tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-72677540245637790272024-03-14T03:16:13.028-07:00Max Wettstein Fitness Blog!Amazing ABS Tips! Holistic Health Stuff. Fitness Model Tips. Pilot Fitness. Mens Health and Longevity Buzz. Written by Fitness PRO, published author and model, Max Wettstein!Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-71167318518400065282017-04-25T13:17:00.001-07:002017-04-25T13:26:33.172-07:00Max is Fitness Guest on Dudes-to-Dads Podcast...'Fitness Tips for Dads!'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I was a guest on the podcast <i><b>'Dudes-to-Dads'</b></i> as a <b>Fitness Pro</b>, giving some of my personally, tried-and-true, fully vetted, fitness-tips for BUSY Dads. I also revealed some of my Fit-Dad pitfalls and fails! Learn from my mistakes.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bnbuwp4FsAo/WP-tSAA5WTI/AAAAAAABJ28/MCCH6P3Tqkw-7hn5UFQ-jgRSpsCJHTo6ACLcB/s1600/max-ep108-800x560.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="448" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bnbuwp4FsAo/WP-tSAA5WTI/AAAAAAABJ28/MCCH6P3Tqkw-7hn5UFQ-jgRSpsCJHTo6ACLcB/s640/max-ep108-800x560.png" title="Max Wettstein Guest on Dudes to Dads Podcast" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In the Dudes-To-Dads podcast studio with co-hosts Jason Kreidman & Alan Bush</td></tr>
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Host <b>Jason Kreidman</b> & producer, co-host <b>Alan Bush</b>, do a great job of prying every possible fitness tip out of me for their audience comprised of mostly new Dads (formerly known as 'Dudes' haha!) Jason Kreidman also happens to be my neighbor and I think they may be the fittest fam on our culdesac - not kidding! And if you have a moment, check out some of their other guest line-up, as their blog and podcast program is very exciting.<br />
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Link to my episode: (Don't forget to press play and turn up your volume!) Below:<br />
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<a href="http://www.dudestodads.com/fitness-for-dads-lose-weight-get-in-shape-with-guest-fitness-pro-max-wettstein-dudes-to-dads-ep-108/">http://www.dudestodads.com/fitness-for-dads-lose-weight-get-in-shape-with-guest-fitness-pro-max-wettstein-dudes-to-dads-ep-108/</a><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-76991737205257599512017-02-23T14:31:00.002-08:002017-02-23T14:31:56.419-08:00For my Pilot Friends: Travel Fitness - Raising Awareness<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Recently I became a staff writer for <b><i><a href="http://www.aerocrewnews.com/" target="_blank">Aero Crew News</a></i></b> magazine. But I thought I'd share some of my articles with my Pilot/Air Crew followers on here to, and you can also check out my website, <i style="font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://pilotfitness.net/">PilotFitness.net</a> </i>~ If you're not a pilot, air crew, or frequent flyer you can tune out now if you like:)<br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> When most of
us dreamed of becoming pilots as kids, the furthest thing from our mind was
that flying might not be a physically healthy career. We all knew there with some risks inherent to
the aircraft and flying them, as far as mechanical failures and <i>non-normals</i>, but we soon learned that
with enough training and experience, we could minimize those risks to very low
levels. Unfortunately after all our hard
work and achieving our dream job of flying the line, <u>we are exposed to many
occupational health hazards.</u>
However, we can apply our years of learning how to mitigate risk as well
as our pilot discipline, to also minimize most of the health hazards we
face. The first step towards protecting
our health & longevity so we can fly until age 65 and beyond, is <u>gaining
awareness of these hazards</u>. Here are
few of the top hazards we face in no order of priority, because the
significance of each hazard varies individually depending on our genetic
predisposition and lifestyle, as well as our current state of health: (Not medical advice, opinion only)...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iIAY-0RIYZg/WK9gpzx0bdI/AAAAAAABJ00/8owSSsYAE9M55j6D5eBvFFf3Eqive5oHQCLcB/s1600/Max%2BWettstein%2Bheadshot%2BJetBlue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iIAY-0RIYZg/WK9gpzx0bdI/AAAAAAABJ00/8owSSsYAE9M55j6D5eBvFFf3Eqive5oHQCLcB/s400/Max%2BWettstein%2Bheadshot%2BJetBlue.jpg" title="Captain Max Wettstein" width="325" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Wettstein is currently an Airbus 320 Captain at JetBlue Airways, former carrier-based Navy pilot & Fitness PRO</td></tr>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Long term Sitting.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Long term sitting is linked to
shorter lifespan no matter what career and has been stigmatized as the “new
cancer”. If you’re sitting for a long
time, it means you’re sedentary which leads to a myriad of health problems and
higher risk of all disease over the long term.
(Long term) Sitting is also not ideal for the integrity of the spine and
over time can lead to many ergonomic and bio-mechanical issues with the <b>lower back</b> and the discs of the spine. Risk of <b>blood
clots</b> and Deep Vein Thrombosis also increases with periods of long term
sitting.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Circadian Rhythm (Sleep-Wake Cycle) Disruption.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
Sleep is the foundation of our health, more so than diet or
exercise. If you’re not sleeping
consistently well, you can expect your health to suffer in every other
area. A regular sleep schedule is
critical to our health, yet our airline careers usually mean very random flight
schedules and thus very random sleep schedules, leading to interrupted sleep
patterns and <b>jetlag</b>. And even if you’re on a consistent flight and
sleep schedule, but it is <b>redeye</b>
based, (on the backside of the clock), that too is linked to shorter lifespan
and higher risk of all disease. Human
biology is engineered for us to be awake during daylight hours and sleeping at
night. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Low Humidity Cabin Air. </span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The air at altitude is already very dry and becomes even
dryer once it enters the aircraft through the bleed air and aircraft
packs. Low humidity cabin air over time
can increase risk of dehydration, but more hazardous is that the ultra-low
humidity impedes the proper functioning of the villi hairs inside our nose and
sinus membranes, and the protective mucus lining of the sinuses also dry out
and we are no longer as protected from trapping airborne pathogens &
toxins. This problem is further exacerbated
when we layover in air-conditioned hotels where we can’t open the windows, and
the room air is just as dry. Over time,
many aircrew experience higher rates of chronic <b>sinusitis</b>.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (High-altitude Ionizing Radiation)
Galactic Cosmic Ray Exposure.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> For most of us, this
hazard presents a negligible risk unless we fly higher latitude routes (closer
to Earth’s poles), fly a lot, fly at high flight levels, or unknowingly fly
during a cosmic radiation event or solar flare event. This background radiation exposure can be
compounded by additional ultraviolet light radiation during day time
flying. Radiation exposure has a
cumulative effect on our whole body as well as are eyes.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Carcinogen Exposure on the Tarmac.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
During our pre-flight walk-around inspection, depending on the aircraft,
we are exposed to known carcinogens such as Jet-A fuel, residual turbine
exhaust fumes, carbon fiber brake dust if the fans are on. There is also the bio-hazard risk of walking
too close to the lavatory servicing cart and having it spill on you, or having
a cart run over you at night – it has happened many times!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b></div>
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<!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> Hearing loss.</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">
This hazard needs no introduction.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FR7HGdhYs08/WK9hQuwzX6I/AAAAAAABJ04/ijDctHrJiPsyoc_DkdmGmAKLyaI5tSUawCLcB/s1600/cockpit%2Bcrew%2Bshot%2Bwith%2BJensen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="411" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FR7HGdhYs08/WK9hQuwzX6I/AAAAAAABJ04/ijDctHrJiPsyoc_DkdmGmAKLyaI5tSUawCLcB/s640/cockpit%2Bcrew%2Bshot%2Bwith%2BJensen.jpg" title="Max Wettstein for Aero Crew News magazine" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These are just a few of the most
common occupational health hazards we are at risk of every time we fly. A few others include hemorrhoids, kidney
stones and bed bugs. My only goal today
is to raise our awareness. Of course I
would not concern you with any of these hazards if there were not plenty of
defenses and strategies we could put into place to minimize them, but I will save
those for next time as I delve into each hazard. Many defenses are common sense and I’m sure
many of you are already doing a great job protecting your health so can
continue living the dream for years to come.
<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Best, Max<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Max
Wettstein<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Airbus 320 Captain
& Fitness Professional<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">www.maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Instagram
@maxwettstein Twitter @max_wettstein<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><i>**Max
Wettstein is an Airbus 320 Captain at JetBlue Airways based in Long Beach, CA and
has been a pilot for JetBlue for 14 years.
Prior to JetBlue, Max was a pilot in the US Navy, for 10 years, flying
E-2C Hawkeyes and King Airs. Max is also
a fitness professional, appearing on the cover of Men’s Health and other
fitness magazines over 20 times, is a published fitness author, consultant and
Personal Trainer. Max currently runs a
holistic health & travel fitness blog.
Max was the initial fitness & health contributor for the pilot cadre
at JetBlue for 5 years before corporate took over. As a longtime advocate of holistic health and
longevity, Max has made a commitment to researching every occupational health
hazards we pilots and aircrew face while flying the line, from long term
sitting to jet lag, to radiation exposure.
Max also specializes in designing quick, high-value, body weight-only
workouts, that can be performed anywhere while on the road, even in your hotel
room or the hotel stairwell. Max has the
unique background of both airline travel life along with cutting edge fitness,
and has learn how to make both work as synergistic careers and as his lifestyle. In his free time when Max isn’t flying the
Airbus or on set of a fitness infomercial, Max is usually surfing with his
family, skateboarding, or playing beach volleyball in Encinitas, CA.**</i></span></span><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-13628316289606407642016-12-28T12:18:00.005-08:002016-12-28T14:18:38.669-08:00FAT for Workout Fuel? High-Fat/Ketogenic Diets: Do They Work for Power & Fast-Twitch Athletes?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Often times in this digital world of regurgitated, anecdotal social media & <i>bro-science</i> information-dissemination we live in, one needs to pause every now & then and break out their Exercise Physiology text book and review the basics: Ketones are a back-up/emergency energy source. <b>Just a friendly reminder: Ketosis for energy production is not optimal or ideal.</b> Ketoacidosis, should your 'Ketogenic-Diet' (75% daily calories from Fat & very Low net-Carbs), dieting attempt go wrong, (since you're just a <i>bro</i> and not a Dietitian), is seriously bad for your kidneys and health. Sure, fat for fuel is great - just as are carbohydrates...the way biology designed us. Most times we are simultaneously using both glycogen & fat for energy production, and it is all automatic and synergistic. Why mess with this perfect physiology, unless you have an underlying clinically-diagnosed medical issue, like insulin-resistance, type-2 diabetes, obesity, epilepsy, or perhaps are trying to take advantage of the acute fat-burning/longevity-boosting affects & benefits of a controlled fasting strategy, like <a href="https://maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/2012/11/longevity-athletic-performance-is.html" target="_blank"><b>Intermittent Fasting</b></a>?</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z1T69NE0aP0/WGQZK0xxC3I/AAAAAAABJog/FLJiH7iANLIYqJLj5DnleN-nNJSbmPezwCLcB/s1600/Mens%2BHealth%2BCover%2Bcolalge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="375" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-z1T69NE0aP0/WGQZK0xxC3I/AAAAAAABJog/FLJiH7iANLIYqJLj5DnleN-nNJSbmPezwCLcB/s400/Mens%2BHealth%2BCover%2Bcolalge.jpg" title="Max Wettstein Men's Health magazine cover model" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Wettstein is a Fitness Professional: Cover-model, published fitness author, supplement consultant & Trainer, He is also a Captain for JetBlue Airways.<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">Recently, (after a week of laying off playing all my sports due to a head cold & stitches that couldn't get wet), I was reminded of what it feels like to strength train w/ your glycogen (stored carbs) levels topped off..to actually feel strong again w/ full muscles & a real pump. Hadn't had that gym-high in a while, because basically these days I'm always over-trained & glycogen depleted. If I lifted it would be after surfing, or only a '</span><i style="text-align: left;">Bulletproof Coffee</i><span style="text-align: left;">' for breakfast. That was another perk..All my nagging injuries healed, even w/ my head cold. I also gained 2 pounds for once. Also I realized </span><b style="text-align: left;">I have been over dabbling in high-fat/low-carb eating</b><span style="text-align: left;">..not dieting..just been reading so much about all these (endurance/slow-twitch) athletes swearing by their ketogenic diets & thriving off of ketones & fat as fuel for their workouts..I was starting to fall victim to all the regurgitated anecdotal hype & cut out too many carbs!</span></div>
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I mean I know ketones can serve as a great weightloss fuel & ketosis an emergency back-up metabolic energy system, and are even great brain fuel for clarity, but make no mistake: When you want to train at VERY high intensity or purely anaerobic strength, (fast-twitch) the primary energy system and preferred fuel is glycolysis/carbohydrates repectively. Yes creatine supplementation can help the ketogenic athlete w/ fast-twitch power, but only for up to 30 seconds before ATP production needs more glycogen. While doing research on the Ketogenic Diet, I did come across this expert Trainer from Bodybuilding dot com who was very informed about the Ketogenic (Very High-Fat) Diet and how it was working so well for him - he was more than your typical Brofessor or Bro-ologist. What's more, is this guy was actually buff looking and a working PRO Fitness Model as well. So I was stunned...how could this guy look this way without eating any (insulin-impacting) carbohydrates?! How could he possess the fast-twitch fiber strength to lift heavy enough weights, I had to find out?! Well, 45 minutes into his discussion, he finally let's the audience know that not only does he supplement with Creatine daily (to maintain and boost his ATP stores), he also Carb/Glycogen loads once a week, during the weekends so his wife won't hate him when they go out and socialize in the presence of normal human food! He claims he then burns of all his glycogen the next day with a Tabata high-intensity workout, and is back in ketosis by Monday morning. So just as I thought: This Ketogenic Diet 'expert' and advocate Trainer, was not 100% purely ketogenic himself. What's more, is the Ketogenic Diet also dictates that it is low-protein as well, so even Paleo-loving athletes are shut out. (Because dietary protein also triggers an insulin response.)</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-92LUvkn5cX0/VNo-WiJV7aI/AAAAAAABHqQ/Of5Jnq8Qai0e-JawQjAxB4_X_4aUbDxWwCPcB/s1600/Fat-blob%2Bon%2Bscale%2Bcrop%2Bweb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="328" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-92LUvkn5cX0/VNo-WiJV7aI/AAAAAAABHqQ/Of5Jnq8Qai0e-JawQjAxB4_X_4aUbDxWwCPcB/s400/Fat-blob%2Bon%2Bscale%2Bcrop%2Bweb.jpg" title="How Much Fat are YOU Carrying? by Max Wettstein" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max Wettstein is coauthor of the holistic-approach to fat-loss book, <i><b>'How Much Fat are YOU Carrying?'</b></i></td></tr>
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I mean think about it: Do you suppose that Olympic Gold Medalists Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt would stake their fast-twitch muscle fiber-created, sprinting power on only fat for fuel? I don't think so. There are some anaerobic activities only carbohydrates can supply energy for. <b>Please understand that the benefits of <a href="https://maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/2014/03/20-super-foods-practical-affordable.html" target="_blank">Coconut oil</a> and the MCT fat it provides is undisputed and widely accepted as a healthy part of any diet, and is a great tool for those strategic times of fat-loss dieting, especially for fitness models and bodybuilders.</b> But to only exist on (fat 75% of daily macronutrients), fat as a long term diet, is a very risky decision, that should only be done under the recommendation and supervision of a medical or dietary, certified professional - not some <i>bro-ologist</i> from your instagram feed. Don't forget to consider that many if not all environmental toxins farm animals are exposed to on a daily basis, are stored in their adipose tissue indefinitely: Toxins are stored within body-fat in all animals. Do you really want to be eating additional animal-fat, even if the animal was supposedly free-range raised, or Organic?</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max surfing in Encinitas. For long surf sessions in cold water, Max prefers both stored carbs (glycogen) & stored fat for energy.</td></tr>
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So be careful my fitness friends because it's a slippery slope into skinny depletion as your new norm: First it was Zone, then Atkins, then Paleo, then Bulletproof coffees, and now full on Ketogenic..why must we hate the carbohydrate?! I get it if you are insulin-resistant or type-2 diabetic, or obese, or perhaps even if you are ONLY a slow-twitch, endurance athlete..but for the rest of us, let's get back to carb-sanity! In reality with most exercise we are ideally burning both glycogen & fat simultaneously, as we blur the energy line between aerobic & anaerobic, cardio & strength, slow-twitch & fast-twitch fibers. Why ignore either food/fuel? So next time you find yourself stirring a teaspoon of coconut oil (MCT fat) into your coffee with good intent just remember: You are one step away from skipping carbs at breakfast, or skipping breakfast altogether - which may be ideal for you but just be aware that it could be your gateway into a failed ketogenic diet attempt. And don't forget the alleged 'Keto-Flu' you will have to experience the experts say, as you transition into long term ketosis!...their description, not mine. Gee, the Keto-Flu - yeah that makes a lot of sense...as if my body and physiology wasn't already born well equipped and "knowing" how to burn fat for fuel...hmmm.</div>
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- <i>Max Wettstein</i></div>
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Follow Max on Instagram: @maxwettstein #pilotfitness #abcarverPro #qorkit </div>
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"Optimum health is a method of life."</div>
