CrossFit
To all of you CrossFit lovers out there don’t worry I’m not here telling you that I don’t like your sport or that it’s rubbish, and to all you CrossFit haters out there, I’m not here to tell you CrossFit is the best, and how nothing compares. This will be an overview of CrossFit positives. To people who dislike CrossFit, stop your jabbering-there are definitely positives to this sport, and the negatives. To the CrossFit junkies out there, you too should quit your jabbering, because there are definitely negatives to CrossFit. CrossFit is said to be (by CrossFit) the ultimate all rounded sport, as far as fitness is concerned. The claim that they make is that weightlifters are strong and have good technique, sprinters are powerful, and team sports such as soccer (football) have athletes that are agile, with high endurance etc. They go as far as to give the winners of their tournament (The CrossFit Games) the title of ‘The fittest man or woman on earth.’ Judging by what all round fitness is said to be, that CrossFit themselves have their own definition for, they have a couple different ones, so if you want to take a look I’ll link it here- http://library.crossfit.com/free/pdf/CFJ-trial.pdf CrossFit combines lots of different sports together and anybody who has not watched some of the CrossFit games, I recommend that you do, because it is highly entertaining. The first question- is it fair to declare, the winner of the cross fit games is ‘The fittest on earth’? Like I said above, if you haven’t yet, I would highly recommend that you watch the CrossFit games, because the challenges are pretty incredible, the circuit based themes that they give to their sport are the definition of ‘high intensity’, it truly is. The weights that they lift for their strength competitions are impressive, with Olympic lifts to incorporate skill into their sport. A mix of gymnastics that incorporates flexibility, coordination and agility, long runs and swims incorporate cardiovascular endurance and they do everything to massive repetition, which incorporates muscular endurance. CrossFit always throws something new into their competitions too, which is brilliant as it makes the athlete think about what they should do next, instead of the same thing day in day out year after year. This also gets the crowed excited, which it always a positive. Although cross fitters love CrossFit so much they would enjoy whatever happened, but speaking from a neutral stand point, the new challenges set are usually very entertaining. Most sports favour some of these fitness principles: Olympic lifters favour: technique, coordination, power, speed and strength, they still use all of the other fitness principles but not to the same degree as the fitness principles listed. Soccer (football) favours: endurance (cardio vascular and muscular), skill, coordination, speed, tactical knowledge. The same as Olympic lifters they use all of the principles there are but they use some more than others. Football (American football): this game is massively tactical, it takes advantage of strength, speed power and agility as the plays they make are filled with short powerful bursts, whether that be jumping to receive the ball, throwing the ball, running for the touchdown or tackling . Again, they take advantage of all systems but American football is mainly about tactics. If you have ever seen any American football training sessions you know how impressive they are as athletes. Search it on YouTube, it’s incredible! Back to CrossFit Does CrossFit favour certain principles of fitness more than others? For me, yes they do. They favour a lot physically and although they have some skill based events i.e. new events that make the athletes think about what they have to do in that situation having not done it before, that is a brilliant way to keep things fresh and really take them out of their comfort zone; Olympic lifts require a great amount of skill, coordination, balance and flexibility. Don’t get me wrong here, I’m not saying that it doesn’t take any skill, because it definitely does and I am not saying these athletes aren’t skilled, a lot of them will have played other sports before finding CrossFit. What I am simply saying is sports like Soccer, American football, baseball, rugby, tennis- although maybe not as physically demanding as CrossFit, they definitely require more skill, either through their tactical knowledge, coordination, reaction time etc. So back to the question- is it fair to declare, the winner of the cross fit games is ‘The fittest on earth’? Judging by how physically demanding the sport is, how little rest the athletes have to recover from their events and personally believing that fitness is also a measurement of recovery I am going to say yes. In terms of physically, this sport I believe has to have a person extremely fit to accomplish the tasks. Although in terms of skill, other sports have taken far greater skill, in my opinion. Positives and Negatives of CrossFit Positives WOD CrossFit have a system called WOD (Workout Of the Day), this is brilliant! The workout of the day, is incredibly difficult and is usually some sort of high intensity circuit that are done by a time trial, reps or a measurement, which is a great idea- it allows people to see where they are and where they are going. It’s a brilliant way to get the most out of people because it gives them a target to work towards. This works brilliantly with athletes, as athletes are very competitive. Non- athletes are usually in the gym to better themselves in some way, doing WOD will probably just make them happy that they have managed to complete it as some of them are insane, but from there they have a great base to improve for next time. Conditioning CrossFit is brilliant for conditioning, most of their workouts are burst conditioning. There is some steady state conditioning but mostly CrossFit is done to high intensity for a shorter duration. This allows things to remain exciting rather than just endlessly running or doing the same thing over and over. There is so much choice to go with when it comes to workouts and it’s easy to see why people enjoy this sport so