The Metabolic Swing

On a separate piece of paper, write down the following questions. 

1) What is the definition of a squat movement?
2) What is the definition of a hinge movement?
3) What is patterning?
4) What is grinding?... no laughing here!
5) What is the "pedal" and what is the "brake" in terms of the kettlebell swing?
6) What does "metabolic" mean?

The Metabolic Swing

by Dan John – 2/15/2011

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http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/the_metabolic_swing

The Unknown Movement Pattern

I'm going to tell you about the single most powerful movement pattern you can perform. Sadly, most people have no concept of how to do it.

It's the hinge.

What's the hinge? It's a basic human body movement that few athletes and bodybuilders bother to train. It's the tackle and the check in hockey. It's that dynamic hip snap involved in the kettlebell swing, the snatch, and the clean. It's also the vertical jump and the standing long jump.

It's not a squatty, slow move, but rather a dynamic snap. The truth is, the hinge, in its own right, is more "powerful" than the squat.

The Explosive Snap

The hinge is simply achieved by pushing the butt back.

Think about it: your upper body isn't sitting on top of your legs like a shack on stilts. Rather your body is "slung" between the legs. Here's the issue: most people, at first, will excessively bend the knees. You need minimal knee bend. Here's the formula:

Squat: Maximal knee bend and maximal hip bend

Hinge: Minimal knee bend and maximal hip bend

The benefits of a powerful hinge?

1.  Just learning to do the move correctly can open up your hamstring flexibility.

2.  Doing it slowly with a massive load will impress your friends for generations.

3.  Learning to have symmetry in the movement can jumpstart your injury-free career.

4.  Doing it fast? It's a one-stop shop to fat loss, power, and improved athletic ability!

Swings: A Metabolic Hit

Swings are the top of the food chain in hinge movements. They're also the most underappreciated exercise in life, sport, and your gym. In fact, if all I could do for an athlete is teach him a proper swing and encourage some form of deadlift, I'd be making a huge impact.

The metabolic hit of a correct set of swings is going to be shocking. It's one of the best conditioning exercises I know. And according to a new study coming out of the University of Wisconsin, the kettlebell snatch – which is quite similar, metabolically speaking – is "equivalent to running a six-minute mile pace" and "burns as many calories as cross-country skiing up hill at a fast pace."

So what's the best way to perform a swing? First, you pattern, then you grind, and finally, you swing!

Patterning: The Wall Drill

"Patterning" – learning and engraining the hinge movement correctly – is important. That might sound odd because the hinge is such a natural human movement. But, when load is added many people cheat themselves by not pushing the butt back and trying to use the quads as the focus.

So, first we pattern using the wall drill:

1.  Stand next to a wall facing away. Hinge so your butt touches the wall. Step about six inches from the wall and repeat the butt touch.

2.  Now, simply move an inch or two more and repeat. Keep doing this: touch the wall and scoot out a little more.

When you feel your hamstrings burning and shaking, you have it right. Like a bow and arrow, those strings can deliver an unbelievable amount of power.

Grinding

After patterning, I work on grinding. Grinding is simply slow strength moves that can work wonders for your patterning while delivering a lot of metabolic work and improving your strength.

Using either a heavy sandbag, a kettlebell, or a weight plate, hug the weight to your chest. I suggest keeping the weight over your sternum and upper abs. (Think of the waiter's bow exercise, only with the weight held a little lower.) Now, repeat the hinge movement.

I usually do a set of five, then repeat the wall drill.

This movement, which I'm now calling the Bulgarian Goat Belly Swing, is an excellent way to slow down the hinge and teach the keys to the more dynamic work: pressurized breathing, the correct feeling of the swing hip, and the abdominal tightness that insures stability.

Symmetry

Before I move on to the million-dollar move, I always take a few minutes to check symmetry.

I use a mirror and a single kettlebell. Hold the 'bell in one hand and practice the hinge feeling. Again, if you have to re-pattern the hinge with the wall drill and some Bulgarian Goat Belly Swings, that's fine.

I look for the "CSZ" line. That's the "chin, sternum and zipper" line: all three should remain in a single vertical line. Holding a kettlebell in one hand like you would a suitcase, do several hinges.