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<a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=http://www.maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com&source=gmail&ust=1483037365700000&usg=AFQjCNEaPjTXseNYtouALG71EeKoFlzvwQ" href="http://www.maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">www.maxwettsteinfitness.<wbr></wbr>blogspot.com</a> </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some bursts of anaerobic power can only source energy for fast-twitch muscle fiber from ATP & stored glycogen.</td></tr>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-67881399014999652332016-12-19T14:00:00.001-08:002016-12-19T14:02:05.731-08:00Table Salt vs. Sea Salt: Only 1 contains adequate Iodine!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Happened to notice 'iodized' on our cooking salt's label today..got me thinking..Many of us have switched to naturally harvested 'Sea Salt' for its texture, flavor & more trace minerals without anti-caking additives. However when we trade up from traditional (processed) Table Salt there could be a problem: goodbye IODINE. Table Salt Industry has been fortifying with Iodine in our table/cooking salt production for generations in the USA and Canada because iodine is an essential nutrient & many folks were deficient in iodine. Necessary for the thyroid gland mostly, iodine is naturally abundant in seafood and there is a trace of it in Sea Salt too, but most of us do not ingest nearly enough iodine in our normal diet. So if you have switched to only naturally harvested 'Sea Salt', then make sure you are eating enough seaweed and fish, or also cooking with Table Salt. Also, did you know, there is no such thing as being allergic to naturally-occurring iodine found in seafood?...the allergic reaction most folks blame on iodine is actually to certain proteins found in shellfish, not the iodine. Along with seafood, iodine is also found in cranberries, eggs from free-range chickens, organic yogurt/raw dairy.</span><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-3283692162646361052016-12-07T11:55:00.002-08:002016-12-07T12:17:59.698-08:00Men: Iron Overload Awareness: Too much is TOXIC - consider donating blood to prevent excess iron accumulation!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">*Men* ~ PUMP the IRON but do NOT supplement with iron: Make sure none of your supplements contain IRON. I was accidently consuming some in one of my wife's supplements. Glad I caught it: we build up iron in our tissues, (Iron Overload or Hemochromatosis if hereditary), unless we donate blood annually and too much is very toxic! I'm going to blog about it. Whole-food sources shouldn't become a problem unless you eat a lot of red meat. There are some things that help us chelate excess iron out of our blood like Green Tea (EGCG) and Tumeric. But really men should be donating blood annually. Mother Nature already takes care of the ladies:)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TxSk42SxqLE/WEhl-RQFnpI/AAAAAAABJno/QjIAdAv-aRwzWZjanKxcvbr6XlFSnPndACLcB/s1600/Max%2Bdumbbells%2BLA.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TxSk42SxqLE/WEhl-RQFnpI/AAAAAAABJno/QjIAdAv-aRwzWZjanKxcvbr6XlFSnPndACLcB/s640/Max%2Bdumbbells%2BLA.jpg" title="Max Wettstein LA UnderPass" width="483" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pump the Iron but do NOT EVER supplement with iron if you are a MAN.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ug3DE8yvrw8/WEhmfOgyk7I/AAAAAAABJns/VsDNWZT5CE89fL_fJFwUUGKnZzOJdwoZwCEw/s1600/Max%2Bhang%2Bclean.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ug3DE8yvrw8/WEhmfOgyk7I/AAAAAAABJns/VsDNWZT5CE89fL_fJFwUUGKnZzOJdwoZwCEw/s640/Max%2Bhang%2Bclean.jpg" title="Max Wettstein Hang Clean, Laurel Canyon" width="467" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Men~ Pump the iron...jack the steel...is good. Swallowing the iron is bad.</td></tr>
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Next posts coming up: (processed) Table Salt vs. (natural) Sea Salt: Only one of these provides you with adequate IODINE: An essential nutrient for the thyroid gland and human life!...<br />
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Also: High FAT/Ketogenic diets: Do they work? Do they work for athletes? Do they work for high-intensity/fast-twitch/power athletes?...hmmm...</div>
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- Max Wettstein<br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-14719804714055366362016-11-18T12:06:00.002-08:002016-11-18T14:06:18.738-08:00Movember, the Asian Squat, Wim Hoff, & random stuff...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Been a while! I think what is happening is that I'm becoming one of those lazy humans who only wants to do anything social media related, from my smart phone. So that means most of my 'blogging' or posting is being done on my instagram. Also I only seem to post organically, in-the-moment, and instagram is a better platform for that, since my phone is right there always connected, and my laptop is not. Also instagram keeps my posts shorter & to the point, so follow me there for more consistent, organic posts <a href="https://www.instagram.com/maxwettstein/?hl=en" target="_blank">@maxwettstein</a> on insta.<br />
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November is <a href="http://maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/2014/11/prostate-health-and-prostate-cancer.html" target="_blank">'Prostate Health'</a> awareness month and I have already posted about this <a href="http://maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/2014/11/prostate-health-and-prostate-cancer.html" target="_blank">numerous times</a>, if you want to check that out. Yes eventually every man's prostate begins to enlarge, if you live long enough, and it is natural and not the end of the world. The finger-probe is a more reliable BPH test than the blood/PSA test. And masturbating or ejaculating daily is healthy for the prostate gland.<br />
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<b><u>Squat more, Sit less.</u></b><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My version of the 'Asian Squat?' Yes I know I look like I'm taking a dump in the woods!</td></tr>
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In the above photo, I'm disappointed because I'm 3 weeks into my 'Movember' mustache and you can't even see it! But more importantly I'm doing a resting, natural deep squat I've always done, which is now becoming popular (again) in fitness circles. I've even seen it claimed a cultural position - the <b>'Asian squat'</b>, because some of those cultures hang out like this...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">In some cultures a proper deep squat is a way of life. Chairs are bad for your posture, lazy American!</td></tr>
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...because in these cultures there aren't chairs available everywhere. (Also see my post on <a href="http://maxwettsteinfitness.blogspot.com/2011/12/sitting-lethal-occupational-hazard.html" target="_blank">Sitting is Lethal</a>.) As a young man, I used to be play Catcher in baseball and got really good at this squat. As a surfer, I squat like this to loosen up my lower-back while checking the surf. What's old is new again, and even Men's Health mag recently called this <b>Asian Squat</b> as the one move/exercise you need to be doing each day to maintain full-range of motion - of course MH didn't call it that and claimed it as their own novel idea. Like I said, <i>what's old is new again</i>. So next time you're just sitting around, maybe opt out of the chair and for this squat instead. You will be doing wonders for your lower back, hips and glutes. Contrary to what one might think, deep (natural) squats are NOT bad for your knees or pateller tendon, even during weight-lifting exercise. The proper way is heels flat on the ground and butt as low as you can get it. You may find that over time your achilles tendon has shortened a bit, from so much sitting and this is one natural way to lengthen it back out. Those of you who have always done Olympic-style lifting, (pulling a barbell from the floor), should have no problem with your achilles tendons, as this traditional type of lifting involves this type of deep squatting. So this is the heart of this blog post, but read on for more updates...</div>
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<a name='more'></a> I think last time I blogged, I touched on the book I read by <b>Wim Hoff</b>, <i>The Iceman</i>, and all the benefits of cold/cold-water exposure. From making your immune system more robust, to stimulating your metabolism into hyper-overdrive, to activating life-saving, thermogenic brown-fat, to lowering inflammation, both acute & chronic/systemic. I was always, unkowingly benefiting from cold exposure because I was surfing in cool/cold water with no wetsuit or old leaky wetsuits, and often times be shivering by the time I got out of the water. And of course, growing up a 3-season athlete, I already knew the anti-inflammatory effects of icing injuries, both acute and even for prevention. The benefits described by Wim Hoff are more than anecdotal - he did actual lab experiments with blood tests to back his claims. Of course some cultures have believed in ice-baths and polar-plunges for years. But even if you can't withstand such an extreme ice bath or polar plunge, there are health benefits to be found even in taking a cold-shower at home. A 5 minute cold shower, exercises/flexes your blood vessels and cardio-vascular system...maybe not as good as going for a run, but how much easier?! Also Wim Hoff teaches a breathing exercise to go along with it, which you can do anywhere, but preferably alone...he goes into the benefits of hyper-ventilating, and learning to breathe less, which is contrary to popular belief - most of us over-breathe.<br />
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I'm still modeling for <a href="https://www.qorkit.com/" target="_blank">QOR</a>. Here are a few recent shots, all photos by Jed Smith:</div>
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I'm surfing a lot with my daughter Bryce, as she now has surf P.E. in the mornings twice a week, riding my most progressive board yet. We still have the 'family deal' with Encinitas Surfboards, thanks to Bryce charging hard in her contests.</div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eMz-fPiM9-0/WC9baIEe9cI/AAAAAAABJfY/HbVp--UBBecCLZK9pvv8cPHEtHTZPiUcACLcB/s1600/Max%2Bsnap.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eMz-fPiM9-0/WC9baIEe9cI/AAAAAAABJfY/HbVp--UBBecCLZK9pvv8cPHEtHTZPiUcACLcB/s400/Max%2Bsnap.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I'm still a brand-ambassador for Perfect Fitness, but I don't know for how much longer. I'm also becoming a brand-ambassador for </span><a href="http://www.qorkit.com/" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">QOR</a><span style="text-align: left;"> apparel.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I remain stunned by how many redeyes and random start-time, airline trips, the FAA allows. I'll have a redeye flight followed by a 4 AM wake-up in the same week, regularly at JetBlue. Its crazy the random, inconsistent sleep-wake cycle the airlines will not only permit, but regularly subject pilots to. It should be illegal, but its not. The company even puts out slides like this in our official training...</span></div>
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...then completely ignores their own research when producing our flying schedules. But other than that, I love my flying job as Captain, and do not take it for granted!</div>
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Cheers,</div>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-51672826716861195552016-06-14T13:40:00.002-07:002016-06-14T13:52:40.369-07:00Some recent photoshoot/modeling work, Summer 2016<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Sorry, I've been way behind on blogging! So many ideas, but then I never feel like I have a free adequate block of time to properly write anymore. I need to just sit down randomly and start typing and let it flow instead of striving to create some sort of writing masterpiece. Upcoming posts planned on cold exposure benefits and training immersed in <i><b>"hard, righteous, NATURE"</b></i> that I learned primarily from studying <b>Wim Hof</b>, the <i>IceMan</i>. Also more pilot occupational health hazard items and redeye life. Training in "hard nature" - I have always done it, mostly with surfing, mountain biking and snow skiing - but its true - it can take you out of your confined, safe, benign, bland, gym climate and expose you to unexpected rawness, ruggedness, beauty and even some extremes - triggering primal instincts, survival hormones and amplifying sensory intake. Nature will hold you accountable like no Trainer will. Cold exposure is like a cardio workout in and of itself, flexing all your blood vessels and endothelial lining. More to come and more on the power of the mind. But for now, some recent modeling work - because the camera can also be "righteous" and hold one accountable:) Thank you!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">QOR Kit June '16 Catalog cover, photo Jed Smith</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beach sprints. 100% effort = maximum value & Growth Hormone trigger, Photo Franz Krachtus</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For Lake Healthy Living magazine July 16 issue. My father used to play Pro ball and coach in Central Florida, so this photo is sort of a tribute to him and Lake County. Photo Franz Krachtus</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">For Lake Healthy Living magazine, July 16 issue, photo by Franz Krachtus</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My daughter Summer stole the show on this shoot. Photo by Franz Krachtus</td></tr>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-56526211910908339242016-02-18T14:37:00.002-08:002016-02-21T11:21:58.893-08:00Exit 2015, Enter 2016: What's new?..Zoolander 2, and revisiting 'Why I still model - Isn't it time to retire?!'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Its been a while! This blog post is more of a personal, ‘house-keeping’ one,
so you’ve been warned!<o:p></o:p></div>
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2015 wrapped up with San Diego’s <i>Four EL men’s magazine</i> going on indefinite hiatus, (where I was the
fitness contributor), as well as <i>Greens
Plus+</i> Energy bars, without warning, cutting their marketing staff, and as a
result, all of us ‘ambassadors’ losing our sponsorship. So no more Greens Plus for myself after 15
years using their products. I can’t be expected
to go back to buying it at this point. I’m
still working an ambassadorship with <i>Core
Energy Fitness</i> resistance bands and suspension straps (my backyard &
traveling fitness arsenal), and <i>BioFreeze</i>
has been contacting me recently for sponsorship, but I have failed to get back
to them in time most likely, which is lame of me, cause their products are ones
I was already using, as well as my wife for her massage practice.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m still modeling professionally, booking paid jobs about
twice monthly. (If it’s not paid, it’s
not professional.) Bookings have slowed
down a lot, by choice. For one thing,
working my main career as a Captain for <i>JetBlue</i>,
with two kids & a working spouse, leaves very little time left over for
modeling, writing & Personal Training.
Also, at age 46, I have realized the ideal ‘fitness-model’ in the traditional
sense, is a young-man’s game, so I have switched to mostly apparel clients,
which means catalogs instead of magazines & infomercials. Less exposure & infomercial fame, but the
irony is, apparel pays about 4 times as much, and the shoots are much less
intense. In fact the idea with apparel
most times is to look as natural as possible, not even noticing the photographer,
(unless it is BORING studio!), and there are some instances where you don’t
even know when the photographer has gotten ‘the shot’. He just suddenly out of nowhere says, “<i>Got this, what’s next?</i>” Some of the performance/sports-apparel shoots
are still quite demanding physically to be sure, but even then, the intensity
level is nowhere near that of a standard fitness industry booking, and,
typically I’m wearing physique-covering clothing much of the time, so the
enormous challenge of pre-shoot dieting and dialing (tanning, shaving, carbo-loading),
is all but eliminated.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Going into 2016 my main apparel client is still the
relatively new men’s performance brand known as <b><i><a href="http://www.qorkit.com/" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">QOR</span></a></i></b> (pronounced “core”- see
my earlier blog posts.) They just hit
the 1.5 year mark since their official launch and are gaining traction. They are mostly for the urban, corporate-yet-very-active
man. Think San Francisco-based CEO or
Doctor who commutes to work by bicycle and goes for a jog during lunch. This <b><i>QOR</i></b>-man is also eco-minded and a
foodie. I just shot for their summer
catalog on the <i>North Shore</i> of
Oahu. It certainly felt very validating
to book a location shoot of that caliber again.
A little backstory - the creators of QOR were also the creators of a
women’s brand called <i>Athleta, </i>now
owned by Gap<i>. </i>Since I have been a model for every QOR
shoot since their genesis, sometimes I feel like I’m truly a part of their
team.<br />
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This probably sounds like a good
thing, but one of the golden rules of a <u>professional</u> model, (according
to Max), is to never forget just that – your place - that you are being paid
for your skills <u>as a model</u>, and nothing more. If your opinion is ever desired, the client
will ask you for it, but most times, the client does not want to know your
opinion. The client is paying you top
dollar to show up and look amazing, and make their product look even more amazing,
and none of that necessarily requires speaking or offering your advice. It also means you shouldn’t upstage the
product or apparel your wearing. So
yeah, while at this point in my career, modeling seems second nature to me – my
craft – I guess it will always be challenging for that reason: Look good, but never outshine the
product. Stand out during the casting
& audition, but know when to be subtle while on set. Once something no longer becomes challenging,
not only does opportunity for personal growth stop, but so does the fun.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think as a model there are times that call for being a charismatic ‘rock
star’, but at other times you need to be a discrete chameleon – <u>and always a
gentleman.</u> Knowing when to be which,
is instinctive, but two hints are: read the photographer’s every move &
mood, and never lose the big picture of the vibe of the set or location. Have your finger on the pulse of the
production. Never forget that of
everybody on set, as the model – or ‘talent’ – you are usually the lowest
ranking, I don’t care what your day-rate is or what your agent told you. No matter what the dynamic, the photographer
always outranks you, and is your Guru.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I’m not sure where I’m going with this blog post at this
point. I think I must be channeling <b>Derek Zoolander</b> or something, being that
<i>Zoolander 2</i> is coming out next month. Perhaps watching Zoolander 1 again, has got
me pondering about what it means to be a <i>“ridiculously,
good-looking male model”</i>, and the pressures and expectations that come with
that. Or maybe with aging, along with
family responsibilities growing, I feel I’m at a crossroads on this journey. This post started off as just a very bland
& belated update to the closing out of 2015 and the beginning of 2016 and is
now wandering aimlessly. You were warned
in the opening paragraph.<o:p></o:p></div>
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At age 46 with the wrinkles and wear-n-tear accumulating, (a
rite of passage), every day I question if and when I should retire from this
modeling/fitness hobby. After more than
15 years this is more than a hobby obviously.
Although modeling has never been about the money, it is a significant source
of income, but more importantly, it is good for my character & well-being. Modeling gets me out of my complacent routine
and often moves me out of my comfort zone, into self-fulfilling adventures that
I can feel productive about. I love
dad-life, but there are times when I completely lose myself into the world of
my kids. Leisure trips & vacations typically
leave me feeling guilty in some way, not to mention that means loss of income! Modeling & writing are a creative outlet
and booking jobs provides fitness-accountability. It is not that I desire to avoid new
experiences or traveling, it’s that I already am gone so much with the airline
business, that I hate leaving my family and kids any more than I have to, especially
when by default, I am eldest daughter’s primary ‘coach’ and sports manager,
which takes up quite a bit of my free time in a good way. I wouldn’t trade that. What’s more, is when I look at some of my
early portfolio from 10+ years ago - of course I am not as fit or youthful
looking - but this mostly affects booking the physique and fitness-type shoots. In many ways you get better with age and all
that cumulative experience in front of the camera.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I mean at this point I’ve probably worked with 75
photographers for over 100K shutter flashes.
That experience will always translate into the image, unless you lose
confidence. Every time I get to work
with a photographer who I believe in, and who mutually believes in me, I know
we’re going to get something worthy. Get
a shot that is believable and the client will invite you back. At the surface it may seem like an act of
pure vanity or trivial art, but for me it’s also a personal test that provides
some inner validation and grounding. You
can’t fake a good shot. The camera lens
will reveal it. The client will know
it. The consumer will know it. You have to look into the lens with truth
& sincerity. You have to be comfortable
in your own skin. While some shots are
more light-hearted, in my mind during shoots, I always envision a <i>salt-of-the-Earth </i>vibe. If you can’t be yourself, then the client booked
the wrong model, and you need to meet with your agent, or maybe update your
comp-card and portfolio.<o:p></o:p></div>
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So back to goals for 2016 and to close this belated New Year’s
update. I don’t really do the resolution
thing and never have. Goals are good,
but goal-setting should be part of one’s everyday lifestyle and personal growth
master plan. So should accountability,
whether it comes from a boss, spouse, Trainer, race deadline, or competition –
be sure to build some accountability and bench-markers into your
lifestyle. For me, my fitness goal is
still to be <i>fit</i> as possible, but now
it is more from a longevity and holistic-health perspective. Range-of-motion, mobility, and function have
to come first for me. Physique and
aesthetics are secondary. Actually I
guess this has always described my philosophy.