much. Furthermore, just look at a professional Cross fitter man or woman- they have some of the most aesthetically pleasing bodies in sports, from this you can see how incredible their conditioning is. Nutrition Cross fitters usually go by a Paleo diet plan, this is basically you don’t eat anything that isn’t grown in the ground or can’t be found and slaughtered. This is a very healthy option as this is more primal and it is what our bodies would have been used to back when we were hunters- there is a lot of science behind it that believe this is the best way to eat and judging by the results in performance and the ripped physiques it works. Community The community within CrossFit is one of a kind! The sportsmanship within CrossFit is second to none. Everybody there goes there to win, of course they do- winning is the point! Seeing the pros clap one another across the line is very refreshing in a sport nowadays- it’s not even just a clap, they cheer for them until they finish and then all walk up and congratulate one another and it is a very sincere thing. Unlike a lot of sports where it seems as though they shake hands for the sake of it. The fans of the sport are also like nothing I have ever seen, they scream and shout till their heads blow up and they defend the sport to the death! TO THE DEATH! Negatives Trainers CrossFit trainers can become CrossFit certified after a weekend course. This isn’t ideal as there are some massive Olympic lifts in CrossFit, a lot of which take years of practice to perform competently. Furthermore, anybody can go and open up a gym and call it a CrossFit gym. Scenario John is a construction worker that has recently got into CrossFit, has savings and sees how big the sport is, wants to open his own CrossFit gym. He gets a certificate after a weekend of work and moves on to open his own gym. Now this scenario may sound a little unrealistic or probably a bit stupid to some people but, this could happen, somebody who doesn’t completely know what they’re talking about could open a gym and teach. Poor technique in exercise leads to muscular imbalances and injuries, which is why this is bad. I’m not saying it is like this in every gym because CrossFit certification do run longer courses and there are strength and conditioning coaches that train people to CrossFit too. What I am trying to get at is the potential to open your own CrossFit centre and train people with very little knowledge. Injuries There are A LOT of injuries in CrossFit. Yes, there are a lot of injuries in every sport, it’s an occupational hazard, there is no getting away from it, in fact if you go through a professional or amateur career without an injury as an athlete you are very lucky indeed. The main difference being that if an athlete from a professional football club injured themselves they wouldn’t be able to continue through the rules of the game. During the CrossFit games 2013 zigzag sprint- in the quarterfinals a competitor called Michael Mogard pulled his left hamstring, he is an individual athlete so naturally he wants to continue and go all the way, admirable but, not safe in the slightest! He decided to continue and opted to add some compression to the pulled muscle by strapping it up. This is dangerous because he could have torn the hamstring further meaning after competition he would be out for an extended amount of time or he could have completely ruptured the hamstring, which again isn’t ideal to a professional athlete’s situation. At this time, there was nobody from a medical profession to advise against the matter, of course if somebody had advised against him continuing, he could have continued. In other sports if an injury occurs the participant is unable to continue. I.e. boxing, if a boxer if knocked out there is a period of time that they cannot compete or train for because it is deemed unsafe. CrossFit should regulate the heath of their athletes better, as a lot of athletes perform a lot of activity each year at the CrossFit games suffer from heat exhaustion and the side effects of heat exhaustion can be dire, yet they are allowed to procced. Olympic lifts These are incredibly technically demanding (overhead snatch, clean and jerk etc.) and they should remain technical at all times, this is where a lot of the skill that CrossFit has to offer comes from because of the high technique it has to perform these lifts. CrossFit like to include these lifts and do them for incredibly high reps, it doesn’t matter that CrossFit take the weight down of those lifts and increase the amount of reps. During these lifts the kinetic chain has to work in unison, you can see watching ANY! Video where high reps are done with these lifts, how form suffers overtime, and of course it is going to suffer. These are difficult lifts, but when your stabilising muscles give out through fatigue you open yourself to injury, through continued poor form. These types of workouts have the highest potential to cause injuries in sport due to the physical and technical demand they have on the body. We have all seen horror videos about people lifting in heals or not squatting properly and the amount of problems it can cause. Summary CrossFit is definitely a great sport and in my opinion the winners are rightly called “fittest on earth”, although they may not be the most skilful. They are definitely benefits that CrossFit bring to sport and there are also definite negatives that they bring. The thing is a lot of the negatives can be easily fixed through some different rules and regulations they could put it in place. For example, they could put in rules about coaching in order to make the coaching standard better. They could have doctors and Physical Therapists at events to help athletes and deem them fit or unfit to continue quite easily. They could make rules that if somebody becomes injured and fails an assessment they may not continue. They could change the shear amount of Olympic lifts that they do, this one isn’t going to happen because this is such a large part of what CrossFit is. The other changes mentioned are easy to implement and they don’t take away from the sport- they make it much safer for athletes in the long run.