I'm a big fan of single-arm moves, but this one really helps you tie down the "opposite side." If you see yourself pulling "off line," re-pattern the first two drills.

The Perfect Swing

If I had to pick one move that will burn fat, loosen the hips and legs, and raise the buttocks to an eye-pleasing height, it would be the swing.

The swing can be taught horrifically. One TV expert came out with a DVD on kettlebells and the swing technique is immoral. The swing is a simple move to watch, but a little more complex to learn. 

Michael Perry, a Russian Kettlebell Certified instructor, offers an excellent summary which I'll borrow from below:

Start with a symmetrical stance and bend the knees slightly. This knee bend shouldn't change much throughout the movement.

Find the crease at your hips, put your hands in that crease, stick your butt behind you, and feel your hands fall into that crease. Make sure your spine is neutral while sticking your butt back. Breathe in and fill your diaphragm. This is the bottom of the swing.

Place your forearms on your inner thigh/top of quad with a straight arm. Push your arms into your legs and envision yourself holding two sheets of paper underneath your armpits. Keep your armpits tight and arms close to the ribcage. This is how to stay connected at the bottom of the swing.

Bring your hips forward quickly, keep the arms tight to the ribcage, but allow the kettlebell to float to the 3 or 9 o'clock position. Snap your hips and clench your glutes while shortening the distance from your ribcage to your pelvis. This is you bracing at the top of the swing.

Exhale but stay tight at the top of the swing. Keep your hands on the kettlebell to control it, but don't hold on too tight.

I also like the gas pedal/brake analogy:

Hip-snap and pop the glutes = gas pedal

Tighten the lats and brace the abdomen = brakes

Make sure that you don't use too much gas or too much brakes; balance them out to make the drive nice.

Okay, ready for some sore glutes and hammies? Here are some favorite workouts using the swing.

The X-Swings-Per-Day Method

Set a rep goal. It might be as little as 75 swings performed three days per week.

I made a goal of 250 swings per day in January and everybody asked me about my diet.  It was awful and I ate and drank too much. But I started looking pretty good from the 250 swings. Yes, swings work that well.

So, one simple route is to come up with a number: 75 swings is excellent for beginners. Break it into bite-size sets like 20 or 25.

I Go/You Go

If it's true that we need to teach our hearts to climb up and recover quickly (i.e. waving the heart rate), well, here's my contribution. This is my best swing workout.

The rep scheme 5-10-15-15-10-5. Get a partner and alternate sets. That's sixty reps, and the rest period is only a few seconds between sets. Although you can do this up to five rounds, try one or two first, then make plans.

30/30

Another rep scheme, 30/30, also works well. Thirty seconds of swings, followed by thirty seconds of rest, is a marvelous way to get a lot of work into a short period of time.

If all you have is ten minutes, try 30/30. Toss in a set of farmers walks and you've taken care of business.

As Good As It Gets

The hip-hinge is as good as it gets for the human body in terms of performance. Take the time to learn the basics and make this a big gun in your training arsenal!

PF4L: Thursday, April 25

Please read the following articles and answer questions in complete sentences in your notebook.  

1) Do squats hurt your knees (in the general sense)?

2) Do you squat on top of your legs or between them?

3) How far apart should feet be on the squat according to the author of this article?

4) What do you prefer, the "Butt Burner 4000" or "The Eagle"?

5) What is the mistake that most trainees make?

Goblet Squats 101

by Dan John – 3/03/2011

The greatest impact I've had on strength and conditioning starts with a story:

Years ago, faced with 400 athletes who couldn't squat correctly, I attempted move after move, lift after lift, to teach the squat. I failed each and every time.

I saw glimmers of hope from teaching one kid the Zercher squat (weight held in the crooks of the elbows) and a few picked up the pattern when we lifted kettlebells from the ball off the ground (called "potato sack squats" because they look like you're picking up a sack of potatoes off the ground). But nothing was really working.

Somewhere between a Zercher and a potato squat was the answer. It came to me when I was resting between swings with the weight held in front of me like I was holding the Holy Grail. I squatted down from there, pushed my knees out with my elbows and, behold, the goblet squat!