This means less bodybuilder style workouts and more intense cardio, and playing
the sports I love. Also more therapy
& recovery time and listening to what my body is telling me. Awareness, to get the jump on a potential
problem area, before it evolves into an injury.
And of course the ability to train with and around any injury. I have to devote much of my own workout time,
to train with my <a href="http://www.brycewettstein.com/" target="_blank">daughter</a>, for her sports.
So often times I train with her.
Cheers.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Above: Click for quick training video</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xnXKFO7mV_U/VsZG8i9DFNI/AAAAAAABJHs/_8zoYd3jbMY/s1600/Max%2Bsurfing%2Bwith%2BBryce.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xnXKFO7mV_U/VsZG8i9DFNI/AAAAAAABJHs/_8zoYd3jbMY/s400/Max%2Bsurfing%2Bwith%2BBryce.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coaching my daughter Bryce surfing...if you can call it that!</td></tr>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-21442747948178604762015-10-09T16:18:00.003-07:002015-10-14T13:20:39.693-07:00For the Ladies: Breast Cancer Awareness Month - October is PINK!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I know I mostly have a lot of male followers on my blog, as it tends to center around Men's health & fitness, but fellas, I have to give it up for the ladies during this pink month of October: It's <i style="font-weight: bold;">Breast Cancer Awareness Month!</i> And where would any of us be without those breasts and the life-giving colostrum and milk they provide us at birth?! It's hard to miss the pink everywhere this month, and it's not without good reason. Breast cancer affects almost every family I know at some point. Maybe it is the abundance of <b>estrogen</b> and estrogen-receptors within breast tissue, or maybe it is the large amount of breast adipose tissue itself, both which are thought to feed some cancers. I don't know for sure, but I do know that breasts in their natural God-given state, are beautiful, whether in a bikini, a jersey, or whether completely bare, feeding your newborn baby. I've witnessed all forms. Long live the boobie! - Did I just say that?<br />
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Below I have attached an informative, just-the-facts-you-need-to-know, bullet highlighted graphic that was personally sent to me by <b><i>BHG 360</i></b>, AKA, <b><i><a href="http://bankershealthcaregroup.com/blog/2015/10/a-patient-education-tool-for-breast-cancer-awareness-month/" target="_blank">Bankers Health Care Group</a></i></b>. It's a brilliant PSA. Please read it, copy and share it with the breasts you love, per <i>BHG 360's</i> wishes. The only agenda is to truly raise breast cancer awareness, succinctly and simply. Lastly I will share with you something very personal, that my wife is a cancer survivor (not breast). That is all! From <b><i><a href="https://bhg-inc.com/" target="_blank">Bankers Health Care Group</a></i></b>:<br />
<br />
<i> "It’s that pink time of the year again! October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the volume of stories and statistics about the disease that appear in the media this month. The news is filled with participants walking, running and sharing testimony to raise awareness and funds for both breast cancer research and patient care.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i> At the same time, practitioners of all specialties can take advantage of this increased awareness to educate patients about disease mechanisms and warning signs. This infographic below provides important facts, dispels a few myths and reminds your patients that early detection and better treatments do save lives. PLEASE!..Share it with your patients, clients and colleagues."</i><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-50069610357317611182015-08-01T13:39:00.002-07:002015-08-01T13:58:25.443-07:0010 Ways to Hack Your Fitness! (Maximize Your Exercise VALUE part 2)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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We used to call ‘em fitness <i>tips</i> but now the latest trend is to call
them fitness <i>hacks</i>, and I desire to
be a trend follower. I suppose there is
something more to a <i>hack</i>: If something is going to be a labeled a <i><u>hack</u></i> then it had better be some
sort of game-changing, time-saving short cut.
So significant in fact that it should almost feel like you’re
cheating. Well, I can’t promise you
anything quite that mind-blowing here, but I have compiled a pretty worthy list
of my favorite fitness hacks, which will definitely save you time and get you
results. While those who know me, know I
am an advocate of making fitness part of a holistic lifestyle, and that I am
not into trendy, fad diets or one-size-fits all approaches, there is nothing
wrong with optimizing or streamlining your training in order to <b><u>maximize exercise value</u></b>. Training smarter and not just harder, should
always be a welcome strategy. Of course
there really are no shortcuts or miracles, but there are some hacks. Some of them so simple they should be common
sense, while others hopefully are new ideas to you. In no particular order:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">1.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Train
using full-body, functional movements.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Skip the isolation exercises unless you’re rehabbing an injury or
bringing up a weak body part.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Isolation
exercises should be left to Bodybuilders, Physique athletes, and Fitness models,
who are paid to look perfect and symmetrical.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">While you no doubt want to look good, </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">your</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> primary goals should be mobility, health, longevity and
perhaps athletic performance.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Full-body,
functional exercises that synergistically involve multiple muscle groups
accomplish all these goals in the shortest amount of time.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Exercises like burpees, pull-ups, push-ups,
squats, lunges, planks and box-jumps.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">It’s amazing what a nice physique these movements will produce
inherently.</span></div>
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<b>2.</b> <b>Train at
high intensity most of the time.</b>
High intensity training, maximizes your exercise <u>value</u>, giving
you the most bang for your buck, in the least amount of time. It also triggers a lot of post-exercise,
metabolism-boosting, pro-hormone affects, lasting hours afterwards. You can increase your intensity level by:
reducing your rest duration between sets, using circuit-training principles
where you alternate antagonistic muscle groups, increase load, increase reps,
or any combination of the aforementioned.
If you desire to reach failure levels, then you must follow with a brief
resting interval, usually performed using a 1:3 working-to-resting interval
ratio, also known as <i>high intensity
interval training</i>, (HIIT).<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XesLOLg27II/Vb0tkCJ0EPI/AAAAAAABI_s/MHvt0jQXuPU/s1600/Max%2Bplank%2Bdumbbells.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-XesLOLg27II/Vb0tkCJ0EPI/AAAAAAABI_s/MHvt0jQXuPU/s400/Max%2Bplank%2Bdumbbells.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> </b><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WTxUXU1JYIQ/Vb0nROBioDI/AAAAAAABI-U/yEWJqC61c1o/s1600/HackYourFitness_Banniere.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WTxUXU1JYIQ/Vb0nROBioDI/AAAAAAABI-U/yEWJqC61c1o/s400/HackYourFitness_Banniere.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b> 3. Adopt an adaptable and flexible training mindset. </b>This open-minded mentality needs to reach
across all aspects of your training, because that is what uber-busy, successful
people do. – They always have a back-up
plan and can call the workout audible at a moment’s notice. Had a morning Yoga session planned but now
the surf is going off? Go surfing. Had a morning workout planned but now the
wife says you have to take the kids to school or the boss calls a meeting? Shift training to lunch or the after work. Had chest-day planned and all the bench-presses
are taken? Do dumbbell presses or
push-ups. Gym is closed? Train outdoors with just your
bodyweight. All this means you always
should have a set of workout clothes with you.
Keep them in your car or your office.
Opportunities abound to fit in random, bonus workouts, especially if
you’re a runner. The unexpected benefit
of this type of type of training mentality, is you never get stuck in a
plateau-inducing, complacent, routine rut.
Some call this the training principle of<i> Muscle confusion</i>.</div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> 4. Build accountability into your fitness.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Again another topic I covered before that is
absolutely critical to every successful training or weight-loss plan.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">There are many ways to create workout
accountability into your life.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The
number one way is to hire a Trainer.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Once you’re forking out money every month, you’re not going to waste it,
and that is what Trainer’s do best: Hold you accountable!</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Think about it – how much work would you get
done if you didn’t have a boss holding you accountable?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Other more simple ways are to buy a
home-scale and weigh yourself weekly if not daily to at least track trends
before they get out of hand.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">A more fun
way is to join a sport’s competition team or meet-up where you have teammates
counting on you to show up.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Another way
is to shamelessly declare you fitness goal on your social media feeds so all
5000 of your trolling ‘friends’ will be sure to offer their encouragement.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Enter a race perhaps?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">At the very least, schedule your workout into
your digital calendar the night before via your smart phone!</span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4fIo_2XSnvM/Vb0s9crjvVI/AAAAAAABI_U/VpBe7VwPyfs/s1600/fitbit%2Bbracelet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4fIo_2XSnvM/Vb0s9crjvVI/AAAAAAABI_U/VpBe7VwPyfs/s320/fitbit%2Bbracelet.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><b>5.</b></span><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><b style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Use supplements.</b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I am well aware, thanks to all my Encinitas’ hipster
friends, that nothing beats eating Organic, locally-sourced, sustainable,
non-GMO, unprocessed whole-foods, but for those </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">rare</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> occasions when we don’t have access to or time to prepare them,
supplements can conveniently fill in the gaps!</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I know the supplement industry can be shady, is unregulated, and costly,
but it is worthwhile to have some trusted brands of protein or MRP powders and
bars always on hand.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Ready-to-eat and no
refrigeration required, or they shake-up in seconds, either providing you
instantly the fuel you need to train, or the nutrients you need to
recover.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">What’s more, the top shelf brands
nowadays are so good, many of them are more nutrient dense than their
whole-food counter-part.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Plus, with a
trusted bar always on hand, you’re less likely to make a bad snack choice when
food options are limited.</span><br />
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<b>6. Maximize your daily fat-burning window by
performing Cardio in a fasting state, before breakfast.</b> If fat-burning or weight-loss is your primary
fitness goal, then know that the most ideal, naturally occurring window of
opportunity to maximize your chances is when you first wake up after fasting
all night – (because you were sleeping).
At this critical moment upon waking you are currently burning mostly
stored fat for fuel, your stomach is empty and your blood-sugar is
stabilized. The stage is now set to
access and burn <u>even more</u> stored fat by training aerobic-cardio while in
this fasting state. To mobilize and
access yet <i><u>even more</u></i> stored
fat, you can consume a serving of caffeine via black coffee, tea or a pre-workout
supplement. (Caffeine unlocks and
mobilizes fat-stores). <u>Note:</u> If
you are concerned about catabolizing muscle tissue for energy then you can also
consume either one scoop, (20 grams) of whey protein powder mixed with water,
or eat a teaspoon of coconut or MCT oil along with your black coffee or tea. The MCT (medium chained triglyceride) fat found
in coconut burns like a carbohydrate but without triggering insulin or
disturbing blood-sugar balance. To be
clear, if your primary training goal is athletic performance or building
muscle, then training before consuming a balanced breakfast may not be ideal,
as your energy levels will not be topped off.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b><span style="font-stretch: normal;"> 7. </span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Get smart with your Smart-Phone. Gadgets can be good. </b>Download a workout app. on your <i>smart</i> phone or wear a fitness bracelet
for immediate physiological feedback.<b> </b>Immediate performance and completion data
feedback, such as how many calories you’re burning, your heart rate, distance
traveled or elevation gained, is very rewarding and empowering. It can serve as a catalyst to propel you to
the next level or workout, track trends & progress, and serve as another
accountability tool. Fitness bracelets
and their associated downloadable smart phone apps do all this and more, plus
they can suggest workouts and provided detailed exercise guidance via photos
and videos. It’s like having your own
virtual Trainer everywhere you go and automatic updating workout log, only for
hardly any cost! I should know, I helped
create one<span style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nwI7_zwI0ds/Vb0raPfqIzI/AAAAAAABI-4/wXK7EakGXyE/s1600/My%2BHoist%2Bapp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-nwI7_zwI0ds/Vb0raPfqIzI/AAAAAAABI-4/wXK7EakGXyE/s320/My%2BHoist%2Bapp.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Download the 'My Hoist' app on i-Tunes & I will be your personal trainer!</td></tr>
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<b> 8. Multi-Task.
Let your A.D.D. diagnosis work for you.
</b>Need to make some phone calls?
Put on your blue-tooth headset and talk while you walk. Have to take your kids to their
practice? Train with them, or train
while they train. That’s what I do. Wife or girlfriend has you pinned down for a lunch
date? Take a rain-check on lunch and make
it a fitness date instead: Go for a run, hike or bike ride together. Listen, <i>Cosmo</i>
says if you agree to do a Yoga class with your chick, you will be her hero for
the week. Need to listen to some
podcasts or audio books for work research?
Again, put on your blue-tooth headset and listen <u>while</u> you
workout. Have a progressive, hipster
boss? See if he’ll invest in a treadmill
desk or standing desk for your office space – you’ll be less likely to fall
asleep without a chair and be twice as productive.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KwApJdDnfwk/Vb0rt639ezI/AAAAAAABI_A/rATKp8gCWA8/s1600/surfing%2Bwith%2Bgroms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KwApJdDnfwk/Vb0rt639ezI/AAAAAAABI_A/rATKp8gCWA8/s400/surfing%2Bwith%2Bgroms.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rad Dads! Fun, family fitness!</td></tr>
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<b><span style="font-stretch: normal;"> 9. </span><span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Make it FUN.</b> <u>Perhaps the biggest hack of all.</u> If you can find a way to make your workout
the highlight of your day – literally your dopamine-boosting <i>drug</i> of choice, you will then discover
that you miraculously possess endless amounts of energy to give to exercise. You won’t want to quit. The best way to do this to find a sport or
activity you love and then do it at all costs.
My wife and I are only half way joking when I say she thinks she’s a pro
beach volleyball player and I think I’m a pro surfer…at age 45! The fitness magic happens only once it
becomes literally addicting. Veteran
world class athletes call this feeling – this state of mind, <i>FLOW.</i></div>
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<b style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> 10. Use positive self-talk and affirmations
daily, or go get hypnotized. </b><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Instruct
yourself daily (without judgement) that you are </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“fit and strong”,</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> and that, you are </span><i style="text-indent: -0.25in;">“a powerful, fit warrior”</i><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">, or something to this effect. </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Repeat this out loud to yourself several times
daily.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If you have the motive and the
means, visit a sports psychologist, to experience the sincere power of
suggestion, (hypnosis), and learn about self-fulfilling prophecy, to instill
within you, that you are becoming the confident, fit, athlete you desire to
be.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">You think I’m kidding.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">I couldn’t be more serious.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">You also have to hack into your mind.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Ask yourself this: If you don’t believe in
yourself, then who will?</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Get radical
with your fitness and realize your full potential.</span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">The time is now.</span></div>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-79674327984441726952015-07-06T08:41:00.001-07:002015-07-08T16:04:22.220-07:00Mental Fitness: Meditation & Mindfulness - Why you have time to practice it daily and don’t even realize it!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Let me start by admitting that I suck at
meditating.</b> In fact so do most of my
colleagues and peers. Ask a working
father if he has time to meditate and most will simply laugh: <i>“Yeah
right, you mean sit around and do nothing for 30 minutes? - not a chance!” </i>And even those of us who are willing to
try often find that we are so busy, suffering from attention-deficit or obsessive-compulsion,
that we find it nearly impossible to not let our ‘to-do’ list creep into our
mind, that is supposed to be void of thoughts, or at least <i>witness to</i> our thoughts. Or,
we are so chronically sleep-deprived, we simply fall asleep 5 minutes into it. Did I mention that even finding a quiet space
to meditate in is often impossible? But
ironically, those of us who seemingly can’t find a spare second to meditate in
our hectic lives are usually the ones who could benefit from it most. Because <b><u>it
is proven that meditating even just 10 minutes a day can reduce anxiety, sharpen
focus, help control impulsiveness, plus a myriad of physical health
improvements.</u></b> This is even measurable
through brain imaging & MRI scans, and simple brain wave monitoring. Trust me, if there wasn’t tangible proof I
wouldn’t be getting involved with it.
I’m not into glib gurus. I’m into
results.</div>
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As you
may know, I am a big advocate of <i><u>holistic</u></i>
health. Yet, like most Trainers and
fitness enthusiasts I spend 90% of my effort and learning on the physical
component of fitness. Improving
lean-body mass and optimizing body composition.
