I have been wanting to write about this topic for a long time, especially since I turned 40 on March 31st. As a martial artist myself, practicing now for over 9 years, I have had to come up with my own nutrition and fitness program to keep me in the game. I have learned through my own fitness experience, teaching and training others that as a general rule, after age 35 most go through a physical change in which we seem to lose strength, take longer to heal, have posture problems, alignment issues and lose flexibility.

I started to first notice this at age 33 when I first started as a personal trainer. I noticed that I was feeling more sore after workouts and I would reflect about how I could go all day and night while I was in the military. I was also studying 3 different martial arts along with my NASM workout routine, the OPT. At this time I relied on supplementation for the majority of my nutrition and my macro-nutrient percentages were 20% protein, 20% fat, and 60% carbohydrates. This is basically the Apex nurtition program 2004-2007, I do not know if the use the same percentages. Now I have evolved more into what I call a superfoods/lower carb-higher protein diet. When I was on the higher carb diet many people who were low carbers would freak out over 60% carbs. In defense of Apex, their rational was that we needed the higher carb percetages in order to have the energy to work out hard and fire up the metabolism for fat burning. This worked well for a while. My supplement list back then was creatine, amino acids, various protein drinks, glutamine, multi-vitamin, and eventually fish oil or flax seed oil. That also worked well, especially for muscle building but I was also prety slow and lacked mobility.

By 2007, I had suffered 2 lower back injuries from martial arts, a shoulder and elbow injury trying to learn kettlebells and a hip injury that happened over time from an old Army foot/ankle surgery that did not rehab correctly. I started to follow some of Paul Cheks nutritional advice from his audio lectures from PT on the Net and then bought his book “How to Eat Move and be Healthy”. His ideas were very different than what I had learned at 24 Hour Fitness, Apex Fitness and NASM. He was big in protein and organics but allot of his ideas were a little extreme and weird. He was the first person who got me into organics and he also recommended a book called “Metabolic Typing” which said we generally need to follow a diet more like our ancestors. It made sense that we all have our own individual dietary needs, which explained why a diet would work for one person and not another. Also in the book there is a test which says whether the person is a protein eater, carb eater, or a mixed or combination of both. So I believe that what each martial artist or fighter will have to work also on individualizing their own macro-nutrient combinations.
Steve Maxwell is another person who gave me the idea about reducing inflamation through diet. He is famous for his joint mobility and body weight exercises with the focus of injury prevention and longevity. At this time, I had been reading allot of books on nurtition and superfoods. I was interested in finding foods that would help me recover faster, good for strength, and joint health. I had stayed away from almost all supplements after I left 24 Hour Fitness in December 2007 except for fish oil. In 2008, I started to eat mostly organic but due to it’s expensive, I had to modify. By 2009, turning 39, I pretty much came up with a solid routine. I will stick with general tips since we are all different.
Here are some of my basics:
1. Eat 3 meals, protein at every meal
2. 3-6 24 oz bottles of water
3. Greens almost daily spinach, arugula, brocoli
4. Fish oil, flax seed oil
5. Alvacado, coconuts, peanut butter, almond butter and other healthy fats
6. Amost no fast foods, trans-fats, and other processed foods.
7.Fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, ahi, shrimp.
8, Vitamins, vitamin D, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B and an anti-oxident multi-vitamin
9.Free Range chicken, grass fed beef, and grass fed lamb.
10. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, oranges, apples and try juicing.

All of these tips that I have listed have come from my own research and experimentation. This works well for me and since everyone has there own likes and needs focus on trying a few. Here is my rational for this list:
1. Be strong for my martial art or combat strength.
2. Be as injury proof as possible
3.Minamise inflamation and use nutrition to help heal lingering injured tight areas.
4. Be fast, loose, and flexible.
5. Joint Health
6. Longevity, eating with the focus on preventing digenerative diseases.
7.Eat to reduce stress and maximise mental focus and clarity
8. Increase lean muscle and decrease body fat. Low body is important for the aging martial atrist.
9. Eat in order to be strong and quick without getting over bound with bulky muscle.
10. Have a strong heart and healthy organs.
Last but not least. I have experiment with 2 liquid diet cleanses. I will hit on this in the future.