Yes, the squat is that easy. It's a basic human movement; you just have to be reminded how to do it. Remember, squats don't hurt your knees, but how you perform them can.

Squats can do more for total mass and body strength than probably all other lifts combined. Doing them wrong can do more damage than probably all the other moves, too. The goblet squat fixes all.

Form: Squat Between Your Legs!

Let's start simply. Find a place where no one is watching and squat down.

At the bottom, the deepest you can go, push your knees out with your elbows. Relax. Go a bit deeper. Your feet should be flat on the floor.

For most people, this small movement – driving your knees out with your elbows – will simplify squatting forever.

Next, try this little drill: Stand arms-length from a doorknob (or partner). Grab the handle with both hands and get your chest up. Up!

Imagine being on a California beach when a swimsuit model walks by. When an athlete does this, he immediately puffs up the chest, which tightens the lower back and locks the whole upper body. The lats naturally spread a bit and the shoulders come back a little. Now, lower yourself down.

What people discover at this moment is a basic physiological fact: The legs are not stuck like stilts under the torso. Rather, the torso is slung between the legs.

As you go down, leaning back with arms straight, you'll discover one of the true keys of lifting: you squat between your legs. You don't fold and unfold like an accordion; you sink between your legs. Don't just sit and read this. Get up and do it!

Now you're ready to learn the single best lifting movement of all time: the goblet squat.

Get Started

Grab a dumbbell or kettlebell and hold it against your chest. With a kettlebell, hold the horns, but with a dumbbell just hold it vertical by the one end, like you're holding a goblet against your chest. Hence the name, "goblet squats."

Now with the weight cradled against your chest, squat down with the goal of having your elbows – which are pointed downward because you're cradling the bell – slide past the inside of your knees. It's okay to have the elbows push the knees out as you descend.

6' 9" Olympic basketball player Duncan Reid and 5' 2" Alyssa Umsawasdi.

The point? Each can goblet squat just fine.

Stop Thinking. Start Squatting.

Here's the million-dollar key to learning movements in the gym: Let the body teach the body what to do. Try to keep your brain out of it! Over-thinking a movement often leads to problems. Allow the elbows to glide down by touching the inner knees and good things will happen.

The more an athlete thinks, the more the athlete can find ways to screw things up. Don't believe me? Join a basketball team and get into a crucial situation. Shoot a one-and-one with three seconds to go, down by two points, and get back to me later if you decided thinkingwas a good idea.

Goblet squats are all the squatting most people need. If the bar hurts in back squats (I won't comment), your wrists hurt in front squat (swallowing my tongue here) and the aerobics instructor has banned you from using the step boxes for your one-legged variations, try the goblet squat.

Seriously, once you grab a bell over 100 pounds and do a few sets of 10 in the goblet squat, you might wonder how the toilet got so low the next morning.

Foot Placement and Patterning

Where do you place your feet? Do three consecutive vertical jumps, then look down. This is roughly where you want to place your feet every time you squat. The toes should be out a little. You don't want to go east and west, but you want some toe-out.

This drill, along with the goblet squat, teaches patterning. Unless you already have the pattern, you shouldn't move into heavier work.

From Goblets to Grinds

Like goblet squats, I also have my athletes do grinding moves called double kettlebell front squats (DKFS). The load remains in front, forcing the whole core to stay rigid. Moreover, with two bells, you can still have your elbows down to push the knees out.

Feet a little too narrow here. This guy clearly
doesn't know what he's doing.

DKFS are exhausting in an odd way: like wrestling an anaconda, you seem to be slowly choking yourself to death. The pressure is also teaching you to stay tight, but continue to grease up and down.

Also, the DKFS seems to really work the upper back in the style I call "compression." It's a forgotten method of muscle and strength building where the constant squeezing of a muscle system is the movement, for lack of a better term.

The goblet squat and the DKFS lend themselves to the two greatest workouts I know: the ButtBurner 4000 and the Eagle.

The Workouts

In my last two articles, I introduced these two exercises: the Bulgarian Goat Bag Swing and the Farmers Walk. Let's look at all the fun you can have with these two!