Building muscle, burning fat, sculpting abdominals and strengthening the
core, and improving mobility and athletic performance. These are my go-to areas where I thrive, and
honestly it is what most of my clients are concerned about. <b>But <i>holistic</i> health inherently implies the
whole-body, <u>mind</u> and spirit</b>, so mental fitness is at least a third pillar
upholding ideal health. Ask any warrior,
professional athlete, Yogi, or Special Operations soldier and they will all
agree that <u>mental fitness is more like 80% of the success formula.</u> They will tell you with complete certainty
that training and preparing the <i>physical body</i>
for ‘battle’ is the easy part. Preparing
the mind for challenge, risk and adversity is where the real effort is
required. And as far as <i>Nature-versus-Nurture</i> is concerned, it
is our minds that can be <i>nurtured</i>, or
altered and improved the most through training, as there are less genetic
limitations. The mind is where our
greatest potential exists, virtually untapped by most of us. Many of us are born with an impressive level
of baseline motivation, resiliency, competitive-edge and focus capacity. But no matter where you think you’re at with
you mental game, the act of meditation will take you to the next level. A level you didn’t even know existed.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The 'Amygdala' is the also known as the mind's 'fear-center'. Meditating regularly can help quiet the Amydala from hi-jacking the more thoughtful Pre-Frontal Cortex.</td></tr>
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We athletes already have the precious<i>, present-moment,</i> state-of-mind wired,
because every time we are immersed into our game or sport we are <i>there</i>, <u>fully present</u> in this proverbial
place of true happiness, also known as <i>Flow</i>
in sports psychology. This is very similar
to the concept of <i>Mindfulness</i>
already. But while you may be fully
present, mindful and even meditative while in state of <i>flow,</i> meditating is also a distinct practice, or training exercise
for your brain that can be accomplished in many ways – so many that there is no
excuse for you not to find time to incorporate it into your daily fitness
regimen. Meditating doesn’t mean you
need to be sitting in a stagnant yoga pose for 2 hours, chanting an ancient, Hindu
mantra. You can practice it almost
anywhere I have learned, and there are even convenient and free smart-phone
apps to help get you started immediately upon download. There are even high-end video games you can
play on your iPad while wearing a headset that monitors your brain waves (EEG
headset), ensuring that you are in fact, in a state of meditation. If your brain’s electro-magnetic waves aren’t
ideal, you lose or crash. If your brain
waves are optimal, you win. Using
high-tech gadgets as tools to help you meditate may sound counter intuitive and
against what they taught you in Yoga class, but brain waves are brain waves,
and real-time neuro-feedback that you are there in the proper mental state to
alter your grey matter and shrink your Amygdala (fear-center), is helpful, if
not essential to some of us beginners, or to those athletes who are used to
competing in everything they do, or to many of us who have lived our entire
lives in the analytical realm of results-oriented assessment and tangible
feedback. When one is a beginner to
meditation, it is very hard to just sit there, in silence doing absolutely
nothing. Using an app or video game to
achieve the same meditational states can help us learn more quickly.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen Capture from one of Versus' virtual neuro-feedback iPad games, using a EEG headset - 'NeuroShapes' (Make them converge!)<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"> The purpose of this article is certainly not teach you how to meditate, as I am not qualified. It is simply to raise awareness that it is something you should look into further, and, to tell you that there is real neuro science backing the benefits of meditation. Also, I want you to know that while Yoga is amazing, as well as traditional, transcendental meditation practice, you do not need a guru to teach you, and you do not need to drop thousands of dollars on a fancy retreat to learn the basics. The fact of the matter is, you can begin meditating today – right now – by focusing on your breathe in a quiet place for 10 minutes, or by using an app on your phone, or by going for long, quiet, walk or run where you enter the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"><i>‘zone’ - </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; text-align: center;">or even playing a special video game that uses your brain-waves only, via a special EEG sensing headset. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"><b>If you’re suffering from bouts of rage, anxiety, panic attacks, addiction, obsessive compulsion, attention deficit disorder, or are very uncomfortable in social situations</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small; text-align: center;">, then you can benefit from meditation. But what’s more, research now shows us that even if you don’t have any problems or concerns holding you back, you can still use meditation to take your mental capacity to the next level. Most studies I read say it takes about 8 weeks of practice or 11 hours of meditating before actual physical changes start taking place in you grey matter – your brain. It took me about 20 sessions to finally get it: To finally feel like an outside observer of myself and witness to my thoughts.</span></div>
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In a nutshell, meditating quiets
the ‘fear-center’ of your brain. <b>The <i>fear-center
</i>of your brain known as the Amygdala, starts to shrink in the right
hemisphere, as well as the fear-based, fight-flight-or-freeze connections between your
Amygdala and your Pre-Frontal Cortex begin to weaken.</b> The primal, fight-or-flight response to stress
is down-regulated and replaced by higher order, more thoughtful response to
stress. The Amygdala no longer hi-jacks our
Pre-Frontal Cortex during stressful situations.
That’s the neuroscience. But the
time-tested cliché the gurus tell us, is that <b>through meditation we learn to separate ourselves from our
thoughts. Instead of judging them, we
become <i>“witness to them”</i>.</b> They say we can detach from our thoughts and
emotions and so that we don’t become so consumed by them and simply observe
neutrally, without any ego-bias. I’m not
there yet either folks, but again, the gurus say once you learn this, it is
very liberating. In fact the most
liberating experience you will ever have.
It is my understanding we will be less judgmental, experience less
anxiety, be able to focus longer, and will be able to let go of things we
cannot control more easily. So I’m
giving it a go. I am in week 8.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">In all my research for myself and
this article, I did realize something encouraging. That I was already experiencing
meditative-like mental states in various physical activities I had been doing
for quite some time. I knew I was very
good a focusing under stress. 20 plus
years of being a military and commercial pilot has sufficiently trained my
brain for this familiar situation.
Repeated exposure to your stressors is another path to conquer them and diffuse
fears and phobias from past traumatic experiences, but a lot more challenging. Pilot simulator training is a lot like the
new </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i>Versus</i></b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
performance brain-training video game I recently purchased. There are few times in life when I am more
mindful than when flying the airplane – but in aviation we always labeled this
as Situational Awareness. Also I
slackline about once a week and noticed the same type of clarity of mind that
comes with the present-moment focus required during balancing on the line and
this is also what once hopes to experience during meditation – clarity, calm
and quiet mind. I share this background,
because it brings me to my next point, which is that some of us are so busy,
almost franticly obsessive, or in a constant state of attention-deficit, (i.e.,
most working parents of young kids!), that asking us to sit down to quietly
meditate for 20 or even 10 minutes just is not going to happen.</span></div>
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Think of most of the self-proclaimed,
grounded gurus you know of, espousing the virtues of meditation and how it has
enlightened them. Do they have young
children running around with a spouse that also works full time? No, they don’t. Their life is typically a borderline selfish
one, with the luxury of pursuing self-mastery that allows them to focus on themselves
all day, every day. I am here to tell
you that there are other non-conventional ways to practice meditation that
still provide the same benefits. Many
times you can incorporate meditational moments into your solo workouts,
especially the longer endurance-type ones amongst nature. Start simply by becoming aware of your
breathing. If you practice Yoga, then
almost always at the end of class the instructor will allow for time to
meditate. But if all else fails, you can
begin by downloading an app. on your smart phone to be your catalyst. To save you time, <b><i>‘Head Space’</i></b> is the best
one, and millions of folks just like you are already benefiting from it. All you do is download it and hit open, with
some headphones on, alone. It takes 10
minutes and walks you through the exercise, step by step, until you learn how
to do it on your own.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i> Mindfulness</i>
is another easy way to get you headed in the right direction. Mindfulness is more like a chosen method of
life, where you simply try to become more aware, or mindful, of everything that
is going on around you and with you – without judging! That last part is where the challenge
lies. You accept and do not judge. Mindfulness is a useful tool when you happen
to be trying to lose weight as well. You
must be mindful of every food choice you make!
Mindfulness helps us be more compassionate as well, as we become more
aware of the people around us and what they are experiencing.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If no other tool is available to you, or you don't know how to meditate yet, 'Box Breathing', as shown here from CDR Mark Divine's Unbeatable Mind book, will give you a simple de-stressing/relaxtion exercise.</td></tr>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Well I hope you will now go on to
explore more about meditation, whether it is the traditional, transcendental
based form, or even trying it out with an app on your phone. I do know the time has to be right for you,
in order for you to be ready to try. I
will share with you that I basically ignored meditating as a daily beneficial
practice in the traditional sense, for the first 40 years of my life, even
though I was surrounded by people who used it to help them. It wasn’t until I started doing sports
psychology research for my daughter who competes at a very high level that I discovered
how many professional athletes were using meditation of some form or another
every day to take their mental game to the next level. The same was true of Navy SEALs and other
warriors – they all meditate to some capacity.
Their results back it and the science does as well, via MRI scans
revealing changes in the brain. Lastly,
I will leave you with a few other leads to explore here in San Diego. Right here in North County’s Encinitas is
based former Navy SEAL, CDR Mark Divine who runs </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">SEALFIT</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> and </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">US CrossFit</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">. He is also the author of </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;"><i><u>Unbeatable Mind</u></i></b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">. His book taught me a lot about mental
resiliency and his facility offers daily warrior yoga sessions, meditation,
CrossFit workouts and life-changing camps.
You should check it out if you are ready for a change and want to tap
into your mind’s unlimited potential.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4vE0On3g1I/VZqb1QZbheI/AAAAAAABI5I/U47GT0RO8Yo/s1600/File%2BJun%2B22%252C%2B4%2B49%2B19%2BPM.png.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="400" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-i4vE0On3g1I/VZqb1QZbheI/AAAAAAABI5I/U47GT0RO8Yo/s400/File%2BJun%2B22%252C%2B4%2B49%2B19%2BPM.png.jpg" title="Unbeatable Mind by Mark Divine" width="260" /></a></div>
Looking for something a little more traditional and a little less
testosterone? North County has you
covered there too: Deepak Chopra’s
center is located right at the La Costa resort & spa which offers a weekend
crash course in meditation. Encinitas
also is home to the Self Realization Fellowship temple located at our famous <i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Swamis</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> name-sake surf break! What are you waiting for grasshopper?!</span><br />
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Perhaps you're not ready for all this yet. You have to be 'ready' and intellectually mature enough to realize there is something to all this. Nobody, not even myself can tell you what is best for your mental training and performance, but trust me, you will KNOW when you are ready, and need something next-level to help you master life or at least calm down enough to focus and not become a worry wart. Next chapter in Mental Fitness and training your mind-muscle, I will look at positive self-talk, visualization, the importance of time off and sleep, and hypnosis (the power of suggestion).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The HeadSpace App is FREE and is so simple to use, only 10 minutes a day, yet a life-changer. Available on iPhone and Android!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">With the VERSUS EEG Headset you play virtual games using only your brain waves, requiring the restless athlete to focus and calm down or they will lose the game! For the beginner and athlete alike, the real time neuro feedback the game provides will keep you engaged and feeling productive. This brain-game could literally be a game-changer!<br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-76664034109513281092015-06-16T13:38:00.001-07:002015-08-04T15:15:43.837-07:00Father's Day Fitness for us Domesticated Dads!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Being a father now-a-days is more
fulfilling and rewarding, <u>yet busier</u> than ever. <b>I am
not trying to sound like a <i>masculinist</i>,
but there is sort of a double standard set upon on us present-day fathers</b>,
not only by our nurturing wives and baby-Mommas, but by society in
general. At least here in San Diego’s
progressive society. Think about what is
expected of <i>you</i> as a husband and father,
and what is put on your plate daily.
Most of us are working full time, and the minute we clock out, we
immediately are taking over duties as primary parent, if not volunteering at
their schools, or assisting as coaches, helping with homework, not to mention grinding
through at least half the load of household chores. <i>‘Stay-at-home-Mom’</i>
– what’s that? Many of us have a
(equally busy) wife who also works at least part time, just to be able to
afford to live in beautiful San Diego and provide our families the lifestyle it
offers. What’s more, no San Diego mom I
know of is willing to be content just tending to the home and kids. Mothers these days have yoga classes,
extensive social groups, hobbies, and a serious list of personal goals! <b>We
Dads pick up the domestic slack by donning every <i>hat</i> in the household often with zero appreciation in return because
it is what is expected of us.</b> It’s
considered our duty and even a privilege.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Don’t misunderstand me. There are few things as rewarding in life as
spending quality time with our children, and most of us desire to be more
involved and hands-on, if given a choice.
But all this means time for Dad is pushed to the bottom of the <i>honey-do</i> list and is often considered
low priority by spouses and bosses alike.
Just finding time to go for a run, or go to the gym can not only be near
impossible, but can be <u>wrongfully</u> perceived as selfish, or putting
ourselves before our family. Any opportunity
for continued personal growth and self-mastery? – Well sorry, but that is a
luxury that we left behind the moment we had to put together the crib for baby
#1. Or so it might seem.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The truth is, while you might have
to pause for a decade or so at becoming an expert at mastering <i>you</i>, nothing makes us grow and mature
more than fatherhood. Perhaps there is
no greater opportunity to love another human being, more than fatherhood. If you are blessed with children, know that the
collective experience of raising a family leaves us wiser and more evolved
during life’s journey. <b>Leading a family and household is as great
a challenge as any corporate C.E.O. will face, and what used to be the sole <i>home-making</i> domain of the mother is now
equally shared with us fathers. Like it
or not, we have become fully domesticated.</b>
But back to finding time to still workout…</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r3urnx_YBKA/UJ1Q5uwcGgI/AAAAAAAACXs/c4Xj6cyAS2w/s1600/family%2Bsunset%2B2%2Bwebsite.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="315" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r3urnx_YBKA/UJ1Q5uwcGgI/AAAAAAAACXs/c4Xj6cyAS2w/s400/family%2Bsunset%2B2%2Bwebsite.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Max with daughters Bryce Ava and Summer, Honolua Bay, Maui, October 2013.</td></tr>
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You are not selfish for taking some
time each day to workout. <u>It is
humanistic to be better for everyone else in your life, if you fix yourself
first.</u> If you take some personal
time each day for your holistic fitness whether it be meditation, yoga, a run,
a gym workout, or a surf, you will be so much better prepared and grounded to
handle whatever challenges pop up the rest of your day, both personal and
professional. You won’t resent your
family for sucking up all your time. You
will be able to clear your head and vent off a lot of stress rather than
possibly projecting it on to your kids or your dog. Your patience threshold will expand, allowing
you to better handle all the stress the rest of your family members unload on
you. Fight for that precious time to get
your workout in and be all about you – even it is only for 30 minutes a
day. We make this happen by opening our
calendar the night before and scheduling it for all other family members to
witness and agree to. If you get your
workout into the family master-calendar of events, it will happen! Another way, is to join a fitness group or
sports’ team, where the entire group is counting on you to show up. Accountability is priceless, and perhaps your
wife will be more on board if she knows your buddies need you to participate.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Double duty Dad, Always!..there's a baby in there!</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rbQYbdM8iUY/Tw85DXm4y0I/AAAAAAAABTs/g2kJS2vvEyc/s1600/288713_10150466737788362_686288361_11038567_1947693717_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rbQYbdM8iUY/Tw85DXm4y0I/AAAAAAAABTs/g2kJS2vvEyc/s400/288713_10150466737788362_686288361_11038567_1947693717_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WSA surf contest, grom push-in division, Circa 2011</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> There are many opportunities to fit
in fitness with your children as well.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">While not the same as being able to have that essential, critical, solo
time, exercising with your family can be equally as rewarding and of course
doubly productive.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">When we are being
active </span><i style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">with </i><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">our kids it is a win-win
for all.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Many fathers put on their
coaching hats and get involved that way.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Others just train with their kids – that’s what I do.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">It is a different kind of intensity for sure,
but still challenging.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Because at a
certain point in the adult vs. youth athletic performance graph, your kid
starts to take you down in certain areas of skill and/or fitness.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Age and time are always working in their
favor, which seems unfair, but since it is your own kid beating you, in a way
that is not such a bad thing.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">In fact
eventually, your kid can serve to motivate you as roles reverse and you try to
keep up with them.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Not there yet with
your kid?</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">Give it a few years.</span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-align: left; text-indent: 0.5in;">It goes by quick, so as tired and under-appreciated
as you may feel as your family’s fearless leader, try and enjoy every moment!</span></div>
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<b> <u>The key is to keep it fun.</u></b>
This is so important. Not trying
to preach, but <b>if your kid begins to
feel too much pressure or expectation from you to perform, they may just start
avoiding workouts with dear old Dad.</b>
There’s nothing wrong with a little coaching from Dad but when it comes
down to it with kids and sports, <b><u>at
the end of the day, they just want to feel unconditional love from their
father.</u></b> <i>Walking your (coaching) talk</i> and setting a good athletic example is
not such a bad idea either, so take care of yourself, and stay in the ‘game’
when possible, not just on the sidelines!
Your own game-of-fitness that is – otherwise your kid’s real coach may
ban you from attending.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1cVYGAD6YC8/Tw85MHi9MeI/AAAAAAAABT8/2zwxapR8tiI/s1600/308607_10150333048042563_602917562_8267823_1961161317_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1cVYGAD6YC8/Tw85MHi9MeI/AAAAAAAABT8/2zwxapR8tiI/s400/308607_10150333048042563_602917562_8267823_1961161317_n.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There is a fine line between donning your coaching hat and just being a supportive father, full of unconditional love. We all must experience this journey ourselves - nobody can tell us what is the best way. Circa 2011 Vans Combi Pool Classic.</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJ5nagS1hSk/Tw85PQemkXI/AAAAAAAABUE/t5SX78Hz08E/s1600/334059_10150417605743362_686288361_10712947_2494670_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="377" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pJ5nagS1hSk/Tw85PQemkXI/AAAAAAAABUE/t5SX78Hz08E/s400/334059_10150417605743362_686288361_10712947_2494670_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dad Max & Eldest Daughter, Bryce Ava, circa 2011 - To this day we both find great joy in skating and surfing together. It is something very special between us. Especially now that I have learned to be 'coach' only when she asks me to.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M4vfAfxue6k/VYCEnCTOqbI/AAAAAAABI2Q/X0hG-POUbuA/s1600/backyard%2Bbest%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="460" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M4vfAfxue6k/VYCEnCTOqbI/AAAAAAABI2Q/X0hG-POUbuA/s640/backyard%2Bbest%2B1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Above photo, Backyard family fitness fun with youngest daughter Summer Brynn, 2014.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QxpyU7HoZrg/VYCHCO35ozI/AAAAAAABI2c/3VaEiqjG35g/s1600/Spring%2BBreak%2Bfamily%2Bgopro.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QxpyU7HoZrg/VYCHCO35ozI/AAAAAAABI2c/3VaEiqjG35g/s640/Spring%2BBreak%2Bfamily%2Bgopro.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
Skiing with the family during Spring Break 2015, Mammoth Mountain<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQTPByvA6Go/VYCHV2zAMWI/AAAAAAABI2k/5Yi-9cODcS0/s1600/Greens%2BPlus%2Bcoupon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SQTPByvA6Go/VYCHV2zAMWI/AAAAAAABI2k/5Yi-9cODcS0/s640/Greens%2BPlus%2Bcoupon.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
My protein bar sponsor, Greens Plus, with a discount for Dad's Day! <a href="http://www.greensplus.com/">www.greensplus.com</a><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-77293494407321509262015-05-26T16:19:00.002-07:002015-05-26T20:05:45.108-07:00San Diego's 4L Magazine Celebrates it's 2 Year Anniversary!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
As many of you know I am the resident fitness contributor/writer for <b>San Diego's Four EL magazine</b> - A men's lifestyle and fitness magazine based here in San Diego that celebrates San Diego culture. From LOCAL brews, bands, bars, beaches, babes, ball teams, etc. - you name it and the magazine covers it. Rich in original, organic, relevant content for sure - I can personally say I know all the writers and the staff well. There is no fluff, filler, or recycled material. And not too many ads either, though I can't say the editors don't want more ad space filled:) We're all in it out of a passion for San Diego and to promote the magazine's 4 ideals:<br />
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<i><b>Live, Love, Laugh and Learn.</b></i> <i>("For the evolved man")</i><br />
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I am very proud to say that I have been on board this magazine from ground zero, when my friend Steve Kang invited me to write all about fitness and holistic health. I was all in and still am. So we all got together and celebrated the mag's 2 year anniversary the other night downtown, with the live music from Palace Ballroom - another local SD favorite!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">with 4L co-founder and Director of Ad Sales, Steve Kang and staff writerJason Stewart at the 2 year party!<br />
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The magazine is still free and available all over San Diego county, sure to be at your favorite hang out, but for those of you who live outside of San Diego, or prefer to save paper and go digital, the magazine is free on the ISSUU app at: <a href="http://issuu.com/4lmag">http://issuu.com/4lmag</a><br />
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...and my digital library is avail on the magazine's own website too at: <a href="http://4lmagazine.com/category/health/">http://4lmagazine.com/category/health/</a><br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-36348060938731722192015-04-22T13:02:00.001-07:002015-05-12T08:36:17.449-07:00"6-Pack Abs: The International Benchmark of a Fit Physique" - Max Wettstein <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Highly sought after for purely
vanity reasons by many of us, but that’s okay.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to rock a nice 6-pack at the beach. In fact, that is what I get asked about most –
“How can I get abs?” or, “How can I lose this belly fat?” Well I am putting together a list of tips for
you right here – simple concepts that most Trainers will bury in a 300 page
book or DVD series and then sell it to you.