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Waist trainers In a world where every woman wants curves they have taken to using devices to make their waists thin and their hips big… I give you the waist trainer The waist trainer, where to start. It’s a pile of shit! No doubt that the waist trainer works, no doubt about that, it definitely works. I see many a lady walking around with a lovely thin waist and it’s hard to deny that it does make you look athletically pleasing. This said do you know what the sexiest thing in the world is? Having a positive body image. Love yourself in your own skin and other people will too. It’s not a joke it works both ways. If a guy is confident then women are automatically more draw to him, I’ve seen it happen a million times and everybody knows it. Not to be confused with being cocky or arrogant because there is a very fine line. Anyway moving on, waist trainers- what has made me review these very worthwhile investments for making a tiny waist? The promises they make are true but they aren’t healthy, at all! Let’s do a breakdown of what waist trainer promises and how it works: this is taken directly from a waist trainer website! WHY USE A WAIST TRAINER? Trying to lose weight? – Obviously that’s why we are here. - Many people exercise a lot but see very little positive change to their bodies. Why? No amount of exercise will help you lose weight or tone up unless your diet is controlled too. – Okay yeah this is good, good information waist trainer, it is 80% diet depends on your weight. So this is a true say ladies. - Most people are busy with long work hours, children or other commitments, resulting in a lack of time to exercise throughout the week, so have used a waist trainer as an alternative. – okay so they’re suggesting that using a waist trainer is a good alternative for real exercise. So just put it on and sit down and that will burn some brilliant calories. No I’m calling bull shit on that! - The waist trainer works by diminishing your appetite to eat smaller portions throughout the day to allow your body to metabolise the food better and turn more of it into energy rather than stored fat. Okay this is good and bad. Good that they’re talking sense in terms of metabolism with smaller meals throughout the day. That’s a pretty scientific approach right there so well done to them. How does it diminish your appetite? Is it psychological? Could be, they say it’s true so people put it on and think wow it really works, especially when they see the models they hire to show off their product. A theory is that it distorts your organs. But I’ll get into that a little more a bit later. - Instead of eating 2-3 large meals per day, you will feel fuller and be more inclined to eat smaller portions throughout the day. Okay this is basically the same point as above. They use basic principles of healthy nutrition plans and add in that it’s all the waist trainer. - Wake up looking great but bloated and chubby at the end of the day? This is diet guys this is all diet. Lots of contributions throughout the day can lead to this. When you get up in the morning you are dehydrated, so you’re holding less water weight making you look thinner than normal. Eating high sodium foods and carbohydrates aids in retaining water and giving you that ‘chubby’ look. - Persistently wearing your waist trainer for a few weeks and cutting down food portions will result in a flatter, more toned and tighter looking stomach region even when your waist trainer is off. Persistently, so day in day out? That doesn’t sound healthy something squeezing your waist that whole time. - Poor posture and suffer from back pain caused by sitting or standing all day?- Usually down to a muscular imbalance guys. Try working on your glutes and or your transverse abdominus. Having those muscles underactive are the two main causes of poor back health. - Our waist trainers can improve your posture (forces your back to an upright position) - yeah it does, but your spine is supposed to have curvature in order for shock absorption, muscle connection and protection of organs. - Our waist trainers can immediately relieve back pain and tension that you probably did not realize was caused from poor posture for those who stand or sit for long periods at a time e.g. retail, hospo, and office- bold claim that it immediately relives all back pain. But then doing this is pretty much the same as buying yourself a back support or like I said above working out the under active muscles will be very beneficial in stopping that back pain. PLEASE REMEMBER For long term permanent results your waist trainer should be used in conjunction with healthy diet and moderate, regular exercise. This is at the end of their page. They basically tell you to do what you should be doing without the waist trainer. But isn’t that the reason you are here? You aren’t quite sure what is wrong with your diet or your exercise as to why you aren’t losing the amount of weight or looking how you want too? In the end, to say you need to exercise and have a good diet is kind of a massive middle finger. I’m not here just to trash this product because that wouldn’t be fair, it does have some good parts to it. This includes basic rules about meals- five meals a day does in fact cause a better reaction from the blood sugar levels and help boost metabolism. Their science is pretty spot on there, but you don’t need a waist trainer in order to do that, you can do that yourself. It doesn’t specify meals and I suppose it’s obvious that they should be healthy. This basic principle and telling people to exercise is the healthiest advice about this product. You pay for that advice more than you do the product because that is what is going to get you healthy and help you lose weight. Honestly though, that is about it. Maybe it has worked for people and to those people well done! Seriously well done. But at what cost has it come? A waist trainer isn’t a new invention, it’s been done before, been around for quite a while. It’s a corset! When you wear this 500-year-old device, you squish your lungs and ribs, which makes it hard to breathe. A good example of this is in the film ‘The Pirates of the Caribbean’ Kira Knightly collapsed over the cliff and feel into the water because her corset was too tight. If you keep wearing it for an extended period of time? It isn’t pretty: think crushed organs, compressed lungs, and fractured ribs. This image was taken from-
https://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/2012/06/03/q-and-a-do-tight-corsets-cause-medical-problems/ Does that sound safe to anybody reading? At all? I don’t think it does, maybe it’s worth it to some people. And if it is worth it to you then I’m sorry but that’s sad. It really is, it’s okay because it’s not your fault, it’s because that’s how the world wants you do look. So it’s not sad on your part it’s sad on what the world says you have to be to be attractive. The models. Okay ladies those models were paid to advertise this product. They were models before they advertised the waist trainer and they will be models afterwards. They got paid to do it. All those celebs said they used waist trainers. Again, they got paid to do that stuff, there is no way they would just sit there in their rooms and take pictures for Instagram if they weren’t getting paid. Not to mention a lot of them get paid to post on Instagram anyway. They could be wearing a bin bag and they would get paid. Its good advertising but it’s not fair, a lot of the celebs are already in great shape and look good etc. As a body conscious person obviously you will look at it and think oh my god it works, so well done to waist training for their advertisement there it’s worked wonders. The posture support- okay maybe it does help but what kind of solution is that? This will make your muscles even weaker if you aren’t exercising them properly. You have a sheath under the skin that holds all your organs in place and helps you to maintain posture, even while sitting at a desk or doing whatever, your posture muscles are working. With the waist trainer on them, there is no need for them to work as much so they will degrade and be worse. Ladies, if you’re thinking about buying I honestly wouldn’t recommend it. It isn’t safe, it distorts your organs, can cause bruising and organ rupture, broken ribs etc that’s not healthy in the slightest. You need your organs to be heathy and live in general, why would you hurt them? It’s the same principle as cutting off your ear to improve your hearing: someone can convince you it works but not only is this untrue, it also causes more harm than good. Thanks for reading xx Smile!!! Yeah the heading doesn’t really tell you what this is about. We are here to talk about toothpaste or the wonders of toothpaste, and why toothpaste is bad for your teeth! This is something everybody wants to know because everybody likes a smile. People also like teeth! That is why there are cosmetic teeth whitening services and white fillings available. Everybody wants to have nice white teeth!. Even though white teeth aren’t necessarily healthy teeth, they give the illusion that you’re more attractive than you are. You can have anybody: male, female, somewhere in-between- and if they have nice white teeth they will stand out because of their dental. Similarly, you can have somebody who is very attractive, but with bad teeth they can look less attractive. Lets add some images and get some perspective: Would you prefer: 1) somebody you consider very attractive smiling at you with these teeth, 2) Or somebody who is less attractive smiling at you with these beauties? Okay, obviously the second picture has been photoshoped to look awesome but hopefully you get my point.
