Alwyn Cosgrove newsletter with a guest article by Eric Cressey I love interval training, but one of the problems we commonly run into—particularly if someone isn’t prepared physically to sprint or doesn’t have a place to do it because of weather restrictions—is that repetitive, low amplitude motions are our only options. In other words, it has to just be cycling, the elliptical, or the stair climber. While slide board work, medicine ball medleys, barbell complexes, and sled pushing definitely help to work around these problems, when it comes down to it, many of them still don’t give certain folks the variety they need in their exercise programming. In our “Building the Efficient Athlete” seminar, Mike Robertson and I spoke about the law of repetitive motion: I = NF/AR. In this equation, injury (I) equals the number of repetitions multiplied by the frequency of those repetitions (NF) divided by the amplitude of each repetition times the rest interval (AR). While you can attack each of these five factors differently, the take home point with respect to today’s discussion is that simply increasing the amplitude—or range of motion—in one’s daily life can reduce (or eliminate) the presence or severity of overuse conditions. For that reason, I often substitute one or both of two different training modalities for my clients’ interval training. The first is dynamic flexibility circuits with little to no rest between sets. In this scenario, we program 2–3 different mobility/activation drills for each inefficiency the athlete displays and then combine them in a series of drills. Ideally, we do as many of these drills as possible in the standing position. As an example, let’s say a client has poor thoracic spine mobility, a horrific Thomas test (restrictions in one or more of the hip flexors), bad glute function, and a lack of hip external rotation. Here’s what his circuit might look like: A) One-leg supine bridge B) Wall hip flexor mobilizations C) Three-point extension rotations D) Cradle walks E) Overhead lunge walks F) Walking Spiderman with overhead reach G) Yoga push-ups H) One-leg SLDL walks (You can find videos of many of these exercises in the Assess and Correct Program ) Is this circuit going to completely “gas” an athlete? Absolutely not. However, it is going to make him/her better in light of the inefficiencies I outlined above. And you don’t have to leave the gym exhausted to have improved. It’s a great option for powerlifters as well because going too crazy with supplemental conditioning work can really sap strength. The second option is to simply take a series of resistance training exercises with a corrective emphasis (sometimes integrate with the drills outlined above) and put them in a series of supersets. For these exercises, the load utilized should only be about 30 percent of one rep max. I outlined this option a while back in my article, “Cardio Confusion.” Here’s an example I used with an online consulting client recently. A1) Overhead broomstick walking lunges (3 X 10/side) A2) Push-ups (3 X 12) B1) Face pulls (3 X 15) B2) Body weight only reverse lunges (3 X 10/side) C1) One-leg SLDL walk (2 X 6/side) C2) Band external rotations, arm adducted (2 X 15/side) D1) Behind the neck band pull aparts (2 X 15) D2) Bowler squats (2 X 10/side) This series is preceded by foam rolling and a dynamic flexibility warm up and can be followed by more “traditional” interval training. Like I said earlier, I’m still all for both traditional and non-traditional interval training. Initiatives like I outlined above though can serve as a nice change of pace and work in corrective exercises while keeping the heart rate up. Be as creative as you’d like and you’ll see great results. The sky is the limit in terms of the combinations you can use. To check out a new product that Eric, Mike Robertson and Bill Hartman have put together - that shows you exactly how to create a "corrective exercise program" as an addition to your current program, and can set up the "corrective work as a VERY metabolically demanding circuit or interval program such as above - check out the "Assess and Correct Program". -- AC PS - With 27 self-assessments and 78 corresponding exercises, you’ll cover virtually everything you or your clients will need to feel and perform well - check it out HERE AlwynCosgrove.com 24420 Walnut street Newhall, CA 91321 US