I should know, because I too have shamelessly done both of these:
Written books on how to get “Amazing Abs”, and even produced a DVD on the
subject (Now published free on <i>Youtube</i>). This is because through the fortunate
combination of genetics, lifestyle, timing, location and desire, I was able to
become <i><u>Men’s Health</u></i> magazine’s
primary abs model for a period of about 4 years from 2005 to 2009, appearing on
over 10 of their magazine and book covers.
Yes, <i>that</i> <i><u>Men’s Health</u></i> magazine.
So of course after, that I instantly felt qualified to write a book and
produce a DVD on the subject.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Seriously though, my
genetic-fortune aside, after 15 years of being a professional fitness model I
did manage to learn a few things about attaining and maintaining lean abs and a
strong core, even if only through repeated trial and error of applied Bodybuilder
</span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Bro-Science</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">I was
my own physiological, guinea pig, and having shredded, cover-ready abs was
literally my bankable brand.</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">While it’s
true that </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">bodybuilding</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> and its
commercial spawn of </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">fitness modeling</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
is highly vain, there is one fact that is undeniable:</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">We know how to get ripped!</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">In fact I would argue that </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">no other ‘athlete’ genre knows how to get
as lean as the professional <i>fitness model</i>.</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Why?</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">-
Because the fitness model has the luxury of training for </span><u style="text-indent: 0.5in;">appearance</u><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
first and athletic-performance second, which I do not advocate unless you are
getting paid for your looks.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Otherwise,
I believe we should all train for optimum function, mobility and health, first
and foremost.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uxqCexTW8m4/VTf24UidZuI/AAAAAAABIb0/GFWXtrFWaxM/s1600/Men's%2BHealth%2BUK%2Bcover%2BJul%2B05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uxqCexTW8m4/VTf24UidZuI/AAAAAAABIb0/GFWXtrFWaxM/s1600/Men's%2BHealth%2BUK%2Bcover%2BJul%2B05.jpg" width="244" /></a>Before I get to the coveted,
insider knowledge you are awaiting, there’s one last caveat I need to
emphasize. <b>As much as the weight-loss industry doesn’t want you to know it, <u>genetics
indeed play a significant role in being able to attain lean abs</u> as well as
how they are shaped and proportioned.</b>
The weight-loss industry is a billion dollar, never ending revenue
source, so why would <i>they </i>ever credit
anything to genetics? And since we have
absolutely zero control over our genetics, we may as well not worry about them
and simply focus on the lifestyle factors we can impact. I can’t quote actual statistics here, but our
genetic code plays a role in everything about us, including our body
composition, our metabolism, our muscle shape and proportion, as well as bone
structure and skeletal ratio. That can
be a lot to try and alter through training, diet and other lifestyle factors. My point is, we all have the ability to get
lean enough to reveal our 6-Pack (Rectus) Abs, but we can’t change their shape
or symmetry, or the gap (Linea Alba) that runs between them. Not all of us have the genetic potential to unveil
an ‘8-Pack’ because for most of us, that rare, last row of abs are forever sealed
under a layer of core-strengthening, muscle-encapsulating, fascia tissue. Not all of us will have the extra top row of ‘abs’
which are really our <i>Intercostals</i>. Some of us have a natural genetic homeostasis
set-point of 6% body fat levels without much effort, while others of us seem to
hover round 12% body fat, all else being equal. Age is also another factor that works against
us. But there is a lot we can do, all
while strengthening our core and improving our health and longevity – imagine that!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>You cannot
spot-reduce body fat:</b> On average,
you must reduce your overall body fat percentage to below 8% to reveal your
6-Pack Abs, also known as the Rectus-Abs.
The ideal way (healthiest way), to reduce your body fat levels is
through a combination of consistent exercise to include both strength &
cardio, and clean-eating, to create a small calorie-deficit each day while
optimizing your metabolism.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Include <u>High-Intensity workouts</u> at
least 3 times per week: </b>High-Intensity
exercise where you are literally reaching some sort of physiological failure,
either aerobically or anaerobically, or both, triggers a cascade of
metabolism-boosting, hormone-optimizing, blood-sugar-dysfunction-fixing magic
that takes too long to explain here but which I covered in detail last post. Health experts now agree that consistent
exercise is great, but that incorporating some high-intensity workouts is even
better. <i>If you start training with high-intensity on a regular basis, I promise
you that your body composition will start noticeably transforming within a
matter of weeks.</i> Aim for 20 minutes
of very high-intensity levels (after warming up) 3 times a week, along with
your other workouts. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>If you’re over age 40, swap out your twenty-year-old
trainer, for and old guy: </b>While
accountability is key to workout consistency and success, and all Trainers can
provide that service, age awareness matters greatly. The young Trainer, though he has good
intentions, has never experienced your old-guy physiology and fading hormones,
(also known as Andro-pause). Or your normal
age-related aches and pains for that matter.
Find a Trainer or a like-minded buddy about your age that is literally
in the shape you want to be in, and hire him or ask to workout with him. They will understand you and your physiology
much better, your recovery time, and provide the training and nutrition advice
appropriate for you. If you are over age
40, it is time to transition to the holistic-health and longevity approach and
let the <i>get-huge, meathead</i> mindset
finally die.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Limit sugar. Sugar is lurking all around you: “</b>Sugar, glucose, fructose, corn syrup,
natural-sugar, organic sugar, cain-sugar, dextrose, soda, juice,
high-fructose-corn-syrup”…It is ALL SUGAR, don’t be fooled by the fancy
names. One form is really no better, or
worse, than the other. They all trigger
insulin. Therein lies the problem. It’s not that sugar is evil or that insulin
is a villain - <u>if</u> you are active and only eat it in moderation. But if you work a sedentary job, are already
over weight or age 40 or older, than you need to closely monitor your sugar
intake and eat it strategically, or at least with constant awareness. If you are going to eat a high carbohydrate
or sugary meal, it is best to do it right after you work out during the
post-exercise recovery and uptake window.
Sugar seems to turbo-charge the internal belly-fat storage process, and
causes the liver to work harder, and increases risk of insulin-resistance and
systemic inflammation. All these are collectively
known as creating metabolic dysfunction and an apple-shape abdomen, marketed in
the weight-loss industry as Syndrome-X or Metabolic-Syndrome.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Get a good night of sleep: </b>Sleep is the
foundation of a healthy lifestyle and to optimizing your metabolism. Nothing fixes your metabolism like a sound
night of sleep. It is also by design, a
natural fat-burning opportunity and a chance for all your hormones to
reset. This is also when you get your
largest daily dose of Growth Hormone – the most powerful lean-body, restorative
hormone we produce.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Use caffeine strategically and in
moderation:</b> Caffeine is one of nature’s most powerful body-fat mobilizers allowing us to burn more stored
body fat during our workouts, or during intermittent-fasting, by unlocking
stored fat and dumping it also from the liver.
Until it becomes abused. Then too
much caffeine serves to unnecessarily elevate your Cortisol levels all day,
(the ‘fight-or-flight stress hormone), which also is linked to turbo-charging
internal belly fat storage on the Omentum.
So consume your caffeine strategically, like right before your workout,
especially empty-stomach cardio, to maximize fat-burning and workout
focus-factor. Cortisol actually helps
you workout with more intensity and it balances melatonin to naturally wake us
up every morning. However, lay-off the
caffeine within 5 hours of your bed time, because if it interferes with your
sleep quality than you’ve just offset any benefit.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5XBXujsbAsc/VTf3ztIJyqI/AAAAAAABIcA/NvTq0WWX6os/s1600/Ab%2BAwareness%2Bvacuum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: left;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-5XBXujsbAsc/VTf3ztIJyqI/AAAAAAABIcA/NvTq0WWX6os/s1600/Ab%2BAwareness%2Bvacuum.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Transverse Abdominus pulls the belly IN!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>There is more to attaining amazing Abs than
the 6-Pack: </b>The ‘six-pack’ or <i>Rectus
Abs</i> get all the credit and attention, but it is the <i><u>Transversus Abs</u></i><u> underneath them that cause a flat belly
and tight waist by pulling in the entire abdomen like a corset.</u> The abs are also framed by the <i>obliques</i> which get little love even
though they are more commonly known as <i>love
handles.</i> The best way to exercise
the <i>Transversus Abdominus</i> and
therefore train for a flatter stomach, is by planking. <b>The
plank exercise</b>, and all its variations to include push-ups target the <i>Transversus Abdominus</i>. Unlike most muscle-groups, the collective abs
are almost all slow-twitch, type-1 muscle fibers. You can train them or at least isometrically
flex them every day, to maximize tone and buffness.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1iLwiABOhA/VTf7izMz6BI/AAAAAAABIdM/peGTB3eK9D8/s1600/bridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-N1iLwiABOhA/VTf7izMz6BI/AAAAAAABIdM/peGTB3eK9D8/s1600/bridge.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Plank!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoIx746J93I/VTf4ET1HnJI/AAAAAAABIcI/7g_z3Zw7rgM/s1600/Rectus%2BAbdominus%2B2.bmp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><img border="0" height="263" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uoIx746J93I/VTf4ET1HnJI/AAAAAAABIcI/7g_z3Zw7rgM/s1600/Rectus%2BAbdominus%2B2.bmp" width="320" /></a><br />
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Final Presentation:</b> You need to properly present your abs by not
wearing your board-shorts too high. If
you wear them too high – above where your obliques taper in – you will give
yourself the appearance of a wider, blocky, waist and shorter torso. Your board-shorts should sit on your hips to
maximize a long, torso-tapering appearance.
This does not mean go full gangster, saggy drawers’ style. Just say “no to crack!” – the quickest way to
repel all potential beach babes. Butt
crack is wack. Some <u>man-scaping</u>
may be necessary depending on how low your board-shorts are sitting. Again, nobody really needs to see the jungle
of growth that might be going on down south bro. A tan to set it all off, really completes
your entire beach, board-shorts presentation.
And when in doubt, just add in a subtle bit of isometric flexion to make
your abs pop a bit. Don’t go full-flex
or you will just look like a meat-head or like you have gas!<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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I actually have about 10 more tips so hit me up
online if you want some more insider advice, from a self-proclaimed expert like
myself. I have easily invested about 12
years of my life learning how to attain, maintain and present amazing, strong
abs and core, and have been published dozens of time on this very subject matter. And please remember that
as vain and shallow as this article sounds, your core is involved in every
movement you make and is where your center-of-gravity is located. By training your abs to look good you will
simultaneously, inherently be strengthening them and allowing your core to
function at its optimum. Lastly, once you
get your swimsuit abs dialed in, as tempted as you might be to share your
results, please avoid the weird bathroom selfie. Again, the quickest way to repel any
potential babes. Trust me, my newsfeed
is full of ab-aficionado, selfies. While
I’m proud to have inspired all of these guys, I just can’t seem to hide them
fast enough.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lszKSFtWw0o/VTf68SzeMNI/AAAAAAABIck/xUoNQaaOLd8/s1600/Max%2Btailgate%2B2%2Bedit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="308" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lszKSFtWw0o/VTf68SzeMNI/AAAAAAABIck/xUoNQaaOLd8/s1600/Max%2Btailgate%2B2%2Bedit.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Don't wear your board-shorts too high!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PlbFSlcase4/VTf69Mgf9WI/AAAAAAABIcs/pIv1XNcC8do/s1600/ab%2Bwork%2Bcore%2Benergy%2Bfitness.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="382" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-PlbFSlcase4/VTf69Mgf9WI/AAAAAAABIcs/pIv1XNcC8do/s1600/ab%2Bwork%2Bcore%2Benergy%2Bfitness.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">There are countless ways to step-up your PLANK!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CpZXB1JquR0/VTf61dZaFMI/AAAAAAABIcc/VT3ZjCXmf-M/s1600/Ab%2BCarver%2BPro%2Bedit%2Bbest.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="392" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CpZXB1JquR0/VTf61dZaFMI/AAAAAAABIcc/VT3ZjCXmf-M/s1600/Ab%2BCarver%2BPro%2Bedit%2Bbest.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fitness Models get PAID to be lean and train for appearance and leanness above all else! But for the rest of us, function should always trump aesthetics, though they usually are synergistic:)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
**Bonus belly fat burning/cortisol receptor blocking supplement tip:<br />
1. '7-Keto' DHEA<br />
2. Lots of vitamin C!<br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-61248638984069977842015-03-18T14:13:00.001-07:002015-04-01T14:06:17.633-07:00Maximizing Your Exercise Value – Fitness is Now a Sport.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><b>Q: </b>Is it possible to get uber fit exercising only 20 minutes a day?</i></div>
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<b><i>A: </i></b><i>No.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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However, 20 minutes a day is certainly
better than nothing, and it might be just enough activity to maintain your health
and improve longevity. As a society we
seem busier than ever, but we’re also getting way smarter about how to train, and
weve finally realized just how darn important consistent exercise is. In fact exercise is critical to our health,
on par with nutrition and 2<sup>nd</sup> only to sleeping well. People who exercise consistently, live longer
than those who don’t, given all else being equal. Only your genetics play a greater role in life
span. <b>We now know that some of that time spent exercising ideally needs to
push into (relatively) higher intensity levels.</b> But just how intense do we need to go? Is there an intensity or volume threshold to
where there is no more benefit? The key
for all of us busy folks, is to find the sweet spot where training time intersects
with intensity level, which triggers the most benefit. I call this <b>maximizing your <i>exercise value</i></b>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s a certain niche of <i>neo-athletes</i> that have embraced training
so much that they've declared “fitness to be its own sport”, never mind a
lifestyle. A sub-culture of every day
citizens who walk among us that have discovered their inner athlete and have
taken training to a whole other level. I’m
not talking about bodybuilders or triathletes here – that’s old school. I’m talking about well-rounded fitness aficionados
that desire to be total athletes by combining full-body-functional, cardio and
strength exercises. I’m talking about
the present day Boot-camper, SEAL-Fitter, CrossFitter, Tough-Mudder, Spartan genre
who whole-heartedly decided that just because they have families and careers,
doesn't mean they can’t be uber athletes too.
They've revealed their inner-warrior and when you see them training
together, feeding off each other, you get a sense there’s something special
going on there, almost like a religion, or a tribe of warriors. - Some kind of competitive, comradery dynamic,
testing themselves with exciting, yet effective exercises, that arouses your
curiosity. There’s a synergistic magic
happening there in part from the group dynamic.
Maybe I’m describing one of your close friends or even you. There’s a reason why these folks are
experiencing these powerful physical and mental transformations no matter what
their age is, in a relatively short amount of time. They've found out how to maximize their
exercise value in a competition based, group dynamic that comes with its own
band of brothers for support. They
become training addicts…and it’s not the mirror they’re addicted to. You watch these guys and it almost feels as
if they've never had so much fun being tortured. They have even created niche competitions to
help motivate them to take their training goals to the next level and they have
indeed declared that fitness in and of itself, can stand alone as its own
sport.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Even if this genre of group
training is not for you – perhaps you’re more of the solo type - we can all benefit
from many effective training principles they have sifted out for all of us. They might not have invented high-intensity
training in the traditional sense, but these neo uber-athletes have embraced it
and put it to the test like no other generation before us. Their results have spoken loudly. <b>I
invite you to stay with me a bit longer to learn about some of these high
intensity training principles, how they came about, how to employ them, and why
they are key to maximizing your exercise value.</b> But first we need to travel back in time a
bit, to the days of <i>zone</i> training…<o:p></o:p></div>
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Remember a little over a decade
ago, when fat-burning-<i>zone</i> training
was the latest and greatest trend, as the best method to get lean? It was basically endurance-type training,
where you purposely stayed in an <i>aerobic-</i>cardio
zone in attempt to access stored fat as the primary fuel, and the longer and
slower the better. I remember, everybody
was training with a heart rate monitor to ensure they were training in the
correct ‘zone’, in this case the aerobic/fat-burning zone, so no matter what
folks didn’t want to exceed 80% of their maximum heart rate – because that is
where, in theory at least, you might cross over into the <i>anaerobic</i> zone - oh my! It
was like everybody was training to become a triathlete or marathoner, one-size-fits-all
approach, with all these long zone workouts they were slogging through. Looking back now, we’ve pretty much all
switched our training (heart rate) ‘zones’ 180 degrees. And for good reason: We placed the emphasis on <b>exercise</b> <b><i><u>value</u></i> – none of us had
that many hours in the week available to train!</b> These days we demand the most<b> bang for our buck because we are busy…uber
busy! </b>And we want to be strong. We want to be able to hoist barbells above
our heads, and swing kettlebells and do muscle-ups or at least real SEAL style
pull-ups. And we no longer want to look
like skinny, frail marathoners. Skinny implies
weak. <b>We want our physiques to look like men of lore – like Spartans, and
Navy SEALS. We want our bodies to
perform like MMA warriors who can defend ourselves and protect our families –
high functioning, quick and powerful.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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Yes, those were some ridiculous
times, a 15 years or so ago – suffering through all that long, slow, boring
aerobic-cardio training to try and single out fat for fuel – which is nearly impossible
to do, unless in <i>ketosis. </i>The irony being, we may have been getting
leaner but we were also simultaneously catabolizing a heck of a lot of precious
muscle!<i>
Zone-training</i> just to get lean, is almost as silly as back in the
80s when we thought we could eat all of the carbohydrates we wanted as long as
we avoided fat. We just didn’t have a
grasp on the powerful role of the insulin shuttle-hormone back in the 80s,
until Dr. Atkins came along and shifted the carbohydrate/insulin paradigm and shed
a new light on carbs’ role in gaining fat.