I’m not saying that having toothpaste will make you look like the horrible teeth picture let me just add ,those teeth probably belong to someone who grinds their teeth, drinks cola or soda of some kind, and never actually brushes their teeth and has poor dental hygiene. However, toothpaste is not as good for you as dentists would have you believe and there are other things that you can use instead of toothpaste that are better for your teeth. Let’s start off with what is bad with toothpastes then shall we: Fluoride- in adverts, they give the impression Fluoride is brilliant. So- what is wrong with Fluoride? Let me enlighten you. According to the Akron Regional Poison Centre, ingestion of 1/10 of an ounce of fluoride can kill a 100lb adult. Now 100lb is a very small adult but this stuff is also in children’s toothpaste. Accidently swallowing and ingesting this stuff can leave you with some horrible symptoms, such as diarrhoea etc. What is fluoride? – Sodium fluoride is a by-product of aluminium manufacturing. It is usually made by neutralising hydrofluoric acid with sodium hydroxide and then drying the crystals. If that means anything to you! Triclosan – This is used around the western world as a pesticide - on fruits and veg to stop things eating them, besides humans. Something that kills things surely isn’t good to put in your body! Wouldn’t you agree? But then again, we all drink and smoke so what do I know? We also continue to eat things that have pesticides on them and we have done alright so far. So big thumbs up there!! Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS) - according to the American College of Toxicology, SLS can stay within the body for up to five days! Accumulating in several vital areas, like the heart and brain- those are pretty much the most vital areas in the body! When combined with other chemicals SLS transforms into another chemical named nitrosamines. This is carcinogenic and can cause you to absorb harmful nitrates! What this means is that it is FRIGGING POISONOUS!!!! Propylene glycol- this is an active component in antifreeze- ANTII FREEZE!!!!! What the hell!! Why are we putting this in our bodies? I know the other ones were killing bugs so, maybe you’ll get away with that. But antifreeze kills cats and dogs every year! Cats and dogs are significantly bigger than slugs or ants. Manufactures of this product won’t let people work with it without rubber gloves. It’s like those chillies that are hotter than the sun. Why would you put something in your body that you can’t touch normally? That is ridiculous!!The solution? The best way is to make our own toothpaste. What should we make it out of? Good question! It is really, really easy to do with natural ingredients: baking soda, water, sea salt, and peppermint extract and peppermint oil Baking soda-Baking soda can be used with some water to remove the stains on the surface of the teeth. It can also be used with hydrogen peroxide to enhance its whitening effects. Baking soda can be used by individuals with regular toothpastes too. It is often used in some teeth whitening products. Sea salt- sea salt has its own natural source of fluoride. Although what I have said above says not to use it, when it comes in a natural product you know it hasn’t been artificially made and that the amount in it is enough not to horribly effect nature. If it did all of the fish would be dead! Pretty good argument if you ask me! Peppermint extract and peppermint oil – this will mainly give the gloop that you make (from the baking soda seas salt and water) a nice taste and leave your breath feeling fresh. The Recipe: 1) Half a cup of baking soda, 2) one tablespoon of salt, 3)2 tablespoons of peppermint extract, 4) Peppermint oil 5-6 droops to flavour, Method: Mix all the ingredients with water until it is at a good consistency for you. You could use other flavourings too, such as normal mint- I’ts really up to you. Now, this last one I’ll mention, but you will probably think what the hell? Coconut oil! Yes, coconut oil! I know what you’re thinking bladdy hell this stuff can be used for everything. Yes, yes it can! In fact I doubt it’ll be long before they start putting it in medical first aid bags and hospitals. Athlete suffers compound fracture- first aider goes in kit, “Don’t worry we will have you up in no time.” Rubs coconut oil on the fracture and it’s healed! At the hospital- Nurse: “We don’t know what the infection is we have tried all manner of IVs” (that’s doctor talk). Doctor, “Have you tried coconut oil?” Nurses and other doctors look at one another as if he has gone mad, 10 minutes later they rub coconut oil on him……. Good as new! But seriously moving along. Coconut oil pulling can have great effects for oral health! How do you use coconut oil? Mix coconut oil with some warm water so it melts down from a solid into a liquid. Once it has melted down, you put it in your mouth and swish it around like you would some mouthwash. Again, add some peppermint for the fresh breath feel- it can be quite potent though so no need to use too much. The good thing about using oil is that mouth wash also has lots of chemicals and alcohol in it- swallowing it is always a bad idea! If you swallow some coconut oil by mistake it won’t do you any harm, it may actually do you some good. To have a look at the benefits of coconut oil, check out my blog on its benefits. Going back to picture one, this person looks to have a lot of bacteria around his gums and they are particularly inflamed. Coconut oil has properties in It that are good for the gums and can help fight bacteria in and around the gums, therefore it can help to reduce the spread of gum based diseases, such as gingivitis. There we go. Thanks for reading Until the next time xx Bibliography Picture 1 taken from www.pinterest.com Picture 2 taken from www.ianreeddentist.co.uk American collage of toxicity