Grab a kettlebell or dumbbell in the 25-60 pound range. Go lighter than you think. Now, do this:

The ButtBurner 4000

1. Perform one goblet squat, then one Bulgarian Goat Bag Swing.
2. Perform two goblet squats, then two Bulgarian Goat Bag Swings.
3. Now, three and three. Work your way up to ten and ten... if you can.

If you just go to fives, that's 15 reps of each exercise. Tens gets you 55 each, and a lot of lost breath. It should go without saying but I'll say it anyway: build up on this one slowly.

This combo will revitalize the entire lower body and teach you to really own both patterns (hinge and squat).

The Eagle

The "Eagle" is named after the school's mascot I used to teach at in Utah. It combines the farmer's walk (the basic patterning or teaching tool for loaded carries) with the grinding double kettlebell front squat.

It's simple:

1. Grab two kettlebells (I'm not sure anything else works, but you can experiment) and do five to eight front squats.


2. Drop the bells to your sides and walk away, perhaps as far as 40 meters.


3. Do another set of front squats.


4. Walk again.

If you can do eight sets of eight with this exercise (plus serious farmer walks in between) you are in rare air.

Greatness with Patience

The mistake most trainees make is that they try to move too quickly for complex movements before getting the form down. But greatness resides in those who have the patience to master the patterns first, then add complexity later.

The simple patterns can also make for the most shockingly exhausting workouts. Try the ButtBurner 4000 and the Eagle sometime and see the value of simple, hard work.

(Personal Fitness For Life (PF4L): April 22

Please read the following article and answer the questions that follow below in your notebook.  Please answer questions in complete sentences.

1) When do the majority of exercise-related deaths occur?

2) What are three reasons that walking is an excellent exercise?

3) Why is the squat an excellent choice for "best exercise"?

4) What is "sarcopenia"?

5) What is "H.I.T." of "H.I.I.T"?

6) What is a benefit of stair running?

What’s the Single Best Exercise?

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS

Published: April 15, 2011

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Let’s consider the butterfly. One of the most taxing movements in sports, the butterfly requires greater energy than bicycling at 14 miles per hour, running a 10-minute mile, playing competitive basketball or carrying furniture upstairs. It burns more calories, demands larger doses of oxygen and elicits more fatigue than those other activities, meaning that over time it should increase a swimmer’s endurance and contribute to weight control.

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ENERGY WELL SPENT In METs (metabolic equivalent to task), a measure of energy exerted for a given activity.

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So is the butterfly the best singleexercise that there is? Well, no. The butterfly “would probably get my vote for the worst” exercise, said Greg Whyte, a professor of sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University in England and a past Olympian in the modern pentathlon, known for his swimming. The butterfly, he said, is “miserable, isolating, painful.” It requires a coach, a pool and ideally supplemental weight and flexibility training to reduce the high risk of injury.

Ask a dozen physiologists which exercise is best, and you’ll get a dozen wildly divergent replies. “Trying to choose” a single best exercise is “like trying to condense the entire field” of exercise science, said Martin Gibala, the chairman of the department of kinesiology at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

But when pressed, he suggested one of the foundations of old-fashioned calisthenics: the burpee, in which you drop to the ground, kick your feet out behind you, pull your feet back in and leap up as high as you can. “It builds muscles. It builds endurance.” He paused. “But it’s hard to imagine most people enjoying” an all-burpees program, “or sticking with it for long.”

And sticking with an exercise is key, even if you don’t spend a lot of time working out. The health benefits of activity follow a breathtakingly steep curve. “The majority of the mortality-related benefits” from exercising are due to the first 30 minutes of exercise, said Timothy Church, M.D., who holds the John S. McIlhenny endowed chair in health wisdom at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center in Baton Rouge, La. A recent meta-analysis of studies about exercise and mortality showed that, in general, a sedentary person’s risk of dying prematurely from any cause plummeted by nearly 20 percent if he or she began brisk walking (or the equivalent) for 30 minutes five times a week. If he or she tripled that amount, for instance, to 90 minutes of exercise four or five times a week, his or her risk of premature death dropped by only another 4 percent. So the one indisputable aspect of the single best exercise is that it be sustainable. From there, though, the debate grows heated.