Of course he unnecessarily villainized them. Now we’re much smarter. We’ve realized we need to do just the
opposite and train at very high intensity levels – uber high intensity levels –
if we want to get uber fit and lean, while protecting and even building
additional muscle mass. And what’s more,
at such extreme intensity levels, we don’t need to train for nearly as long,
thus <b>maximizing our exercise <u>value</u>. </b>For sure slow, endurance training has its
place if you’re an endurance athlete, obviously. But if you’re a working man, husband and
father, who barely has time to eat breakfast, then you are truly able to
benefit from today’s shorter, higher intensity workouts. Classic, vetted examples of these type of
workouts are, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), Boot-Camp, Navy SEAL-inspired
training, CrossFit, and P90X.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">It was around the year 2000 or so
that we started seeing </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">boot camp</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> and
SEAL inspired workouts becoming more popular, as well as studio spin
classes.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">This was the beginning of the
high-intensity training revolution.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Shortly after came </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">CrossFit</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">,
then </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Beachbody’s</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">P90X by Tony Horton</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Also
during this time, generic </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">High-Intensity
Interval Training</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> was being employed by many Personal Trainers as well as
phsyique athletes and fitness models desiring to get ultra-lean while avoiding
the risk of muscle catabolization associated with longer cardio workouts.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Workouts such as hill running intervals,
sprint intervals, plyometrics, stair-running, etc., that had a working interval
followed by a resting interval, usually in a 1:3 ratio of working to resting
time respectively.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The ideology being
that you were working up to </span><u style="text-indent: 0.5in;">maximum</u><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> effort and even failure during the
working interval, and thus had to have a recovery interval immediately following.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">In fact that is the </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">key common principle in all high-intensity workouts: They require that you push to maximum effort
and hit failure, </b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">(either aerobic or anaerobic, or both) – that is where
their physiological, physique transforming magic happens, and that is where they
earn their effectiveness that allows them to be so much shorter in
duration.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Because when you hit physical
failure, (typically associated with heavy breathing, lactic acid-accumulation-burning
and/or ATP depletion), repeatedly in a short time period – a lot of neat stuff
starts to happen within your muscles and entire body – results start to
happen!</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Growth Hormone secretes,
testosterone levels rise, insulin sensitivity improves, glucose-tolerance
improves, your liver dumps glycogen and fatty acid stores, micro-trauma occurs
in the muscle fibers triggering anabolic repair and growth, and you get
completely depleted – an amazing feeling.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">
</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">So much so, that your resting-metabolism becomes elevated for several
hours after the workout is over and any food you eat post-workout gets sucked
up for recovery, repair and stored as intra-muscle glycogen and not as fat.</span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">This
extended recovery period is known as EPOC or, <i>Excess Post-exercise Oxygen Consumption</i>.</b></div>
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But here’s the final, gleaming
nugget of truth I’m trying to leave you with regarding exercise value, and just
how precisely short of duration can be effective, regardless of how intense you
think you can push yourself. There’s
this notion that if you go intense enough you can see results in just 20
minutes. But there are some caveats that
go along with that ideology. First off,
you have to already be in a reasonable state of health and fairly fit to begin
with to train at very high intensity levels, and you should begin in the
presence of a Trainer and wear a heart rate monitor. Secondly, the 20 minutes often claimed by
some of the WODs (workout-of-the-day), typically does not include the mandatory
time spent warming up, nor any time spent learning technique for the more
difficult exercise movements. Many of
the these high intensity programs such as CrossFit, have a steep learning curve
associated with them, as they include some very advanced and technical
exercises, some involving Olympic-style barbell overhead lifts. Some of these advanced exercises take months
to perfect. If you ever been into a
CrossFit gym, or a ‘Box’, you would know that they also incorporate a coaching
element after the warm-up and prior to the workout, thus your time in the gym
has now reached a full hour. Warming up
and loosening up is very critical for high intensity training across the board
because you tend to be performing very quick, bursts of powerful movements
which inherently increase risk of injury if not done properly or not warmed
up.</div>
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So yes, there are a lot of caveats
and things to consider before you just go balls-to-the-wall for your 20 minutes
of high-intensity magic. You have to
know what you’re doing, maintain perfect form, and by all means loosen up and
warm-up. And if you truly are planning
on pushing to failure, either aerobic or anaerobic, you should definitely begin
by getting a physical assessment from your trusted health professional, and,
train while wearing a heart rate monitor.
Hear rate monitors give you the bottom line on intensity level and will
validate your perception. You can get
fit and improve longevity in just 20 minutes a day, but if you want to get uber
fit – you need to put in at least an hour a day! Cheers to my fellow fitness aficionados, uber
athletes, and working warriors out there – I’m right there with all of you!<o:p></o:p></div>
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</span><!--[endif]-->Max<o:p></o:p></div>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-26501556997290566462015-03-02T13:19:00.001-08:002015-03-02T13:27:26.389-08:00The Egg (Yolk) is BACK! - Cholesterol is Out of Diet Jail! (March is National Nutrition Month.)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>March is <i>National Nutrition Month</i></b>
according the <i>Academy of Nutrition and
Dietetics</i>, and we are celebrating with the incredible egg! You see, the egg is back in a big way, though
for many of us, it never left our list of staple, affordable sources of a
complete protein, called for by many recipes.
You would think eggs would have withstood the test of time and tradition
by now, but there was rather large group of scientist-panels and government
agencies, that believed for a long time that the cholesterol contained in eggs
is bad for us and pushed their guidelines upon our society. But recently these very same scientists and
agencies reversed their stance on the egg, and more specifically on dietary
cholesterol nutrient and the role it plays in blood LDL cholesterol levels. According to <i>The Washington Post</i> in February, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>‘In
one short paragraph, the new report from <b>the
nation’s top nutrition panel reverses decades of warnings about dietary
cholesterol.</b> Long one of the arch-villains of the American diet,
cholesterol need no longer be considered a menace to the public health, the
group said. As the panel's report puts it:
<b>“Cholesterol is not a nutrient of
concern.”’.<o:p></o:p></b></i></div>
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“Cholesterol is not a nutrient of
concern” – wow, that is a huge reversal!
The article goes on to say however, that <b>foods high in saturated fats are still of concern</b> and need to be
eaten in moderation. It seems factors
such as your own heredity and a diet high in saturated fat content, are the
real culprits causing high levels of (artery clogging), blood
LDL-cholesterol. (LDL stands for Low
Density Lipid is considered the ‘bad’ marker of cholesterol in the blood, as
opposed to HDL, which is considered good.)
So in conclusion you can have an egg or two for breakfast every day, but
perhaps not bacon if high cholesterol or heart disease runs in your family.<o:p></o:p></div>
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But why, you may ask, is the egg so
special anyway? It’s because <i>Rocky Balboa</i> used to drink half a dozen
raw eggs before his pre-morning cardio of course! It worked for him, right? In all seriousness, the egg truly is a super
food. I’ve had it on my super foods list
for the past 15 years. An egg contains 6
grams of complete protein at only 15 cents per serving. Talk about value! The egg is of course a natural, whole-food,
that is gluten-free. (Sorry I just had to
say the latter so you would know eggs are hip too.) Eggs are also sugar-free.</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sbcq2krK5-o/VPTR5FaDGEI/AAAAAAABIGY/eivv1Sf5G8s/s1600/Rocky-egg-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sbcq2krK5-o/VPTR5FaDGEI/AAAAAAABIGY/eivv1Sf5G8s/s1600/Rocky-egg-copy.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rocky Balboa made drinking raw-eggs pre or post-workout legend and training tradition!<br />
<br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Eggs
are as about as nutrient-dense as a whole-food gets, so says <i>IncredibleEgg.Org</i>:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i>‘One
egg has lots of vitamins and minerals, high-quality protein and antioxidants,
all for 70 calories. The nutrients in eggs can play a role in weight
management, muscle strength, healthy pregnancy, brain function, eye health and
more. At less than 15 cents apiece, eggs are an affordable and delicious
breakfast option. The protein in eggs is
the highest-quality protein found in any food. The high-quality protein in eggs
provides the mental and physical energy families need for important days.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i>Nutrient-rich,
all-natural eggs are a welcome addition to any diet. The nutrient package of eggs aids in the
following:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> *
Weight management: The high-quality protein in eggs helps you to feel
fuller longer and stay energized, which contributes to maintaining a healthy
weight.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> *
Muscle strength and muscle-loss prevention: Research indicates that
high-quality protein may help active adults build muscle strength and help
prevent muscle loss in middle-aged and aging adults.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> *
Healthy pregnancy: Egg yolks are an excellent source of choline, an
essential nutrient that contributes to fetal brain development and helps
prevent birth defects. Two eggs provide about 250 milligrams of choline, or
roughly half of the recommended daily intake for pregnant and breastfeeding
women.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> *
Brain function: Choline also aids the brain function of adults by
maintaining the structure of brain cell membranes, and is a key component of
the neuro-transmitter that helps relay messages from the brain through nerves
to the muscles.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<i> * Eye
health: Lutein and zeaxanthin, two antioxidants found in egg yolks, help
prevent macular degeneration, a leading cause of age-related blindness. Though
eggs contain a small amount of these two nutrients, research shows that the
lutein from eggs may be more bioavailable than lutein from other food sources.’<o:p></o:p></i><br />
<i><br /></i></div>
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This all sounds like more than Egg
Org propaganda to me. I happen to agree
with everything. And many Organic farms
are able to fortify their chickens’ feed with Essential Fatty Acids, allowing
their eggs to be a good source of Omega-3 fat for us. So here’s to eating the whole egg daily and
indulging in the yolk! You just may have
to leave the bacon behind, but instead can opt for avocado slices!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-59488887069983794552015-02-10T09:15:00.001-08:002015-02-10T09:52:31.686-08:00New Year's Fitness Resolution ACCOUNTABILITY: The missing key ingredient that may be sabotaging your progress!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Well it’s that time of year again,
when everyone starts failing miserably at their New Year’s resolution to be
fitter and healthier. The missing
ingredient almost always causing the failure, is <b><u>lack of accountability.</u></b>
Without somebody or something to be accountable to, who is going to call
you out when you no-show to the gym, or start drinking 4 beers a night instead
of just two? We all need somebody to
call us out when we steer off course, or something to at least raise
awareness. Now I’m not saying you have
to go out and drop fifty bucks an hour on a Personal Trainer, all though that
would be ideal. <b>There are in fact many fun, inexpensive ways to incorporate
accountability into your fitness and health plan if you cannot afford to hire a
Trainer:</b><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>Sign up
for a race:</b> Most races come with an ideal 12 week preparation plan that you
can easily find online for free. (Try <i>Active.com</i>) The looming race deadline is what will be
holding you metaphorically accountable, and it is physically impossible to
train for 12 weeks and not become fitter and leaner! Most of San Diego’s fun races are in April,
May and June – perfect timing to begin!<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]--><b>Book a
tropical vacation:</b> Not only will you
score major points with your date if you invite one to come along, but just
knowing you will be seen poolside or beachfront in your board-shorts will
motivate you to buff up to some degree, even if only subconsciously.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Wear a personal <i>activity tracker</i> or fitness bracelet: </b>You know, one of those <i>FitBit</i> things that track your daily
fitness data on a basic, approximate level.
They synch up with an app on your smartphone and at the very least raise
awareness and in some sense create accountability, by telling you how many
steps you took, how many calories you burned, and much more depending how
involved you want to get with the application.
These bracelets and trying to improve daily, become surprisingly
addicting! They’re simple to use,
provide real-time feedback yet are very personal at the same time.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Post your goal or resolution on social
media: </b>Post a ‘before’ picture, or
state your goal publically and very <i>loudly</i>
on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for all to see. Your followers will hold you accountable and
even heckle you! Seriously though, aside
from the unsolicited advice you will receive from all of the fitness ‘experts’
spamming your newsfeed, you will also get a lot of encouragement and don’t be
surprised if you motivate some of your friends to join you on your journey!<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Buy a home scale: </b>I actually wrote and entire article about
this a few months ago. And while many
Trainers and weight-loss ‘experts’ advocate against weighing yourself daily, I
am all for it and have done this for years.
While it is true that most weight fluctuations are temporary or are
‘water weight’, stepping on the scale daily, (along with looking at yourself
naked in the mirror), raises awareness, provides the most basic sense of
accountability and helps you get a head start on tracking trends in weight changes. Also the home scales these days are very
reliable and affordable and many even come with bio-electric impedance to
measure your body composition and body fat level.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Join a sports team or group: </b>It doesn’t matter what your sport is –
there is a team, league or group of guys out there, at your level, who love to
play too. Find them and join them – this
is San Diego, America’s 8<sup>th</sup> <i>Fittest
City</i> – how hard can it be? Because
when you start regularly competing in a sport you love, you’ve truly discovered
a secret path to long lasting fitness. <b>As soon as you make it fun, you’re winning!<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<b>7. Book a Photo Shoot! </b>Hey I know we aren't all vain, <i>Zoolander</i> model-types, but I'm going to share something personal with you: NOTHING motivates me to whip myself into tip-top shape more than a booked shoot date coming up. Because it's game on, as my reputation is on the line, every time I step in front of the camera. This sounds so shallow to write, but it's truth. And it doesn't have to be a professional photo shoot or commercial print job either. Just booking a photo shoot for yourself and or your family for social media use, as 'progress pics' or for just your personal, keepin-it-real, check will suffice. Selfies just aren't quite the same!<br />
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<b> What you should NOT do as part of your healthy New Year’s resolution
strategy: </b>Buy a <i>detox</i> kit, start a weight-loss or <i>diet</i> plan, or do a juice <i>cleanse</i>. <i>Detox,
Juice Cleanse, Diet Plan </i>are all red flags to steer clear of. These are fads and gimmicks by folks trying
to take your money. You must learn to
take a long term, holistic approach to your fitness and health and evolve it
into a lifestyle.</div>
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(Here in San Diego...) Are any of us really out of shape
right now? I’m not so sure! Living and training here in San Diego all the
through the holidays, playoffs and the New Year, I realized something. We truly are a fit city! I mean every time there was swell, the surf
was crowded. Every holiday, Coast
Highway was filled with bicyclists and runners.