Akron Regional Poison Centre What are GMO foods? GMO actually stands for: Genetically Modified Organism. GMO’s are the result of a laboratory process where genes from the DNA are taken from one organism (plant or animal) and added into genes from a different organism and these genes can come from bacteria, viruses, insects, plants, animals or humans. Due to the transfer of genes GOM’s are also known as transgenic organisms. As this is similar to selective breeding, which we know has been in existence for thousands of years, biotechnology can now be more efficient as they are able to directly modify the gnome of different crops the difference here being that these organisms are ‘transgenetic’. I dont know about you people out there but I’ve never tried to initiate coitous with a potato in order for the potato to be more nutrient dense. This isn’t as stupid as it sounds, apparently GMO foods have some human genes in them. Again, I don’t know about all you fine people out there, but I don’t think adding things to my food is particularly safe, especially since it is defined as ‘added genes from a different organism’ whether that be from bacteria, virus, insect, plants, humans or animals. Positives and negatives of GMO foods Let’s just discuss one of the negatives here shall we. The ones done with pesticides associated with genetically modified foods found in maternal fetal and non-pregnant women blood, along with the presence of BT toxin. Breaking this down, what do we know? We know that pesticides are poisoness, that’s a fact. Pesticides no matter what form they come in, are poisoness. To be found in the blood of somebody is pretty horrifying. BT toxin, what is that? BT toxins stands for, Bacillus Thuringiensis and it is a bacteria that produces proteins which are toxic to insects. It’s in the same family of bacteria as B. anthracis, which causes anthrax, and B. cereus, which causes food poisoning. So the toxicity of this substance should come as no surprise. BT’s aggressive mechanism harms the digestive system by effectively attacking normal gut cells thereby burning holes in the intestines. This can cause problems such as leaky gut syndrome. For more on leaky gut syndrome click this link – http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/leaky-gut-syndrome/Pages/Introduction.aspx . This has been found in pregnant women, now in my opinion that is disgusting! As if finding it in somebody to begin with isn’t bad enough, it being in the blood stream of women could mean the potential of it being passed on to the baby. Now the research that it is from is the first of its kind and to my knowledge the only one so far. Depending on what testing was used will depend on the particular women and this will impact on the results, as it is good to note with any scientific experiment. The true results come when experiments have been done multiple times and there is a correlation in the literature. Although as you can see above there are other studies that have been done that can link GMOs to different health problems such as Gluten disorders Overview of positives and negatives Just looking at the list you can see all of the negatives and to me personally they outweigh the positives, as far as health concerns go. I may be biased, because I came into this hoping to say that GM products are shit! I like the idea of fresh healthy products and in a perfect world I would grow all my own stuff. Although, understanding that this isn’t a perfect world I know that the positives are a very big positive! In terms of cultivation of crops and the farming industry as a whole. As this is supposed to be a health blog, I will have to say that GMO’s are typically bad in my opinion and according to different research out there. UK and GMO foods In the UK, GM foods aren’t really a thing. The only way that GM foods are thought to enter Britain is as animal feed. We can see from the negatives box that it has a negative effect on pigs. If the feed has a negative effect on pigs and we eat pork from those pigs will that transfer over? Well, as when we digest things they get broken down into their chemical forms and end up sustaining who we are and what we do, it’s safe to assume that there will be an effect from the pork that we eat, but I’ll let you decide. GM foods that are bought into the EU such as animal feed, food or biofuels have to be labelled but an animal that has eaten GM feed doesn’t have to be marked when dairy and meat is produced from that animal, even though it has found that there are effects on animals from eating these GM foods. This is approved by regulations that the EU uphold and the EU have some pretty strict regulations; GB are even stricter when it comes to meats, after the foot and mouth fiasco. The EU entered into GM crop cultivation in 2010 and in order to get the go ahead earlier countries where given an ‘opt out’ clause. The EU has also decided to allow GM feed to include trace levels of crops which have no safety approval in Europe. Now, they don’t deem it safe but they are still using it. Probably because of all the positives that are listed. The thing is, when it comes to the ability to feed more people for less money and less time taken to do so, it’s deemed okay. That’s always going to be why it’s okay and it doesn’t matter that it has toxins in it etc. Taking a look at the positives briefly they are incredibly good positives. When it comes to feeding a lot of people in situations of drought or extremely cold weather it’s brilliant and the science behind it is genius! But in terms of the studies done on the effects of health, is it worth it to you personally? ‘In April 2013, Tesco, the Co-Op and Marks and Spencer announced they will no longer require poultry to be fed on GM-free feed, following similar decisions by Morrisons (March 2012) and Asda (September 2010). Sainsbury is keeping some product lines fed on non-GM soya, but is dropping others. There is a danger that suppliers will no longer segregate GM and non-GM soya in shipments to Britain if the major retailers do not demand it and easily available sources of non-GM meat and dairy products will be lost. Although GM feed will not be used for products that are classified as organic!’ (1) This isn’t brilliant in my opinion, as I have discussed already, they don’t have to mark any products that use GM grain and the health effects that they have on animals that can be passed over aren’t brilliant. In Britain, there have been field trials of GM potatoes (one in Norfolk and one near Leeds) and GM wheat (at the Rothamsted research centre in Hertfordshire). In 2014, a trial of GM Camila sativa ("false flax") is planned at Rothamsted. This crop has a genetically altered oil content (high in omega-3). Defra lists applications and consents for field trials, and if they’re trialling it how can they be sure that pollen from these trials aren’t getting out to our other sources of food and changing them? Also why are they trialling them if not to bring them into the country long term? After all of this, it is safe to assume that GB isn’t completely GM free and possibly in the future due to the testing of certain GM foods it could potentially be coming into the county full time! Which I personally am against. I don’t think it’s very safe to even test them here and that potentially there is a battle of ethics here due to the poisons that are used and that have been found in the human blood streams from the intake of GM foods . GM foods in USA America’s food regulations are a little different to the EU mainly because of the amount of people that live there, they try to do everything on a grand scale because it’s more cost effective. This is fair enough as it is working towards supply and demand and in America there is a lot of demand. In the USA, there is no requirement that says you have to indicate the presence of GMO ingredients on food labels or in restaurants, nor are companies required to report which genetically modified seeds they use. This means it could pretty much be everywhere and nobody would know. GMO’s were first approved to be grown in America in 1996. An article in time magazine says that 90% of all soybean cotton and corn acreage in America is used to grow GM crops. Like I said before, it’s to supply and demand so it’s not deemed that big of a deal when it comes to those circumstances but when you look into all of the underlining health factors that it can potentially cause, what the seed can do to animals and the fact that GM foods are less resistant to disease and pests then, again, for me it’s not worth it. Where genetic modification has been used on a large scale in the U.S are on food crops such as: sugar beets, alfalfa, canola, papaya and squash. I found it very difficult to find the regulation of these products and all I found was that it’s approved by the major governing bodies over in America, which is why it is so widely used. The question is, what is so different about testing of products that they don’t want to use it in Europe and the UK but in America it’s used as much as possible? Conclusion As you can see from the difference in USA and the UK/EU, GM foods are used a lot more in the USA and like I said I believe this is due to supply and demand problem. More than anything else the population of America being around 318.9 million and the population of the UK being about 64.1million, however, Europe as a whole has a population of 742.5 million people, far greater than the USA but does not fuel supply and demand via the use of gm products. As stated earlier, countries in Europe can use the ‘opt out’ clause, as such some countries in Europe could still be producing GM foods. However, this is no-where near the same scale as the USA. Judging on the research, I think we should just have natural foods- vegetables and in an ideal world we should raise our own crops and livestock because real food, without any preservatives or genetic modifications are the best for you, because it is nature’s bounty- as much as a hippy as that makes me sound. Hopefully this give a little insight into what GMO foods are and where they can be found. If anybody has any further information, I would be very happy to hear about it as I find this very interesting. I don’t mind being told I’m wrong as long as there is evidence to support it! Here is a list of regions that have been free of GMO foods since 2010- http://www.gmo-free-regions.org/fileadmin/files/gmo-free-regions/full_list/List_GMO-free_regions_Europe_update_September_2010.pdf Here are a list of journals for your consideration. They’re all done by scientific testing and they are definitely worth the time to read in my opinion: (1)https://www.uclm.es/Actividades/repositorio/pdf/doc_3721_4666.pdf (2)http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0069805 (3)http://rt.com/usa/gmo-gluten-sensitivity-trigger-343/ (4)http://responsibletechnology.org/media/images/content/Press_Release_Gluten_11_25.pdf (5)http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691512005637 (6)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23756170 (7)http://earthopensource.org/files/pdfs/Roundup-and-birth-defects/RoundupandBirthDefectsv5.pdf (8)http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/tx1001749 (9)http://www.mdpi.com/1099-4300/15/4/1416 (10)http://omicsonline.org/open-access/detection-of-glyphosate-residues-in-animals-and-humans-2161-0525.1000210.pdf (11) http://www.organic-systems.org/journal/81/8106.pdf (12)http://static.aboca.com/www.aboca.com/files/attach/news/risk_assessment_of_genetically_modified_crops_for_nutrition.pdf (13)http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19146501 Bibliography (1) http://www.genewatch.org/sub-568547 Coconut oil: what it’s good for and how you can use it!
