Check out this great conversation I had with my good friend and colleague Dr. Kaplan from OWM Buffalo about the importance of staying active and physically fit to reduce inflammation and support your immune system during times of stress. Watch for our upcoming Zoom workout sessions where we will be sharing tips, techniques, and strategies that you can implement at home or at the gym.
Hello readers,
I want to apologize for my absence from blogging for the past couple of months. I promise that I have been hard at work during this time and I am excited to share some of the things that I’ve been working on with you.
One project that I’ve been able to kick off that I am extremely excited about is the implementation of a Body Blocks’ designed fitness and sports performance curriculum within the
Buffalo Public Schools. This program will begin this fall in 4 schools (Riverside, South Park, City Honors, and Emerson) and will expand to the remaining 12 high schools within the school year. The program will be incorporated as part of the current physical education curriculum and allow us to not only educate the students but also the faculty within these schools. This sets the groundwork for a sustainable long-term model rather than a short-term fix. We are confident that this program will not only serve as a major contributing factor towards developing a culture that produces fitter and healthier students, but also that leads to increased academic performance and fewer sports-related injuries; ultimately making our schools and our students more competitive in multiple arenas.
Another announcement that I am pleased to make is that I have recently learned that I have been named as one of Business First’s 2012 Healthcare 50, which recognizes me as “one of the top 50 extraordinary professionals in the medical field in Western New York.” I am extremely honored to be recognized on this list and in the company of the other great individuals who were also named, all of whom are committed to making Western New York a healthier community. This recognition came on the heals of another recognition that I received from the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA). I have been honored with the designation of a Registered Strength and Conditioning Coach Emeritus (RSCC,*E) which is the highest certification attainable through this organization. The NSCA only gives this title to individuals who have accumulated 20 or more years (WOW, time flies when you’re doing what you love!) as a trusted expert in their field and recognizes their area of expertise as separate and distinct from the medical, dietetic, athletic training, and sport coaching fields. This certification is significant not only because I get to add some more cryptic letters after my name, but more importantly because it secures my status as an industry expert and trusted source of information even after I retire (whatever that word means).
I have just returned from the IHRSA (International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association) Annual Convention in Los Angeles, CA. This event is the focal point of the fitness community every year and serves as the launching point for new breakthroughs in exercise techniques and equipment. My week was jam packed with seminars and meetings with some pretty amazing people within the industry. Anyone who has ever taken a trip and had people waiting for their return knows all too well that one of the first questions that you often get is, “what did you bring me?” Confident that my staff of trainers and clients at Body Blocks would have the same question for me, I knew that I had to bring them back something that they would appreciate and “remember” and a T-Shirt just wasn’t going to cut it! So my choice…
This piece of equipment may seem innocent enough, but after one 360MC session, even my most conditioned trainers were feeling the burn. I’ll save the details and the science of the equipment and the workout for a future post, but suffice it to say that after that workout nobody was asking what else I may have brought them. [insert maniacal laugh here]
In addition to that, I have a lot of other exciting things that I am working on that hopefully I will be able to share with you soon. In the mean time, I am pleased to return you to your regularly scheduled blog posts. As always thanks for reading and feel free to get in touch with me at fitnessdefined@bodyblocksfitness.com
Stay Healthy,
Bob
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No that’s not a misprint in the title, today we tackle another common fitness myth that I have heard time and time again: “If you want to lose weight you need to eat fewer calories than you burn off in a day”. Sound familiar? Now, depending on your size and gender you’ve probably been given a calorie goal somewhere between 1200-1500 calories a day.
Although this “could” happen to be your goal, in reality you’re calorie goal should be based on your Basil Metabolic Rate (BMR) and your level of activity. Your BMR is the number of calories your body burns at rest in a 24 hour period. In other words, it’s the amount of fuel your body needs to continue sustaining life. So how do you obtain this magic number? According to a formula provided in a 1990 study that appeared in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Basil Metabolic Rate is equal to:
from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate
It’s that simple! (insert sarcasm here)
Obviously the calculation is complicated and further studies have even included variables such as lean body mass and physiological elements. The good news is there are tools out there that provide these measurements for you. Although there seem to be some decent lower-cost, home products on the market, at Body Blocks we use a medical grade body composition analyzer called the InBody520. This piece of equipment provides us with a number of measurements (including BMR) which allow us to understand the unique physiology of each of our clients.
Now that we know how to get them, let’s look at what the numbers mean.
If you’re BMR is 1500 and you’re eating a recommended 1200 calories, you are not even providing your body enough fuel to make it through the day (and that’s if you were at rest all day). Since most individuals have some level of activity throughout the day, walking, climbing stairs, talking, exercising, etc. The true caloric deficit that they are experiencing is even greater than the 300 calories that is represented here.
If you think about your body as if it were a race car and that car required 11 quarts of oil to operate efficiently. If you decided to put only 5 quarts in, the car will still run, but at some point during the race it’s going to break down. Additionally the car’s support systems would experience increased stress, overheating, and in some cases permanent damage as they are forced to work with insufficient resources. Your body and it’s support systems respond in a very similar manner.
Unlike a race car, our bodies are able to interpret and adapt to changes in the environment. This means that when the body recognizes a pattern of high caloric deficits, it interprets this as starvation and goes into survival mode. At this point it starts managing fuel in an effort preserve energy, this means that it distributes the energy to essential life support systems while shutting down other systems and functions. Clearly this is probably not the result that most people would be looking for from their diet.
The best way to manage your weight is to understand how your body works. The first step is to learn your BMR. Keep in mind that your BMR increases as you increase your lean muscle mass. Put simply this means that the more lean muscle mass you add, the more 
you will NEED to eat for your body to operate efficiently. It also means that you will have to monitor your BMR on a consistent basis to ensure that you are always eating at least what your body needs to survive. Any attempts to lose weight should use strategies that reduce the extra calories that are consumed in addition to the BMR. This means that many of you will have to actually eat more if you want to effectively lose weight.
I hope that this article helps clarify this common fitness myth and empowers you with the knowledge necessary to achieve your fitness goals.
Read More »“…diets are no longer a matter of ‘to eat or not to eat?’ …rather they become a behavior of making the proper choices between WHAT to eat and what NOT to eat.”
We have done an excellent job in America of tabooing the word diet to mean something bad. To mean “I have to starve myself” when in reality everyone is on a diet. Whatever you are eating is your diet.
The need to eat is innate. Your body tells you that it needs fuel. “I can’t concentrate”, “I’m tired”, “I feel weak”, these are all different ways your body tells you it needs fuel.
What you eat on the other hand is a learned behavior. So addressing your diet becomes a case of behavior modification. Once you do this, diets are no longer a matter of ‘to eat or not to eat?’ …rather they become a behavior of making the proper choices between WHAT to eat and what NOT to eat.; That is the real question that everyone should be asking.
So once you wrap your head around that and remove the negative stigma surrounding the word, you realize that you simply have to change or better your diet. That’s where the challenge lies. It’s in creating the habit. But once you do, you empower yourself to truly change your life.
Now, you need to be educated on what the right choices are. Please don’t attempt to make an immediate 180 degree change in your diet. It’s important to make a few changes at a time. If I asked you to jump a 10ft distance in a single jump I’m setting you up to fail. But, if I ask you to make that same distance in 3 jumps you are more likely to succeed.
Take the same approach to your diet and before you know it, you’ll be making healthy choices without a whole lot of conscious effort.
You now have the proper mind set to start this journey, now stay tuned for some more specific healthy eating tips that will help you along the way.
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