“I personally think that brisk walking is far and away the single best exercise,” said Michael Joyner, M.D., a professor of anesthesiology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and a leading researcher in the field of endurance exercise.

As proof, he points to the work of Hiroshi Nose, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of sports medical sciences at Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, who has enrolled thousands of older Japanese citizens in an innovative, five-month-long program of brisk, interval-style walking (three minutes of fast walking, followed by three minutes of slower walking, repeated 10 times). The results have been striking. “Physical fitness — maximal aerobic power and thigh muscle strength — increased by about 20 percent,” Dr. Nose wrote in an e-mail, “which is sure to make you feel about 10 years younger than before training.” The walkers’ “symptoms of lifestyle-related diseases (hypertension, hyperglycemia and obesity) decreased by about 20 percent,” he added, while their depression scores dropped by half.

Walking has also been shown by other researchers to aid materially in weight control. A 15-year study found that middle-aged women who walked for at least an hour a day maintained their weight over the decades. Those who didn’t gained weight. In addition, a recent seminal study found that when older people started a regular program of brisk walking, the volume of their hippocampus, a portion of the brain involved in memory, increased significantly.

But let’s face it, walking holds little appeal — or physiological benefit — for anyone who already exercises. “I nominate the squat,” said Stuart Phillips, Ph.D., a professor of kinesiology at McMaster University and an expert on the effects of resistance training on the human body. The squat “activates the body’s biggest muscles, those in the buttocks, back and legs.” It’s simple. “Just fold your arms across your chest,” he said, “bend your knees and lower your trunk until your thighs are about parallel with the floor. Do that 25 times. It’s a very potent exercise.” Use a barbell once the body-weight squats grow easy.

The squat, and weight training in general, are particularly good at combating sarcopenia, he said, or the inevitable and debilitating loss of muscle mass that accompanies advancing age. “Each of us is experiencing sarcopenia right this minute,” he said. “We just don’t realize it.” Endurance exercise, he added, unlike resistance training, does little to slow the condition.

Resistance training is good for weight control, as well. In studies conducted by other researchers, a regimen of simple weight training by sedentary men and women led to a significant decrease in waist circumference and abdominal fat. It also has been found to lower the risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Counterintuitively, weight training may even improve cardiovascular fitness, Phillips said, as measured by changes in a person’s VO2max, or the maximum amount of oxygen that the heart and lungs can deliver to the muscles. Most physiologists believe that only endurance-exercise training can raise someone’s VO2max. But in small experiments, he said, weight training, by itself, effectively increased cardiovascular fitness.

“I used to run marathons,” he said. Now he mostly weight-trains, “and I’m in better shape.”

But there’s something undignified and boring about a squats-only routine. And the science supporting weight training as an all-purpose exercise approach, while provocative, remains inconclusive. Is there a single activity that has proved to be, at once, more strenuous than walking while building power like the squat?

“I think, actually, that you can make a strong case for H.I.T.,” Gibala said. High-intensity interval training, or H.I.T. as it’s familiarly known among physiologists, is essentially all-interval exercise. As studied in Gibala’s lab, it involves grunting through a series of short, strenuous intervals on specialized stationary bicycles, known as Wingate ergometers. In his first experiments, riders completed 30 seconds of cycling at the highest intensity the riders could stand. After resting for four minutes, the volunteers repeated the interval several times, for a total of two to three minutes of extremely intense exercise. After two weeks, the H.I.T. riders, with less than 20 minutes of hard effort behind them, had increased their aerobic capacity as much as riders who had pedaled leisurely for more than 10 hours. Other researchers also have found that H.I.T. reduces blood-sugar levels and diabetes risk, and Gibala anticipates that it will aid in weight control, although he hasn’t studied that topic fully yet.

The approach seems promising, since most of us have minimal time to exercise each week. Gibala last month published a new study of H.I.T., requiring only a stationary bicycle and some degree of grit. In this modified version, you sprint for 60 seconds at a pace that feels unpleasant but sustainable, followed by 60 seconds of pedaling easily, then another 60-second sprint and recovery, 10 times in all. “There’s no particular reason why” H.I.T. shouldn’t be adaptable to almost any sport, Gibala said, as long as you adequately push yourself.