Coconut oil is a super food if you will. Coconuts when synthesized into its purest form is coconut oil. When it becomes coconut oil it has a nutritional value of almost 100% fat a majority of which is saturated. Saturated fat But isn’t saturated fat bad for me? NOPE!! That is one of the biggest myths of the 20th century. It was taken from a certain piece of research that was done by a man named Ancel Keys. The experiment that he did compared heart disease and fat consumption. This left a positive correlation that people who ate more fat did in fact have more heart disease. Although what MR Ancel Keys did was he took out all data suggesting otherwise. What do I mean by this? Well he didn’t include data from places like Norway, a place where they typically eat a lot of fat. Norway showed that their fat consumption was large but their death by heart disease wasn’t very high at all. If you think about Inuit tribes they eat: fish, whale blubber, seal blubber, berries and their life expectancy is larger than a lot of countries in the western world. Mr Keys didn’t include places that don’t eat much fat but have a high death rate of people from heart disease like Chile. In fact, people who are in the top end of the spectrum that are said to consume a lot of fat and are suffering from heart disease places like: the UK, America and Australia typically have a low fat diet. In every supermarket, everywhere, everyone, Is buying low fat products. so why are we all still fat? This, my lovely lovely people, is due to processed grains and fats. What do I mean by processed grains? Well, processed grains are things such as: bread, couscous, pasta etc. Processed fats things like olive oil margarines or any margarines for that matter. Margarine is made from unsaturated fats (polyunsaturated and mono unsaturated fats) when they’re taken from their main components like olives or sunflower seeds. They’re oil. And at room temperature they’re oil still. This is due to the makeup of those particular fats. So how do they make it into that buttery like substance? Good question. What they do is they add things call Trans fats which are chemically made substances that changes the fats in the oils in order to turn them into a solid. So in short, the processed fats are Trans fats and they’re in margarine and various other things. Saturated fats are actually good because they’re naturally occurring animal fats and in coconuts. These fats always work perfectly well with protein and actually help one another in digestion. Think of an egg: when you crack an egg you think protein (the white bit) and fats (the yoke). Fats and proteins- the perfect amount of each in an egg to create life. Surely there is something to that. I’ll let you decide Coconut oil. 3 ways to use coconut oil- 1) Use as a Pre workout Coconut oil is 100% fat, it can be eaten as it is, so a heaped teaspoon before the gym or it can be added to coffee. It passes through the stomach, is quickly digested and goes to the liver. The liver holds Glycogen. Let’s just say for now that glycogen = energy. It’s not incredibly scientific as there is a process it goes through but for the purpose of a shortened explanation glycogen = energy. Glycogen released when we exercise to give the body energy to carry out the task before it. Some glycogen is stored in our muscles but not much so when our muscles run dry we get more energy from the breakdown of glycogen in the liver. What the coconut oil does is goes through digestion straight into the liver. Now, coconut oil is a medium branched triglyceride (fancy name for fats) when this is synthesised in the liver it turns into ketones. What are Ketones? Ketones are the acids remaining when the body burns its own fat. When the body has insufficient insulin, it cannot get glucose from the blood into the body's cells to use as energy and will instead begin to burn fat. This along with the glycogen you already have will give you an energy boost. Which is exactly what we want from a pre workout. More energy. It’s a good thing because it won’t increase your heart rate from caffeine which is usually found in pre workouts alone, with a lot of other chemicals to help you focus. This is a good natural way to do it. The serving a heaped tea spoon is usually enough but each person will need a different amount. Also its texture isn’t brilliant so you may need some water nearby to watch it down with. 2) Use to help you cut! If you’re in a cutting phase during exercise and you’re hoping to lose some body fat, coconut oil can be very useful. Despite what you may think, fat doesn’t make you fat and cholesterol doesn’t give you cholesterol. What makes you fat is the spike in insulin that you get from carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are broken down into their simplest form of sugar (glucose) too much glucose in the blood stream is toxic to the body so what happens is the body releases a chemical called insulin in order to get rid of excess sugars. While it is doing this it is burning all of the sugar off and all of the fat that is usually used as energy has nowhere to go. So it gets stored in the cells = adipose tissue. So fat doesn’t make you fat, sugar makes you fat. Another reason coconut oil won’t make you fat and will in fact help you lose fat is because it doesn’t go through the same process as normal fats. It passes through the digestion and goes straight to the liver and is used as ketones. Like we visited earlier, Ketones are acids remaining when the body burns its own fat. When the body has insufficient insulin, it cannot get glucose from the blood into the body's cells to use as energy and will instead begin to burn fat. When you have more ketones going through your blood it will lower the insulin production and will help you to start burning more fat- In a state of ketosis. Ketosis is a state at which the body has an extremely high fat-burning rate. Even the brain runs on fat, via ketone bodies. These are energy molecules in the blood (like blood sugar) which become fuel for our brains after being converted from fat by the liver.To encourage ketone production, the amount of insulin in your bloodstream must be low. The lower your insulin, the higher your ketone production. Again ways that you can use this is to cook with it, put it in a coffee, or simply eat a spoonful now and then. It typically works better as part of a high fat low carbohydrate diet. 3) Use as moisturiser Coconut oil is 100% fat, it is mostly saturated fat but also has omega 3 in it. This is brilliant for dry skin so put it on your lips or put it onto you dry hands, and it’ll help it out. If you like the smell of coconuts get the extra virgin stuff but if not the normal organic stuff is the same it just doesn’t have that coco nutty smell. With dry hands I recommend that you put it into a glove and strap the glove on and wear it overnight for a few nights in order to properly nourish them and get them soft again. The problem with a lot of hand creams is that they’re made from chemicals. Chemicals are the ones that did this to your hand in the first place I’m willing to bet. Put a couple table spoons in a cotton glove overnight and it’ll help. You’ll be just like the character Curley from Mice of Men. Hopefully you have read that book or the reference is wasted on you. You can also make a paste from it. Add something else in like aloe vera also very good for the skin!! ‘There are several different types of squat that are used with a barbell. The barbell squat is performed with the barbell across the back (back squat) slightly above the shoulder blades (high bar squat) or across the mid back and scapular (low bar squat) the level of the acromion (bone part or the anterior shoulder), or with the barbell held in front of the chest approximately at the level of the clavicles- the bony structure above your chest known as the collar bones (front squat). The back squat is usually preferred and performed by most athletes in sport, although the front squat is commonly performed by bodybuilders and Olympic weightlifters. The front squat is simulated during the clean and jerk exercise by Olympic weightlifters’ (1). For the purpose of this post we will be doing front squats vs high back squat, which I personally prefer, and explaining some of the science behind it. Lets begin with the squat in general. If you’re going to a gym and you aren’t working legs- you should be! Working such a large muscle group helps to increase metabolism and as it’s a big compound movement (a movement that includes more than one joint in its motion) it can help to increase testosterone. Increasing metabolism is good for burning calories and increasing testosterone is good for building some muscle, which has a knock on effect of burning more calories. I know what you’re thinking ladies, ‘I don’t want to get muscly with testosterone’. That’s not gunna happen! I’ll write a blog about it so just hold your horses! Back squat The squat is one of my personal favourite exercises, I really just like everything about it.’ The skill it takes to do it properly and the amount of positives it has to performance in any capacity, means I believe everybody should be doing it. These are guidelines that have been taken from the American College of Sports Medicine
Muscles worked by the back squat: The back squat is a compound movement which means that it works across two different joints! In this case it works across the knees and the hips. The muscles activated by the squat are: the quadriceps, the hamstrings and the glutes. There are a lot of stabilising muscles used while doing a barbell squat too, such as your erectus spinae in order to keep your back straight while performing the exercise. Front Squat I couldn’t find the American College of Sports Medicines protocols for the front squat so I’ll tell you in my words
Given the position of the bar with the front squat, it can be harder to balance for somebody that is lifting a lot of weight or somebody who is fairly new to the exercise.