This program was developed by one of my coaches Scott Sonnon who’s background is in the Russian martial art of Sambo. He traveled to Russia  and studied martial art and exercise science there. This program has become a big part of my own self training. I have always been looking for better methods of training. I sensed that my standerd muscle endurence training, I learned in the military and the weight training that I learned in different gyms around the country was lacking. I alway felt the my back was not as strong as it should be and I felt very inflexible eventhought I stretched and could do 80 sit ups in less than 2 minutes.

When I became a personal trainer, I started to learn about functional training, core training, yoga, and pilates. I also had been training in martial arts since 2001. In 2006, I met Pavel Tsatsouline and the kettlebell. I was very interested and found allot of weak and sore areas this different type of training. Swinging weight is different than just pressing, pulling and lifting weight in a gym. I suffered some small but painful training injuries while learining how to lift kettlebells. In 2008, I went to a Steve Cotter certification and was certified by the IKFF in kettlebell lifting. At that certification Ken Blackburn warmed us up using what he called joint mobliity exercises. They felt great, like nothing I ever felt before. The joint mobiliy was different than yoga, pilates, static stretching, or dynamic flexibility. I really could see that this was something that would help change the way I train and deal with some of my tight sore areas. The only problem was that when I returned, I could not remember any of Ken’s exercises.

So I started to look on the internet and found out about Scott Sonnon. At that time, I heard about the clubbell, a weight that looks like a baseball bat. I signed up for Scott’s CST certification and bought a 10lbs clubbell. In Febuary of 2009, I took my first CST and did not pass but went back in August and did pass. I have taken 3 CST course, 2 TACFIT and 2 Kettlebell course. CST takes a health first approach to exercise rather than an extreme results approach which I am finding is better for long term results and pain free joints.

There are 3 parts to CST, joint mobility, clubbell swinging, and yoga poses.  Next week I will discuss each part of CST.

Regardless of what method or diet you use, fat loss will be slow or non existant without applying these basic nutritional stratedgies. There are no short cuts to optimal health. This will be achieved through  balancing your exercise, diet, and lifestyle. Read this daily and use self honesty to help you identify your challenges with your eating habits. Ask your trainer for help.

Ranger Fit       TRAIN WITH THE BEST

Eating Phase 1 – General Recommendations

• Eat 3 meals daily
• Read labels and be aware of serving size
• No fruit juices
• No soft drinks (carbonated)
• Eat your calories, don’t drink calories
• Drink water
• Eat whole grains, white carbs make many people fat
• Record everything you eat and drink
• Eat organic as much as possible
• No simple carbs (potatoes, white rice, pasta, white bread)
• Alcohol will greatly limit optimal fat loss
• Plan and shop for your meals weekly
• Eat more omega 3 (olive oil, salmon, free range eggs)
• Limit processed foods (chips, frozen prepared food, food from boxes)
• Eat more whole foods (vegetables, fruit in moderation, lean meats, eggs, cottage cheese, yogurt, beans)
• Eat 35 grams fiber daily
• Balance each meal with protein, fats and carbs
• Eat out smart
• Eat lots of greens like spinach and broccoli

One of my goals is to develope my VIP program for those who want a little more out of their health and fitness. I am starting out with the SMART goal setting technique but I will tailor it for my VIP clients. My VIP training is designed to assist those people who want a something different and more personalized and will invest in the best program for them. We all know that there are gyms, trainers, yoga, martial arts, and pilates studios all over the South Bay. But, how many of us really believe that we are in the best shape of our lives. So let’s really focus on doing things in relation to our health and fitness one step at a time. We all know goal setting works but many new years resolutions vanish into thin air by Feb. 15. We need a plan.

Everyone is different so what works for you may not work for me. I use the Marine way of getting something accomplished which I call taking the hill, which most likely would only work for someone with a military background. Antoher thing, fitness is very different. I see many successful people have a difficult time achieving their fitness goals.
I will start off by expaining SMART Goals:
S- be Specific
M- Measureable
A- Have an Action plan
R- Have Realistic goals
T Have Timed goals

Lets work with specific for the next week. Really put some thought into what you want to accomplish. Lets think about the most common, I want to loose weight. Problem, too general. Those are the people who will sign up at the local gym and 4 years later look the same as they did when they set their general goal 4 years earlier. Do not waste your time and money.
Be Specific!
See you soon with your specific goal.

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