Of course, to be effective, H.I.T. must hurt. But a study published last month found that when a group of recreational runners practiced H.I.T. on the track, they enjoyed the workout more than a second group of runners who jogged continuously for 50 minutes. The H.I.T. runners, the study’s authors suspect, were less bored.

The only glaring inadequacy of H.I.T. is that it builds muscular strength less effectively than, say, the squat. But even that can be partially remedied, Gibala said: “Sprinting up stairs is a power workout and interval session simultaneously.”Meaning that running up steps just might be the single best exercise of all. Great news for those of us who could never master the butterfly.

Gretchen Reynolds (gretchenreynolds@hotmail.com) writes the Phys Ed column for The Times’s Well blog. Editor: Tony Gervino (t.gervino-MagGroup@nytimes.com).

Girls: Turn On Your Weight Loss Hormones

Girls, read the following article and answer the questions (in complete sentences and restating the questions) in your notebook...

1) What hormone does stress activate in us?

2) What does cortisol specifically make you crave?

3)What are three ways to decrease cortisol?

4) How does less than 8 hours of sleep affect you physically?

5) What are three ways to improve your sleep?

****NOTE: Mr. Rojas personally believes that grains, even whole wheat grains, are detrimental to health and SHOULD NOT BE EATEN REGULARLY unless you are extremely active (like training to run a marathon).

6) What is a tip to improve your eating?

7) What is one way to combine "cardio" and weight training at the same time? TIP... we use them in Health class almost every day!

http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips/how-your-hormones-affect-your-weight

---

How Your Hormones Affect Your Weight

Turn On Your Weight Loss Hormones

Banish your "bad" hormones, and crank up your "good" hormones with this 4-week plan

By Gale Malesky, Mary Kittel, and the editors of Prevention Health Books for Women

 

Whether it's your period, menopause, stress, a hysterectomy, or plain old heredity, women have felt vulnerable to hormonal cravings and sluggish metabolisms for years, with little to prove it but instinct. Now science is uncovering several bona fide links between female hormones, hunger, weight loss and fat metabolism. And in fact, evidence suggests that taking advantage of female hormones—mechanisms already in place in your molecular biology—may help you to manage your weight, shape, and appetite.

What follows is a female hormone-harmonizing plan, based on the latest data, that may be worth trying if you've had trouble with weight loss in the past. Each week, you'll learn a new way to keep the levels of "snacking" female hormones from inching up into the danger zone or to encourage the levels of "feel good" female hormones to rise. Naturally. Now that's something to be thankful for!

Week 1: Chill Out

If you're like many people, you've got a demanding job, a family who needs you, and a never-ending to-do list. No wonder you feel tired or depressed, anxious or irritable. Or perhaps you can't sleep (although you have no problem eating). 

All are hallmark symptoms of chronic stress. Stress activates the fight-or-flight response, the body's involuntary response to a threat that makes our hearts pound and our breath shorten. Chief among the hormones released during this response is the stress hormone cortisol.

More from Prevention: 5 Solutions To Thrive Under Stress

Cortisol automatically kicks up your appetite, prompting you not only to want to eat huge quantities but especially to want sweets and simple carbohydrates-foods that make insulin levels spike and then plummet, which may leave you feeling hungrier than ever-and eating again, says Prevention advisor Pamela Peeke, MD, assistant clinical professor of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and author of Fight Fat After Forty. "Stress fat" is also concentrated in the last place you need it: deep in your tummy.

To help reset your internal stress-o-meter to normal levels, and perhaps reduce stress-related hormonal cravings, experts recommend the following strategies:

Put magic photos in your "stress zones." Clip to your visor a photo from your anniversary trip to Hawaii to calm you when you're stuck in traffic. Place in your work area beautifully framed pictures of your children.

Excerpted from The Hormone Connection by Gale Maleskey, Mary Kittel, and the editors of Prevention.

Talk some "calming sense" into yourself. Silently repeat a soothing word or phrase, such as "peace," while taking slow, deep breaths through your nose. (Too busy to meditate? Here's how to sneak some mindulness in.)

Schedule regular play periods into your appointment book. Whether it's piecing together a 1,000-piece puzzle or sledding with your kids, play distracts us from our worries, providing a temporary refuge from stress. 