This is also a compound exercise working across the same joints as the back squat (knee and hip joints) but this is slightly different in terms of muscle activation (muscles worked). To keep good posture in this exercise you really need to have a strong lower back. Other than that, the main muscles that it works are the quadriceps, the glutes and the hamstrings. Sounds the same right? Yeah it is, but this works a majority the quadriceps and the glutes and not so much the hamstrings. Something you want to make sure that you’re doing at the top of the squat is squeezing your glutes together, this will cause you to keep your hips straight. A lot of people don’t do this and it can cause their hips to be all over the place and this is one fast way to get injured. Which is better? They’re both squats and they’re both compound exercises so overall they’re both brilliant movements when done correctly. And are both better for different purposes Dangers and Benefits of Back Squats When doing back squats if you lift a heavy amount it has potential to distort the spine due to the load that goes through it. Your spine, as you probably know is very important because it protects the nerves that come down from the brain so it’s importance is crucial in keeping you central nervous system safe. Back squats can put a lot of pressure on the cartilage between the vertebras in the back which can cause them to prolapse (otherwise known as a slipped disk). If you think about the amount of force going through your spine with a squat and that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, that means if you’re squatting 300lbs that’s going through the spine and on a solid base you’re getting that reaction coming back up through, meaning that your spine has a lot of pressure going through it. This can distort the spine That said if you decide to take a lower bar position with the bar while you lift, less compression comes through the spine but the stabilising muscles need to be stronger (lower back and requires you to hold the bar in place more than just resting it on your shoulders). The good thing about the back squat is that it works a very large muscle group and that it can be done with a lot of weight if able. Being able to complete the squat with good form and a heavy load is not only very impressive but is also has a lot of positive effects mentioned earlier, such as increased testosterone and increase of growth hormones. Dangers and Benefits of Front squats Bad things- with front squats you typically cannot lift as much due to the position of the lift. As you remain in an upright position, it puts a lot of stress on the lower back and from the grip it can be found to dig into the clavicle, which a lot of people find uncomfortable. Good things- the front squat is good because it doesn’t put too much load through the spine. There is more load on the lower back because the need for the lower back as a stabiliser. Something else that is a positive for sprinters, due to the angle of the front squat there is more of a correlation with sprinters contact when they run. Of course, it can be argued that front squats are better for the quadriceps than the hamstrings, they activate the quadriceps better than the hamstrings and that a hamstring - quadriceps imbalance can have a greater cause of hamstring injury. But that’s for another time. For all squats – Knees- knees are a big problem in squats if done incorrectly. When the knee comes past the toes the shearing force that is put through the cartilage in the knees (menisci) is far greater than normal. When there is a greater shearing force this can wear away the cartilage in the knees, causing bone to rub on bone. When bone rubs on bone it can chip and you will have bone fragments floating around in your knee capsule and this can be dangerous as it has potential to tear other structures such as the Anterior and Posterior Cruciate Ligaments. When bone rubs on bone it can inflame the area and be very very painful. That’s why it’s important that we look after the cartilage in our knees. Rubbing can also lead to osteoarthritis in later life. To conclude They’re both brilliant exercises, the back squat puts a lot of pressure through the spine and can cause big problems but you can lift more weight and it is will a very athletic movement and worth doing. The front squat is beter for sprinters and as it is part of a power techniques (clean and jerk), it can be good to use for power training. You cannot lift as much and puts a lot of load through the lower back, so if you have a weak lower back I wouldn’t recommend it. All squats have their positives and negatives but I believe that they should be done with weight as the benefits outweigh the negatives. The squat is such a brilliant and athletic movement and will really help you to grow. No matter what your goal is, the squat is a great exercise (unless obviously your goal is to never do squats). JUST MAKE SURE YOU DO IT RIGHT!!! If you don’t know quite how to do a squat I’d recommend that you start light, or with no weight at all. Because done wrong it can leave you with a lot of problems (back and knee) to learn to do it watch as many videos as possible. It is definitely worth getting somebody to assist you and show you how to do this exercise even if you have to pay for it. If you aren’t doing it with the proper form you can seriously injure yourself, which is bad because firstly you’re injured and secondly you won’t want to do squats again. Bibliography Pictures taken from http://www.bodybuilding.com/ 16/12/2015
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