In this weeks newsletter from Alywn Cosgrove we have a Guest newsletter from Elliot Hulse Build Muscle and Burn Fat At The Same Time? The most common strategy most people employ for packing on muscle mass, and then leaning out, is through “bulking and cutting.” The problem though is that it doesn’t always work. The most common scenario is that you put on more weight than you want so you get “fat,” and then jump into endless cardio only to lose a lot of the hard-earned muscle that you built. So, for a lot of guys the choice seems to be between being strong and fat or weak and lean. I’m here to tell you with absolute certainty that this doesn’t have to be the case. You don’t have to choose between being really strong and a bit plump or being really lean and kind of weak with little muscle definition. I’m going to let you in on a secret—it’s an unconventional approach that runs contrary to ordinary training philosophies. To build the body you want, you need to build muscle and burn fat at the same time in order to achieve that goal of having a ripped, muscular physique. The way to build muscle and burn fat at the same time is through incorporating both aerobic and anaerobic activity not just in the same training session but in the same exercise. By combining resistance weight training with cardio training in the same set, we force the thicker stronger Type-II (fast twitch) muscle fibers to behave more like Type-I (slow twitch) fibers. By utilizing both types of muscle fibers in the same exercise we can actually build a “HYBRID” Type-IIC muscle fiber that has been nicknamed a Type-III. Now why would you want a Type-III hybrid muscle fiber? This reconfigured super muscle has more mitochondrial density which means more nutrients can be processed giving these Type-III muscle fibers a greater capacity to grow bigger and resist fatigue for longer periods. This style of training mimics the way that our ancestors used to live. They didn’t train with weights one day and run laps the next. No. The kinds of activities they did every day would have been very much like the hybrid training we’re talking about. Our ancestors were both muscular and lean and it didn’t result from things they set out intentionally to do but rather, it was a natural byproduct of the way they lived their lives. They were able to both build muscle and burn fat at the same time without even having to consciously think about. By adopting some of the very same training principles that they employed, modern man can achieve the same results. To discover how you can tap into your hybrid muscle fibers in order to build muscle and burn fat simultaneously go here: Lean Hybrid Muscle ----- I checked out their new program myself. Similar to how we do things at  Results Fitness - Mike and Elliot have integrated bodyweight training, strongman training, kettlebell training, Olympic lifting, powerlifting, and bodybuilding. It truly is a hybrid system Check it out for yourself HERE - for a very limited time they are offering their entire program and nutrition support system for 50% off. -- AC AlwynCosgrove.com 24420 Walnut street Newhall, CA 91321 US

I have an article I want to share with you that I think is extremely important not only to your possible weight loss goals, but also to your health. This article is about Omega 6 fatty acids. (Oh, the essential fats that are good for you. That's great!) WRONG!!! I wrote this article last week and on Sunday I was cooking pancakes with my 2.5 year old daughter. It is a weekly Sunday morning breakfast for us and we add Prograde Vanilla Protein powder to the pancake batter to increase our protein intake and decrease our blood sugar spikes and insulin response. Anyways back to Omega 6 fatty acids. I opened our cabinet to grab the spray Pam so I could coat the frying pan and noticed I have 3 bottles of extra Virgin Olive Oil and this old looking bottle with a small amount of oil in it behind them. This bottle was vegetable oil and you could tell that we have had this bottle sitting up there for a long time which meant we hardly ever use it. It got me thinking about what types of oils are in your cabinet and how often you use them. If you use the wrong oils too frequently you are actually increasing your risk of inflammatory diseases according to some studies that have been released. The oils in question are oils many individuals use every day not only in their cooking, but those oils are also used in numerous processed foods that we eat. Make sure you read this very important article and then look in your cabinet to see if you have any of these oils sitting there. Also, look at your most common eaten foods and see if they contain any of the oils listed in this article. http://tinyurl.com/yjgh8rs Yours in good health, Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS America's Trusted Weight Loss Expert

I am in Bangalore, India on a work assignment. It is an amazing place I tell you, friend me, Nathan Donahue, on Facebook or flickr to see the pics. Be sure to mention the blog or I will think you are a creep and not friend you! Anyways, it is an amazing place but not the easiest city to find a proper gym. Especially one with barbells and dumbbells instead of just cardio machines and some mulit-gyms. Needless to say I let this challenge get in my way and failed to train my first few days here. In other words, I bitched out. Luckily I have friends with strong posterior chains who are always looking to motivate me! This video was sent to me by Paul Vaillancourt, professional strongman and owner of Ultimate Fitness. He is doing the massive trap bar deadlift at 20 seconds in. After watching this video I realized I was being a soft little girly man and letting this obstacle prevent me from reaching my goals. As the saying goes, "the weak see obstacles as an inconvenience, warriors see them as challenges!". So, since checking myself I have been hitting the "gym" in the hotel hard. My first workout was pretty simple and not overly challenging as the heat kicked my ass pretty quick. Here it is: mobility work, 30 mins in my hotel room10 pound dumbbell circuit in the "gym", these are the heaviest dumbbells there!Series of high pulls, clean and presses, presses, rows, lunges, squat thrusters, one leg deadlifts, jumping jacks, push-ups, and overhead twits to failure, 30 minutesJump rope to failurePretty basic and honestly not very well thought out. Oh well, the important thing here is I broke the cycle of missing workouts due to a lack of kettlebells or barbells and got back in the game. Tomorrow is another day and a chance for a better training session.India is famous for yoga, which doesn't really interest me, but it also has these traditional wrestling schools called Akara's where locals lift stones and wrestle in the sand. If I can find one of those places it would be awesome!