The beaches and trails were bustling with dog walkers and families
walking off their holiday dinner. The
volleyball courts were always filled. Fit
folks and athletes seem to move here and thrive here, and in no small part due
to our climate. And that is probably why
San Diego was ranked the 8<sup>th</sup> ‘Fittest City’ in America by the<i> American College of Sports Medicine.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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This is no empty, fluffy list
either! The ACSM American Fitness Index®
Data Report is a Scientific Snapshot of the State of Health and Fitness at the
Metropolitan Level. Every year, the <i>American College of Sports Medicine</i> uses
its American Fitness Index to rank the 50 largest U.S. metropolitan areas from
fittest to fattest. A multitude of factors determine each city's ranking
including the number of fitness centers, farmers' markets, golf courses, and
parks per capita, as well as access to health care. The organization also pulls
data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census
Bureau, and other institutions to assess residents' individual physical and
mental health, fitness levels, and eating habits, as well as overall rates of
diabetes, heart disease, and other health conditions. After some serious number
crunching, they come up with the list!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Read more on America's fittest cities at: <a href="http://americanfitnessindex.org/about-the-american-fitness-index/">http://americanfitnessindex.org/about-the-american-fitness-index/</a>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-47070893060135982182015-01-20T11:26:00.003-08:002015-02-23T14:00:44.644-08:00Tribute to Fitness Icon Greg Plitt: R.I.P. - 'Be Remembered'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Tribute to Greg Plitt - R.I.P.<br />
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I'll never forget the day I met Greg Plitt. We were both booked to shoot some workout editorials for a fitness magazine in Laguna Beach in 2006. You hear the term 'Adonis' thrown around a lot in the fitness model world, but Greg truly stood out among all the others. He wasn't that huge or massive - only 6'1, but his proportions and body structure were that of a comic book super hero. You couldn't help but stare at his physique, and it didn't matter if you were man or woman, gay or straight. What seemed to set him apart was his very large collarbones and shoulder width, which then perfectly tapered into a 32" waist. I saw him as genetically gifted. Because while many others had to try and re-proportion their bodies through bodybuilding, then diet, or take steroids to even have a chance at landing a magazine cover, Greg had the underlying genetic, skeletal structure that would always make him stand out. Of course on top of that perfect frame, he trained like an animal, with discipline of an Army Ranger. Greg was the full package. Everybody that ever booked a job with him and was simultaneously on set shooting with him, were envious and even jealous of his amazing physique, yet he was cool and such a stud that we all had a man-crush on him at the same time. Because during the post-shoot after hours he was an absolute blast to hang out with...the life of the party, like only an Army Ranger can party. Fitness models couldn't even hang with him off set in the club either.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On a fitness infomercial set with Greg circa 2009<br />
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But there was so much more to Greg, the one I got to know for a few year period between 2007 and 2014. He was very disciplined and smart. He was basically a General Contractor who could build anything. He was an adventure-seeker and all-around athlete. He came to serve as his own production company, and video editor. He launched his own brand of training and workout plans and videos. He was a TV celebrity and a Trainer, and even did some acting. If he liked you and got to know you he would give you the shirt off his back and open up his home to you. He was perhaps the most inspirational fitness personality I ever came across. Clark Bartram being 2nd. He had several hundred fitness magazine covers before we all stopped counting. He was unofficially, officially titled the '#1 Fitness Model in the World' just a few years ago, for his physique, all his covers, and his collective body of work. At least his peers gave him this title! I believe one of his mentors and friends Frank Sepe also gave him this title. Soon, every fitness model out there started making videos and launching their own youtube channels, including myself, and it was obvious that we were all being inspired by and even copying Greg's production style and personality, and shoot locations.<br />
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However, imitation is the highest form of flattery, but there could be no duplication. Greg was so sincere and so extreme in his workout videos...and risk was part of his brand. He always pushed the envelope. Perhaps that began when he was brought up a 2X All-American wrestler and a US Army Ranger. Greg seemed to be relentless and uncompromising in his commitment to fitness, personal excellence and integrity. After all, We <i><b>"only have one life to live - make it count."</b></i> - RIP Greg Plitt from your friend in fitness Max Wettstein - you are now legend.<br />
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<a href="http://www.gregplitt.com/">http://www.gregplitt.com</a> #ripgregplitt #beremembered<br />
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The media really had a lot of negative hype to say about Greg shooting on the railroad tracks <i>"without a permit"</i>, basically implying this was rare and reckless behavior on Greg's part, and very illegal. Truth be told, as anybody can tell you who lives anywhere near train tracks, many of us upstanding citizens are illegally crossing them on a daily basis and the law is rarely if ever enforced as it would be near impossible to cite all of us. And although the tracks were a favorite shot location for Greg, many of us shot on the train tracks, often. Here is shot I did on the tracks back in 2009, taken by Anthony Ray Shane, and I will be first to be proud to admit, it was inspired by Greg.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SwKHHsAVjq4/VOuieUCoWpI/AAAAAAABICY/-Gxvn7Rz3tA/s1600/train%2Btracks%2BBEST%2BWEB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SwKHHsAVjq4/VOuieUCoWpI/AAAAAAABICY/-Gxvn7Rz3tA/s1600/train%2Btracks%2BBEST%2BWEB.jpg" height="250" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">photo by Anthony Ray Shane</td></tr>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-28630655466772270062014-11-25T12:18:00.004-08:002014-11-26T07:44:30.789-08:00QOR Men's Performance Apparel - My new client!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><i>QOR</i></b> (pronounced 'core') is a new, cutting age men's performance clothing company. I am honored to get in on the ground floor as one of their 'core' models! A little back-story, the smart people behind <b><i>QOR</i></b> are also the same ones who started the <i>Athleta</i> brand for women. <i>Athleta</i>, recently acquired by Gap, grew up and so big it kind of lost their interest so they are now channeling their passion into launching a high-performance, sophisticated men's clothing line aimed to inspire men of all ages. <i><b>QOR</b></i> is based up in the San Francisco area. My last shoot took place in Petaluma in Sonoma County, and I believe they have a corporate office there.<br />
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Besides the amazing clothing which looks great whether you're climbing a mountain, biking to the office, or in an office meeting, (it's discrete, sophisticated, high performing, active wear in a nutshell), this type of client is what inspires me lately because, it matches where I'm at in my life, and, those who know me, know my wardrobe must be functional first, or I'm not wearing it! Function is my style haha! But QOR let's you have both while keeping things simple for guys who are too busy to shop.<br />
The shoots are indeed physically demanding, and outdoors much of the time, which suits me perfectly. (This coming from a 12 year fitness-model veteran...) You can take the model out of the fitness industry but you can't take the fitness out of the model. Does that make sense? What I mean is, sometimes I don't do very well on shoots if there is no physical challenge or outdoor adventure associated with it. Training nonstop and being uber fit is in my blood and I can't stop/won't stop, but alas now in my forties my fitness goals have shifted to more of a longevity and holistic health frame of mind, and besides, clothing fits better and looks better with less (muscle) bulk!<br />
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Learn more about<i> </i><b><i>QOR</i> men's performance clothing</b> at their website: <a href="http://www.qorkit.com/" target="_blank">QORKit.com</a>! Follow them on FB, Twitter and Insta too!<br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-57717840127835261642014-11-18T11:56:00.002-08:002015-11-04T11:48:20.947-08:00Prostate Health and Prostate Cancer Awareness - It's 'Movember'!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Since it is <i>‘No shave November’</i>, AKA <i>Movember</i>,
I thought I would make this month’s nutrition topic about foods that promote a
healthy prostate! But in addition to
some healthy food choices, I can’t help but also give you some lifestyle tips
as well, to maintain a healthy prostate as you age into your forties, fifties
and beyond. For example, did you know
that <b>regular ejaculation is absolutely
one of the healthiest things you can do for your prostate</b>? To be more specific, a recent study (don’t
ask me how they studied this), showed that men age 40 and over who ejaculated
at least 21 times per month were at 33% lower risk for developing enlarged
prostate gland, or prostate cancer than those who ejaculated less frequently. Obviously the safest but least fun way to
accomplish this is through masturbation, because increasing sex partners will
increase your risk of exposure to many other STDs which could be more way more
life threatening than prostate cancer!<o:p></o:p></div>
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Why should you be so concerned with
your prostate anyway? Well doctors
recommend at age 40 that you get your first prostate check, by having your
rectum probed with the finger of a medical expert. This type of check will allow a doctor to manually
feel your prostate gland and see if it is enlarged or has any lumps, or hard
spots. At age 50 doctors recommend a
prostate check every year, by either manual check through the rectum or a blood
lab PSA test (Prostate Specific Antigen test).
The problem with blood PSA tests is they are really only useful when
several tests are taken over a period of time detect a trend. Because your PSA levels can acutely rise into
a risk-alert level through many activities such as sexual intercourse,
bicycling or any other kind of trauma near that area of your body. Even a sitting too long during a road trip
can spike your PSA levels, possibly alarming you and your doctor for no reason. <b>So as
unpleasant and as violating as it may be, many experts feel that the manual
finger-insertion check is more accurate and reliable than a blood PSA test.</b> What all these tests are trying to check for
is early onset of enlarged prostate gland, medically known as <i>‘Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia’</i> or
BPH. BPH can then be a precursor to
prostate cancer, which at least is considered very curable and isn’t likely to
kill you. But still nobody wants cancer!</div>
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<b><u>Here is the catch - all of us will eventually have <i>enlarged prostate</i>.</u></b> It is simply a matter of time. Check this out: 50% of men over age 60 will experience
enlarged prostate. By age 85 over 95% of
us will ‘suffer’ from enlarged prostate.
I say suffer in quotations, because to be honest, it is not really
suffering at all but rather a natural part of the male aging process. Which leads me to my next point – many doctors
may recommend not even treating BPH if the patient is already past a certain
age. Why? Because the theory is the patient will likely
die from some other cause before prostate cancer would possibly kill them – it
is a slow progressing cancer. So while
prostate health and awareness is important it is nothing to panic about.<o:p></o:p></div>
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There are some physiological triggers
that could cause early onset enlarged prostate or cause it to progress more
quickly, such as high hormone levels, especially testosterone which metabolizes
into DHT or dihydrotestosterone, and estrogen.
In fact <b>there is link between men
with classic <i>male-pattern-baldness</i>
and enlarged prostate.</b> Male-pattern
baldness and excessive body hair, is thought to be caused by high levels of
DHT. However this is beyond the scope of
this article and should be thoroughly discussed with your doctor. Occupations that Prolonged sitting is another high risk factor, as a diet high in animal protein, especially red meat, which leaves a Uric Acid byproduct.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3HXTL3jMr0c/VGujk7B9meI/AAAAAAABHRY/JBlYBD9cZnk/s1600/Location-of-prostate-gland.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="397" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3HXTL3jMr0c/VGujk7B9meI/AAAAAAABHRY/JBlYBD9cZnk/s1600/Location-of-prostate-gland.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Okay so let’s get to the pro-prostate
health foods part of this article already!
Here’s the main take away from not only my research for this article,
but rather from all my years of writing as fitness professional: <b>A
truly optimally healthy diet, is also a lean-body diet, is also an anti-cancer
diet, and is also inherently a healthy-prostate diet!</b> Dude, just eat clean and exercise and sleep
well and get regular prostate checks and your 90% there! The only caveat is, a typical <i>Bodybuilder’s diet</i> in the traditional
sense, could potentially be a cancer-promoting diet, if you know it already
runs in your family or are exposed to many carcinogens. Why do I say this? Because <b>there
is BIG link between diets that are based heavily on animal-proteins and cancer
progression.</b> Animal protein seems to
allow cancer cells to thrive more when compared to a plant-based diet. No I am not saying to go vegan here by any
means, but rather simply to eat a diverse, vegetable-rich diet where animal
proteins are consumed in moderation.
Another issue with the typical bodybuilding or <i>Paleo diet</i>, is they like to grill their meats, because grilling does
in fact burn most of the fat off, producing a leaner serving. However grilling tends to also char parts of
the meat and charred meat is a known carcinogen as well as the <i>advanced-glycation-end products</i> grilling
produces. So grill in moderation. The lower heat the better for avoiding
carcinogens as far as all food cooking is concerned, except for steaming. Also red meat digests leaving a Uric Acid byproduct which can cause inflammation and enlargement in the prostate after years of repeated high levels.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<b>Here is a <u>short list</u> of foods that passed the <u>‘more than
anecdotal’</u> test for supporting prostate health, and where possible the
specific nutrient they contain that is responsible for helping your prostate:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Lycopene – </b>from cooked tomatoes and
tomato sauces.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Cruciferous vegetables –</b> such as
broccoli, cauliflower and Brussel sprouts.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Zinc –</b> abundant any many foods such as
almonds, pumpkin seeds and oysters. Be
very careful with your source of raw oysters however!<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Bell peppers –</b> full of anti-oxidants
other powerful phyto-nutrients.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Omega 3 EFAs –</b> also known as Essential
Fatty Acids, abundant in cold-water fish, walnuts, avocados and olive oil.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Garlic and onions –</b> remember these from
the Super Foods list we published a while back?<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Soy –</b> yes that’s right I said soy! Many bodybuilder’s fear soy as they think the
natural phyto-estrogens soy contains will cause a rise in their own estrogen
levels, which is absurd! Soy is abundant
in cancer fighting isoflavones, anti-oxidants and its phyto-estrogens block
more harmful, synthetic xeno-estrogens.
There is no denying the repeated studies that shows cultures who consume
high amounts of soy traditionally, have the lowest cancer and prostate cancer
levels globally.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Pomegranate –</b> eat more
pomegranate! Just make sure it is
actually pomegranate you are eating and not some fake product with only 10%
real pomegranate juice. Also with
fruits, whole fruits are always a better choice than drinking juice, if you
want to get all the fiber and nutrients.<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]--><b>9.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;"> </span></b><!--[endif]--><b>Avocados –</b> are full of anti-oxidants,
plant sterols, and unsaturated fats, that help battle cancer cells and lower
inflammation. <b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Of course there are many more
foods, and the more diverse your diet the better! However these 9 foods are the ones that made
my cut. Now I challenge you to go find
10 more foods. Lastly you can eat the
healthiest food our planet has to offer, but if you are not exercising
regularly none of what you eat is going to matter. Here’s to our prostate gentlemen! - Because what I did NOT tell you yet, is
that without your prostate, sporting <i>wood</i>
and sexual intercourse is NOT possible.
Once your prostate starts going boys, it’s all downhill sexually! <b>Enlarged
Prostate usually also means the beginning symptoms of <i>Erectile Dysfunction,</i></b> or ED, as well, so take charge or your
prostate, your health and your life right now!<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-27675636313428962972014-11-13T13:25:00.001-08:002014-11-14T09:06:49.437-08:00The Value of Hiring a Professional Fitness Model vs. a Pro Athlete.<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9qoDGS1ezbY/VGUZ5v6oIvI/AAAAAAABHNA/eOTz524eouQ/s1600/New%2Bclient%2Bcollage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9qoDGS1ezbY/VGUZ5v6oIvI/AAAAAAABHNA/eOTz524eouQ/s320/New%2Bclient%2Bcollage.jpg" width="307" /></a> I used to make fun of my own kind ('fitness' models), because we have so much emphasis put upon our appearance and aren't perceived as true athletes, however after doing this gig for 14 years I've come to value this title again, because when you need a fit body to exercise literally all day long with no whining or pampering, and make your prototype product or apparel look flawless, and be able to basically reproduce any sport or fake it pretty darn well with zero rehearsal, the pro Fitness Model will kick the pro athlete's ass 9 times out of 10. Making the client's product look amazing is our sport!<br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16CUW0eDcw8/VGUb-IMO5TI/AAAAAAABHNI/vHhJ1kVYOaI/s1600/Max%2Bsurfing%2BPlus%2BBar%2B1%2Bwebsite.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="176" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-16CUW0eDcw8/VGUb-IMO5TI/AAAAAAABHNI/vHhJ1kVYOaI/s200/Max%2Bsurfing%2BPlus%2BBar%2B1%2Bwebsite.jpg" width="200" /></a> Not trying to take away anything from the professional athlete. In fact many of you know I have always tried to draw parallels between myself and what I do as a working fitness model with professional athletes. I've always advocated and almost preached, "function over aesthetics", "performance over aesthetics", and claimed I was in a sense a 'holistic athlete'.<br />
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I've always had the utmost respect for professional athletes, getting paid to be the best at their sport and train all day for their profession and with purpose. Many times however, it is the professional athlete who is so concerned with his upcoming race or training schedule, that he is afraid the demanding and often unusual or unorthodox exercises required on set by the director will either injure him or hurt is brand. Or his rate set by his manager will be cost prohibitive. He is worried that his actions will be seen as an endorsement. He is used to being hired as a celebrity, not simply a generic model whose body is simply a prop for the product! One pro athlete I recently worked with took so long to warm-up, and then needed a cool down...a lot of photographers will not accommodate this haha!<br />
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The truth is, most of the top pro fitness models I have worked with over the course of the past 14 years and 200+ bookings, grew up playing many sports as far as the college level, and even beyond. Some are Special Operations Forces veterans. Some of course, are just gym-rats from day one!<br />
Even now as I mostly do fashion and apparel modeling, the apparel is usually performance or outdoor type, requiring me to stay fit and perform many exercises and sports. 'Jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none'? - I don't think so. The pro fitness model is a master at making our client's product look amazing - better than reality even. Deceiving? At times maybe, but that is beyond our job scope unfortunately. We are athletes. Everyday athletes, or #OccupationalAthletes as someone said to me recently!<br />
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Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-92142541463032910142014-10-10T09:50:00.002-07:002014-10-10T09:50:43.664-07:00The Human Microbiome: Like it or not, you are host to trillions of bacteria that are integral to everything about you! You need these flora as much as they need you...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Your <i>microbiome</i>
refers to the assemblage of microbes (bacteria) that live in and on our
body. <b>These living bacteria, considered ‘friendly flora’, or commensal for
the most part, outnumber our own human cells 10 to 1. We are more foreign bacteria than we are
‘human’! Up to 5 lbs. of our body weight</b>
is made up of the living, high-functioning bacteria we carry around with us,
mostly residing in our colon or gut.
(Remember most of our bodyweight is actually comprised of water.)<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rUKQIHqrfzM/VDgNFBMk6SI/AAAAAAABGps/3EeWvWCTkHE/s1600/2014-10-10_9-22-37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rUKQIHqrfzM/VDgNFBMk6SI/AAAAAAABGps/3EeWvWCTkHE/s1600/2014-10-10_9-22-37.jpg" height="376" width="400" /></a> We’ve
come a long way in our understanding of microbes, and what distinguishes a good
bacteria from a disease causing pathogen.
By now, from a holistic perspective you should understand that while
there is a time and place for sanitation, anti-bacterial soaps & cleaners,
and antibiotic drugs, to be optimally healthy we must learn to co-exist with
bacteria and even nurture and feed our own friendly flora that we are host to. Culturally we should not associate the word <u>bacteria</u>
with dirty or unsanitary. When we are
truly healthy in a holistic sense, we naturally coexist with most types of
bacteria, even the disease causing ones – they simply don’t seem to infect us
on a day to day basis. In fact our own
colonies of friendly bacteria help us ‘fight off’ the bad bacteria. It’s an amazing microbial world of checks and
balances taking place within our gut and on every surface of our body, established
initially from birth, and building onward.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Improper initial bacterial
colonization at birth and as infants due to C-section delivery (because vaginal
birth is when and where newborns receive their first implantation of bacteria
from mom), or <b>chronic disruption of
these native flora colonies due to long term use of antibiotic drugs can skew
our health so far of course that many systemic inflammatory, and auto-immune
diseases can be set in motion, often blamed on other allergic reactions, or
lifestyle factors such as poor diet or lack of exercise.</b> This is because, our <b>native gut flora, also serve to regulate and balance our immune system</b>
and prevent it from over-reacting. Over
time, our immune system gets conditioned to the friendly microbes and bacteria
living in our gut and learns not to react to them or attack them. The immune T-cells become regulated. But when a course of antibiotics disrupts our
good bacteria colonies, it can leave a void for bad pathogenic, disease causing
bacteria to take up residence or multiply.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In fact <b>many systemic inflammatory and autoimmune
diseases are now being re-thought to be caused or linked to missing or
dysfunctional gut flora, such as type-2 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, Celiac’s
disease, colitis, even obesity and autism.</b>
Is it possible that the recent surge in folks who claim to have a
‘gluten-sensitivity or allergy’ may actually have an imbalance or lack or
healthy bacteria residing in their gut?
This is all based on a relatively new project of research known as <i>The Human Microbiome Project</i> which was
commissioned in 2007 and is still ongoing now.
