3 Reasons for drinking more water.
1. Almost all over weight people do not drink enough water and drink either soda or coffeee drinks.
2. Water helps the body detox which is important for fat loss and nutrients are best supplied to a hydrated body.
3. Athletic preformance is best when optimally hydrated. The military was a good example, when a soldier did not drink enough water, they would pass out and become a heat causalty. In civialian life we see lack of hydration in excess body fat and poor health.

As a trainer I am always asked about the secret to fat loss or the best nutritional tips. We are always bombarded with new costly products that promise results. We all know that in this country, we do not eat fresh food and also eat out too much.

So any “new thing” wheather it is a vitamin, supplement, or new lattest super berry drink will give temporyary results. Anything added to a less than optimal diet will produce results but I always want to promote the healthy lifestyle. Also you don’t always have to spend extra money to improve your diet or health. Water is free!

We all forget about drinking enough water. A human being can go longer without food than water. Many Americans like to go to Starbucks, Coffee Bean, and places like Pete’s Coffee. So if you like your coffee, you are drinking a dieretic so you are already working against the basic standerd of at least 8 classes of water. Then we have juice which some people might think could be healthy. If it has high frutose corn syrup, you want to find a new brand that comes from at least concentrate. Fresh is always better. Now soda is just bad and should be avoided if you are trying to lose weight or practice a healthy lifestyle. Many experts say that tap water is not as healthy so you can invest in some filters that are not that costly to some very expensive ones. Most of us buy our weekly supply of bottled water.

How much to drink? Most experts suggest 8 classes and water enthusiasts say a gallon a day. I like to share both ends of the spectrum and let people find what works best for them. So if you are not satisfied with your results you can always check your water intake and make improvements.

I wanted to write out of my own experience. I like the kettlebell workouts because they keep me in prepared to handle the demands of martial arts training and being a veteran I love to stay in shape. Kettlebell training allows me the oppurtunity to spend less time working out while still maintaining a high level of fitness.

Lately, I have been taking it easier physically. The majority of my physical training has been with kettlebells in the last month. It has been very light without the high rep swing or snatch routines that are very demanding cardiovascularly. If it wasn’t for my kettlebell diet, I would be 5 to 10 pounds over weight. As a martial artist my goals continueally change like know I am focusing on strenghthening my shoulders and neck. When my goal changes I can just adapt my kettlebell workout to meet the needs of the new goal. I do not have to switch to another style of training and leave the kettlebell.

This morning, I worked out on the beach with 2 kettlebells. My exercises were simple, I practiced the single leg deadlift and the 1 arm clean. It was beautiful morning and I had a nice and easy hours workout that went by fast. Outdoors is nice since I don’t have to worry about catching a bad rep. I finished with a 2 arm/1arm swing circuit.

Here are some tips for “Kettlebell Training for Martial Artists and Veterans”

1. Get a physical to see if your body is ready for kettlebell training.

2. Try some fexibility training for your hips and shoulder or try some yoga which works well with kettlebell.

3 Get a couple good books or dvds on kettlebell training.

4 When starting out try these exercises, halo, around the body, goblet squat, 2 hand bottoms up press and the get up.

5. Stay hydrated and take some classes on the swing so you know you have proper technique.

I am not writing this to criticise competition training but to enlighten the tactical athlete. First off many people might not even know who the tactical athlete is. Military, law enforcement, and fire fighters are what we in the fitness industry would call the tactical athlete.

In my opinion, based on my own training(10 years military and 10 years martial arts), my research, other tactical athletes experience, and lots of course work, too much focus on competion or hard training will create a force of injured imbalanced warriors. I spent almost 10 years in what is known in the military as the combat arms, most of the time in the artillery and some time with the infantry. Our job was to be ready to move at a moments notice. Our fitness training was push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, running, and road marching. We did absolutely no strenghth training and nor self defense training. Many of us lifted weights after work but eventhough we had size, many of us had poor movement and poor flexibility.

After 911, I wanted to serve my country but due to my discharge, I was unable to re-enter the military. So I believed the best thing I could do for my country was imerse myself in the martial arts. I studied Hapkido, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Jeet Kune Do, Karate, Judo, Kali, Muay Thai, Silat, Shooto, Systema, Krav Maga, and Wing Chun. Too be fair to all my instructors, I was not an easy student to train because of an injury in 1996 when a 105 mm cannon hit me in the foot. I could not balance on my right foot and tight from lots of running.

Once again, in my own opinion, the tactical athlete regardless of what job needs some form of self defense training. Some competion training is good because it developes mental toughness and courage.
Too much focus on competion will hurt the tactical athletes readyness. Tactical athlete has a different goal. Victory in the ring is only preperation for victory on the field of battle whether it is a fire, arrest, or a firefight in Afghanistan.

The problem with the competition arts is that they are really a sport. Any athlete who competes will develope sports specific imbalances and if the do not fix them through a good sports medicine program, they will lead to possible injury. Any judo, kickboxing, or jiu jitsu, competiditor who has been around a while has experienced this or seen it happen to someone else.

Self Defense training for the tactical athlete should have simple techniques that can be applied within weeks not years. They should train long distance, close distance, ground, knife, stick, kicking, hand strikes, joint locks, and throws. Functional fitness training should be integrated as part of the martial art. When the athlete is properly prepared then sparring and later competion is good to master the mental part of martial art. The tactical athlete must develope courage through hard training.

My last idea, the athlete needs to insure he is always getting the best program that best fits their needs. I am sure that there are allot of injuries to to the current fitness and martial arts programs in all the agencies.

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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