket and avoid it slipping forward and causing pain.
Some glute exercises are show below.
Hip pain is a common problem that gets fixed with as part of our personal training and athletic performance programs! Training with us is not just about being lean and looking good! But you have got to leave feeling better and healthier as well!
As a fitness instructor here in Singapore I always take a look at how Singapore residents behave so I can help them achieve their fat loss, weight loss and fitness goals better! Here are some my observations about the way us Singaporeans approach their health and exercise.
We DO have the time – If only we watched less TV and played less World of Warcraft
We can achieve great health with only 3 hours of proper training per week – If we are eating the correct foods and taking care of our nutrition instead of letting what hawkers and restaurants sell us be our guide.
Cardio is NOT bad for health – It is good to stay healthy so some activity like going for walks and playing sports recreationally is good for us!
Cardio is BAD for fat loss – especially if we have limited time, it is simply not challenging enough for our bodies to force us to lose fat
Women are motivated by encouragement – in general
Men are motivated by challenge – in general
Many people have poor hip function and mobility – leading to knee and back problems
Many people have poor upper back posture and weak middle and upper back muscles – leading to shoulder and neck problems
Barefoot training is really helping my clients with their foot/ankle health as well as their balance but DON’T buy those shoes with “5 toes”. They mess up your toe function and make you have knee pain!
Warming up is very important – so is static stretching during the end of the day. But the warm up has to be specific for the task. For example, if you are warming up for squats, do squats! If you are warming up for soccer or basketball, you will need to add in some movement and running drills in multiple directions – specific to the task.
Type 1: Low Motivation + Low Skill
The problem for many of these children and kids is that things are not hard enough! the coaching style I like to use is
high in skill.
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