For all new posts please go to the new Big Time Weight Loss Blog.

by: Jayson Hunter Registered Dietitian, CSCSWe are going to be talking a little bit about the confusion there was on the show The Biggest Loser, a lot of people watch that show. In the first week all these people, extremely heavy people lost a ton of weight and then the second week really nobody lost any weight. In fact, to my knowledge, one person gained one pound. So, I want to explain what the confusion is and what exactly happens when you have that rapid weight loss. So, why did people see such amazing results the first week and see none the second week?If we just use this show as an example. They saw so much weight loss in the first week because they obviously tell you that they are on a special type of diet, they don’t really go into the details of what it is, but I can assume that it’s a higher protein, low carb diet. These people are obviously 300/400 lbs because they were eating too much, they were over eating, ingesting thousands and thousands of calories. So, when they got to The Biggest Loser, of course they restricted those calories and put them on a special type of diet. Glycogen is created from the carbohydrates and starches that you eat. So, for every gram that you store in your body, you also store 3-4 grams of water. If you look at it from the stand point of maybe someone was eating 500 – 700 grams of carbs and they were storing all this glycogen and they cut it to 200 grams of carbs, well you can also cut out about 3-4 grams of water for every one of those carbs you just cut out. And obviously that’s weight on the scale. The metabolism kind of goes into shock when this happens so you lose all that glycogen and the extra grams of water which is weight in the end, and then not to mention they were exercising like crazy which none of them had really done before, so they’re going to lose water weight anyway from the amount of perspiration and body changes that are taking place and all the stuff that your body has to do to adapt to that exercise now. Your body generally fluctuates about 3-4% on a daily basis anyway. If you look at it from the stand point of some of those men are 300-400 pounds, a 3 %- 4 % change could be, 12 pounds in either direction. And obviously women that are 200 lbs or 250 lbs, you’re looking at maybe 10 lbs in either direction, 8 lbs in either direction, somewhere in there. Women tend to fluctuate even more then men in regards to water weight on a daily basis just because of the hormone levels. When you saw the weight loss they were getting, such as 15 lbs, 18lbs, I think someone lost 29lbs. Most of that is the initial shift because of eating less carbs, eating less calories as well as just general water weight loss because of the increased activity that they were now doing. It’s very important for people to understand that when you start, you can see these dramatic results but it’s permanent lifestyle changes that allow you to have fast, safe permanent weight loss but its permanent in the sense that you can start by taking off 15 – up to 15lbs in 30 days, but things are going to level off, and you have to make behavioral changes, you have to change your life. There are no quick fixes for anything.If you go to the extreme and say, and again we don’t know exactly what diet The Biggest Loser people are on, but a lot of people go on what they call, a true low carb diet, and a true low carb diet is, maybe 30 grams of carbs for the entire day. It’s low. It’s essentially nothing. When you go on that type of diet it really wreaks havoc on your metabolism, Your goal is to be cycling your carb intake which is going to get you that fast weight loss, but not sacrifice your metabolism because you want that metabolism to be fast all the time. That’s the number one goal.Your body works a certain way and that’s true for all of us, so you need to know the science behind it and while you can lose weight fast, safely and keep that metabolism up, you’re going to need to make those permanent lifestyle changes to keep it off. Don’t get caught up in these changes, these extreme changes of “Man how did they lose 30lbs and I can’t lose a pound.” You got to compare apples to apples here and see what positions their in and see what you’ve been in because as you noticed as you watched the second week of the biggest loser, those guys lost 2lbs, 3lbs, someone gained a pound and that’s their body going through that transition and almost going into a survival mode. I think you’ll find that as you keep watching the show; their weight will start to be more consistent where they’ll consistently lose 2lbs of fat a week or 3lbs of fat a week. You won’t see this wild swing of losing 30 lbs then losing 0 lbs even though they worked just as hard and ate just the same, because your body’s going to adjust, and your body – your metabolism will slowly speed back up and the goal is to try not to get that metabolism to slow down to begin with, try to keep it up at an elevated rate so that it is a consistent, permanent weight loss.Jayson Hunter RD, CSCS is the author of the Carb Rotation Diet. To discover the 5 absolute truths Every Serial Dieter Who Seeks Rapid-Weight loss MUST come to grips with visit The Carb Rotation Diet. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjuNmNu4RQg