Not only is the research directed at learning more about how we mutually
coexist and rely on bacteria, but researchers are also genetically coding the
DNA of these bacteria, and linking them to specific human traits or diseases. These various colonies of bacteria reside all
over our body and they can only live in their designated spot and are
high-functioning and symbiotic. And
everywhere they exist they are part of a microbiome area of human real estate where
they maintain a system of checks and balances and help regulate our immune
system, and even produce a myriad of enzymes that are necessary for final
digestion and nutrient absorption.</div>
<a name='more'></a>Did
you know that without gut bacteria we would be unable to produce the enzymes to
synthesize vitamin B? And that final
part of complex-carbohydrate and fiber digestion is only possible because colon
bacteria do so by fermentation (sometimes producing methane gas as a byproduct)? Even bacteria that were once thought to be
only problematic and pathogenic, like <i>H.
pylori</i>, (blamed for causing stomach ulcers), are being discovered to serve
other important roles and throw something else out of balance when you remove
them. For instance, when <i>H. pylori</i> is destroyed with prescription
medication, even if the ulcer is healed, it then causes <i>Ghrelin</i> levels (the ‘hunger’ hormone), to rise unchecked, and the
victims tend to gain follow on weight.<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fGM_krRkVIw/VDgNFJG_j5I/AAAAAAABGp4/t1-xTU05mpw/s1600/Gut-Bacteria-graphic-001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fGM_krRkVIw/VDgNFJG_j5I/AAAAAAABGp4/t1-xTU05mpw/s1600/Gut-Bacteria-graphic-001.jpg" height="400" width="311" /></a> It is
simply beyond the scope of this article to even begin to touch on the myriad of
essential, symbiotic functions that are accomplished by the trillions of
bacteria we coexist with. <u>What I want
you to take away with you though are two important points for your holistic
health:</u><o:p></o:p></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]--> <b>Replenish and even re-establish your
healthy gut flora daily, by eating probiotic and fermented foods</b>, such as
Organic yogurt or cottage cheese or drinking Kombucha tea. You can also supplement with probiotic
capsules that contain billions of living friendly bacteria. You can than ‘feed’ your gut flora by eating
plenty of greens and fibrous foods!<o:p></o:p></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
you have a history of using antibiotic drugs, then you may have seriously
disrupted and imbalanced your own microbiome.
It could perhaps be the underlying cause of any number of allergies,
inflammatory diseases, or auto-immune ailments you may have.</span></b><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> You
should immediately begin a home program to re-establish health bacteria
colonies and gut flora. You can do this
by eating probiotic abundant whole foods listed above, and by
supplementing. The latest cutting edge,
emergency medical treatment, (and I assure you this is not anecdotal or without
prior clinical testing), is for folks with serious intestinal infections or
inflammatory disorders to undergo <i>fecal
microbiota transplantations</i>, or FMTs, from trusted, tested fecal donors, to
instantly kickstart healthy gut flora colonies.
This procedure is also known as Fecal Bacteriotherapy.</span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jkXmZDRdOkY/VDgNPJqTPDI/AAAAAAABGqQ/t-zGd0kRCb8/s1600/chart-portraying-different-types-of-bacteria-and-their-shapes.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jkXmZDRdOkY/VDgNPJqTPDI/AAAAAAABGqQ/t-zGd0kRCb8/s1600/chart-portraying-different-types-of-bacteria-and-their-shapes.jpg" height="400" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></div>
Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-55062591183790050172014-10-06T10:54:00.001-07:002014-10-06T10:54:50.426-07:00My Protein Bar & Supplement Sponsor, 'Greens Plus'!, AKA, 'Greens+'<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9qHkoovDLWU/VDLU58rb8dI/AAAAAAABGpI/niSjLn-bnzY/s1600/Max%2Bsurfing%2BPlus%2BBar%2B1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9qHkoovDLWU/VDLU58rb8dI/AAAAAAABGpI/niSjLn-bnzY/s1600/Max%2Bsurfing%2BPlus%2BBar%2B1.jpg" height="353" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good surfing fuel, both pre or post surf!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Sorry for two blog posts in one day, but I'm way behind in my wish-list of blog topics and critical information I owe to you, and this post is way more personable, and not just a spam or sales-pitch attempt I assure you! I just wanted to give a shout-out to my relatively new sponsor <i><b>'Greens+'</b></i> pronounced <i><b>"Greens Plus"</b></i>. I guess technically I'm an ambassador for them, but they're sending me my favorite products every month so either way I'm stoked. I'm using their protein and chia bars, and their chia-seed powder blend, and their raw, green, powder blend.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gN0plRlOAac/VDLVLAWY23I/AAAAAAABGpQ/f9EZykwzmAY/s1600/protein-chocolate-2-1-__70321.1410661540.1280.1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gN0plRlOAac/VDLVLAWY23I/AAAAAAABGpQ/f9EZykwzmAY/s1600/protein-chocolate-2-1-__70321.1410661540.1280.1280.jpg" height="264" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This the bar I like! - Max</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Their products are all non-GMO, certified organic, raw, alkaline, gluten-free, cold-pressed, (I could go on with all the bells and whistles and fancy labels but I won't!) Many are available in <b>vegan</b> options as well. My current favorite is their new<b><i> 'PlusBar'</i></b> whey protein bar in peanut butter-chocolate flavor with 72% cacao content of course! The whey is 100% whey isolate for high BV, quick absorbtion. This bar, although recently re-furbished and re-branded into full super-food status, has been my travel companion for years, (way before this sponsorship began), both on the JetBlue jet and on many fitness shoots, and surf trips! So tasty, it will also satiate and silence your chocolate-peanut butter craving too! Here is the direct link to learn more about this fantastic bar, (and NO I am not the one selling it or receiving any points or downline or upline haha!...just looking out for you!): <a href="http://www.greensplus.com/plusbar-protein-chocolate/" target="_blank">Greens Plus, Whey protein PlusBAR, peanut butter-chocolate!</a><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SsesmUwCfig/VDLWTDhM05I/AAAAAAABGpc/b9Epi1Htlqw/s1600/2014-08-19%2B04.58.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-SsesmUwCfig/VDLWTDhM05I/AAAAAAABGpc/b9Epi1Htlqw/s1600/2014-08-19%2B04.58.50.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Have PlusBar will travel! Healthy snack at cruise altitude!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
Thanks for listening, your's truly,<br />
Max<br />
<i>"Optimum health is my method of life!"</i></div>
Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-7599769322218988632014-10-06T10:05:00.000-07:002014-10-10T10:00:33.690-07:00Human Growth Hormone: Is it the 'Fountain-of-Youth' hormone some anti-aging 'experts' are touting? Should you consider hGH replacement therapy?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XwHSQG5Mkzw/VDLKHH03vyI/AAAAAAABGow/-_c2JnFJAos/s1600/HGH%2Bopener.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XwHSQG5Mkzw/VDLKHH03vyI/AAAAAAABGow/-_c2JnFJAos/s1600/HGH%2Bopener.jpg" height="320" width="278" /></a> Natural human Growth Hormone, abbreviated as hGH and
medically known as Somatotropin, is a truly amazing and essential hormone, but
sadly it is not a <i>fountain-of-youth</i>
hormone. <b>In this article I’m only going to discuss hGH’s role in fully mature <u>adults</u>.</b> hGH is also produced synthetically, since
1985, and is available only by (very expensive) prescription via low-dose
injections. The synthetic form of hGH is
known generically as Somatropin but is sold through prescription under many
different brand names, usually ending in ‘-trope’ or ‘-tropin’. <b>There
is absolutely no oral tablet or capsule form of hGH that is legitimate because
it is destroyed in the stomach during digestion.</b> There is absolutely no supplement that will
boost your own hGH production. Those are
all false claims and marketing ploys, unregulated by the FDA. <b>The
only synthetic form of hGH that is real, is available by prescription injection
only.</b> You are an idiot if you were
to ever try to buy black market hGH and administer it to yourself and that is
as far as I am going to discuss black market hGH because I refuse to waste your
time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-si3dS1iltc4/VDgPAkV4HkI/AAAAAAABGqo/KNiemSHqEj0/s1600/rHGH.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-si3dS1iltc4/VDgPAkV4HkI/AAAAAAABGqo/KNiemSHqEj0/s1600/rHGH.jpg" height="295" width="320" /></a>In adults, hGH is secreted by the
pituitary gland in sporadic short bursts throughout the day, peaking at night
about an hour after we first fall asleep and enter our first deep-sleep phase -
which is why if you take nothing else away from reading this article, <b>simply by ensuring you go to be at the same
time each night and don’t miss that critical first cycle of sleep, you will be
accomplishing one of the best things you can do to maximize your natural hGH
production.</b> Other natural occurring
times when hGH is secreted is in direct response to <b>intense exercise, physical trauma, and during periods of fasting/hunger</b>. More on this later, as we can deduce simple strategies
to maximize our hGH based on this information.<br />
<br /></div>
<a name='more'></a><o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
hGH helps restore and regenerate
all soft-tissue, synthesize protein (leading to increase in muscle mass and
overall anabolic state), promotes the utilization of fat, improves lean-body
mass and body composition, protects bone density, and raises levels of the
companion hormone, Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 (IGF-1). IGF-1 is often the marker used to test for
hGH levels in the bloodstream. Because
hGH is secreted in short, sporadic bursts throughout the day, it is very
difficult to accurately test for baseline levels. However we know that hGH peaks during puberty
and then tapers off slowly from middle-age adulthood onward. This would seem to imply that as we age into
our forties and beyond we all must eventually become deficient in our hGH
production and further that it would make sense for all of us to benefit from
hormone replacement therapy. There are
many longevity clinics and unethical doctors out there touting hGH replacement
therapy as an ‘anti-aging’ therapy, not to mention, some athletes seeking hGH to
improve performance and faster recovery.
With all the benefits listed earlier, there certainly does not seem to
be a downside to hGH, or replacement therapy to restore levels to normal. But the risks far outweigh the benefits when
we interfere.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G7ytvIsc7LM/VDgQjx-BNTI/AAAAAAABGq0/ZgM1SjIRORs/s1600/human-growth-hormone-hgh-deer-antler-velvet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-G7ytvIsc7LM/VDgQjx-BNTI/AAAAAAABGq0/ZgM1SjIRORs/s1600/human-growth-hormone-hgh-deer-antler-velvet.jpg" /></a></div>
As many post-menopausal women will
tell you, (if you dare ask!), hormone-replacement therapy is very complicated
and not without many negative side-effects.
It seems that even the best endocrinologist doctors still cannot
duplicate what naturally occurs with our own hormone production levels and
ratios, and even if they are coming close, sometimes it seems we are just meant
to age in a certain manner with a natural tapering of hormones as Mother Nature
intended. The main drawback of hGH
replacement therapy is no doubt the cost, at a minimum of $1000 per month for
prescription injections. Who can afford
that? In addition, all hormone
replacement therapy also needs to be closely monitored by a doctor and cycled
accordingly, as it will lose its efficacy and cause the body to shut down its
own production otherwise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
There are clinically-diagnosed
medical cases where adult hGH replacement therapy is warranted such as pituitary
or hypothalamus disease, or damage from radiation therapy. But seeking a prescription for ‘longevity’ or
‘anti-aging’ or improved athletic performance is never a good idea and quickly
leads to bigger problems such as edema, joint pain and swelling, high LDL
cholesterol levels, carpal tunnel syndrome, and hyperglycemia. Furthermore Growth Hormone causes ALL tissues
to grow not just your vanity muscles, including all your organs, even your
heart. You don’t want to mess around
with the synthetic stuff.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Especially when it is so much
easier, cheaper and safer to maximize your GH levels the old-fashioned way - through
simple diet and exercise strategies. As
I mentioned early on in the is article, (and in many of my past articles), <b>intense exercise, directly and immediately
triggers a huge hGH surge</b>. So does
fasting, and <i>Intermittent-Fasting</i> as
I have also discussed before, is a fasting strategy that can be applied to
simultaneously exploit a planned fat-burning window, trigger GH, minimize
insulin, all without risking muscle-catabolism or break down, when done
properly. Lastly, as I mentioned in the
very first paragraph, if you truly want to protect your peak GH secretion
window, do not let anything interfere with your bed time and your first phase
of deep-sleep, approximately 1.5 hours after you first fall asleep. And remember this: Unless you’re shelling out at least $1000 per
month for low-dose hGH prescription injections, you are getting ripped off,
what you think you are getting is fake – placebo at best, and dangerous at
worst!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Max Wettsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00953763316818440432noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7267754024563779027.post-47449359142655876472014-09-11T10:22:00.002-07:002015-02-10T09:33:47.194-08:00Buying (and eating) 'ORGANIC' - is it WORTH it?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BdNtUVsGv8c/VCW5wSrG91I/AAAAAAABGNE/KuA-wtauTVg/s1600/eating%2Borganic%2Bbest%2Bfor%2Bblog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BdNtUVsGv8c/VCW5wSrG91I/AAAAAAABGNE/KuA-wtauTVg/s1600/eating%2Borganic%2Bbest%2Bfor%2Bblog.jpg" height="320" width="255" /></a></div>
The idea of <i>Organic</i> farming is a noble and worthy one, as is choosing to buy
Organic food. It is more than just a liberal,
hipster, environmental-activist fad. <i>Organic</i> means such farmers and the
consumers who buy from them, are trying to do a better job of sustaining our
planet and its limited resources, minimizing their environmental impact, as
well as treating farm animals as humanely as reasonable, all while hopefully
producing safer and tastier food. <b>When you choose to buy <i>Organic</i> you are making an ethical decision just as much as you are
a health-conscious decision. Honestly it
is easier to make the case to buy Organic based on ethical and environmental
reasons more so than for nutrition or taste reasoning, because the jury is
still out on the latter.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CQKJU6H7j2A/VBHZsqBcqSI/AAAAAAABF_o/T1vbJLUb0SM/s1600/USDA%2BOrganic%2BSeal.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CQKJU6H7j2A/VBHZsqBcqSI/AAAAAAABF_o/T1vbJLUb0SM/s1600/USDA%2BOrganic%2BSeal.gif" height="200" width="200" /></a><br />
<br />
<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">’</span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Organic’</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> labeling is thankfully regulated by the United States
Department of Agriculture (USDA), so if you see a food labeled </span><i style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Organic</i><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> accompanied by this </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">official</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">USDA ‘Organic’ Seal</b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">, </span><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;"> then you can trust it is certified organic. (*If the USDA seal is not clearly visible on
the front of the label then it is not certified Organic or held to any such
regulated standards or inspections, even if the product claims to be organic!*) But what does this certification mean exactly
and what are the USDA standards if any?
And does the Organic label really mean the food is any safer or
healthier? </span><b style="text-indent: 0.5in;">The USDA defines certified ‘<i>Organic</i>’
to mean: <i>food production using methods
that preserve the environment and avoid most synthetic materials, such as
pesticides and antibiotics. </i></b><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Organic
principles were first set forth and legislated by Congress contained in the
Organic Foods Production Act.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Organic farms and processors are required
to, (via USDA.gov):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Preserve natural resources and biodiversity<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Support animal health and welfare<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Provide access to the outdoors so that animals
can exercise their natural behaviours<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Only use approved materials<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Do not used genetically modified ingredients<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Receive annual onsite inspections<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Separate organic food from non-organic food<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
</div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Clearly not included in this certification is ‘gluten-free’ or any other
food sensitivity or allergy protection, or food group elimination. Again thankfully, ‘Organic’ does not
discriminate or eliminate any food groups.
If nothing else, you can feel better about yourself when paying a little
more to buy Organic, knowing that you are also supporting more eco-friendly, humane
and inherently more locally grown agriculture.
<b>But is organic food any safer or
healthier?</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In the case of most produce, where
you eat the skin of the fruit or vegetable, or the skin is very thin, you will
be safer buying Organic, since <u>Organic means using only natural pesticides
and nothing toxic or synthetic</u>, and no fertilizer made from sewage. Also, your animal products will not only be
raised with no additional synthetic hormones or antibiotics, but the animals
will have lived a better quality of life since Organic also means that the farm
animal must have access to pasture and natural grasses to eat. <b>So yes,
eating organic is safer, without a doubt.</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<b>While buying Organic means you are eating in a more ethical,
eco-friendly and safer manner, the jury is still out on whether or not Organic
food is any more nutritious</b>, and in some cases the foods may be even less
nutritious since the foods are not allowed fortified with any added <u>synthetic</u>
vitamins or minerals to supplement the nutrients that are naturally occurring. That being said, certified Organic farms are
growing in healthier, mineral-rich soils, which will then be absorbed into the
agriculture, so therefore the grains may not need additional fortification
during processing. <b>But if your only reason for buying Organic is for more nutrient-dense
foods, there is not enough data to justify this.</b> <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Other labels you will see side by
side with the certified Organic products, which are easily mistaken to mean
Organic or equally as safe and regulated as Organic but are not, are <i>‘free-range’, ‘all-natural’ and ‘grass-fed’</i>,
which all sound healthy and fancy, and if were actually true would be a plus,
but since there is no regulation backing these labels, it is unfortunate that
sometimes seeing these phrases are nothing more than a marketing scam, and we
can’t know for sure.<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mbJst36ajoU/VNpAxD2ZNSI/AAAAAAABHq8/5tmKrYdzLuo/s1600/Max%2Bwith%2BSalmon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mbJst36ajoU/VNpAxD2ZNSI/AAAAAAABHq8/5tmKrYdzLuo/s1600/Max%2Bwith%2BSalmon.jpg" height="400" width="266" /></a></div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
For the budget-conscious consumer,
luckily there is an unofficial, but tried and true list of ‘must-buy-Organic’
produce items. This list has come to be
known as <b><i>‘The Dirty Dozen’ </i>because these produce items have been tested to
show they consistently have the highest pesticide residue when NOT Organic</b>,
and their skin is so thin, the pesticides may absorb through, or they are
typically eaten with their skin on. To
save time and space, just web-search this list and it will come up multiple
times. The first 3 items are peaches,
apples and sweet bell peppers! Likewise,
there also exists a <i>‘Clean Fifteen’</i>
list of produce items where buying Organic is not necessary because the skin of
the produce is not eaten, or they just don’t test high for pesticide
residue. Again, web-search this list and
you will save even more money, because buying certified ‘Organic’ does indeed
cost about 15% more on average!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
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