Laugh. In one study conducted at the Loma Linda University's Center for Neuroimmunology in California, a group of men who watched a humorous video were shown to have 30% less cortisol in their blood and significantly lower levels of another stress hormone, epinephrine, during and after the tape compared with a group that sat quietly. Lighten up your commute with a cassette or CD of your favorite comedian or a humorous book on tape. Watch out for funny newspaper headlines or ads. And, of course, watch movies that make you laugh.

Get a massage. Deep-pressure massage stimulates the nerves that cause our levels of the stress hormones cortisol and epinephrine to go down, while the levels of two mood-regulating brain chemicals that act like the hormones serotonin and dopamine rise. This was true in studies of breast cancer patients, conducted at the Touch Research Institute at the University of Miami School of Medicine, and of women with fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Both groups reported reduced anxiety and depression and improved mood and quality of life. Research has also shown that folks who give a massage reduce their own levels of stress hormones. 

Week 2: Get a Good Night's Rest

Besides making you cranky, one theory is that sleep loss (less than 8 hours of sleep a night) may contribute to weight gain by dramatically disrupting the female hormones that control your eating habits and your metabolism.

In one small study, researchers in the University of Chicago's department of medicine compared the hormone levels of 11 men while they got 8 hours of sleep for several nights, followed by several nights of a mere 4 hours in bed. During the sleep-debt stage, the men's ability to process glucose was impaired as much as a person with type 2 diabetes—indicating that sleep debt could lead to insulin resistance, a condition some experts think encourages obesity. In all the afternoons that followed a sleep-deprived night, the men also had consistently elevated levels of cortisol, which encourages your cells to store more fat, particularly when paired with insulin resistance. Not to mention the fact that levels of thyroid hormone, the metabolism powerhouse, were lowered during sleep deprivation.

Whether you have trouble falling or staying asleep, these expert tips should help:

Get outside. The release of hormones in your brain is regulated by the nerve impulses sent by your retinas in response to light. In other words, living by the earth's natural cycle of light and darkness keeps your serotonin and cortisol at their proper levels. Getting at least 30 minutes of natural light a day helps reset our inner alarm clocks, so we'll want to fall asleep at the right time, says Joyce Walsleben, PhD, director of the Sleep Disorders Center at New York University in New York City and author of A Woman's Guide to Sleep: Guaranteed Solutions for a Good Night's Rest.

Take a walk. In one study of more than 700 people, those who took daily walks were one-third less likely to have trouble sleeping until their normal wake-up time. Those who walked briskly slashed the risk of any sleep disorder by half. Regular exercise alleviates stress and also raises body temperature, which primes us for slumber. (See how to get the most out of your walk with Power Walking.) 

Reduce or eliminate stimulants, such as caffeinated coffee, tea, soda, chocolate, and nicotine before bed. Also, avoid alcohol, which is sedating but disrupts sleep. 

Make your bedroom dark. Darkness stimulates the production of melatonin, a light-sensitive hormone produced by the pineal gland, which is located in the brain. Some evidence suggests that supplementing with this hormone can help remedy insomnia. (Take only temporarily under the supervision of a knowledgeable medical doctor.) To manipulate this hormone naturally, invest in thick, heavy curtains, or simply don an eye mask.

Week 3: Eat Right

A healthy diet can have a dramatically positive effect on female hormone levels. The basic plan? A diet that's loaded with whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, low-fat or fat-free dairy products, and that contains less red meat and processed foods.

For one thing, a high-fiber diet can help keep your blood sugar levels stable. Otherwise, foods made with refined grains, such as white bread, white pasta, and white rice are digested quickly and speeded into the bloodstream as the body's primary source of fuel: blood sugar. This rapid breakdown triggers a flood of insulin, the hormone that ferries the sugar into the cells. Shortly thereafter, blood sugar levels drop precipitously, which signals the adrenal glands to release more cortisol. By contrast, beans, brown rice, and whole grain cereals take much longer to digest. So insulin levels rise gradually, blood sugar levels remain steady, and cortisol levels don't skyrocket.

Here are some other tips to trick your weight loss hormones with food:

Have "mini-meals." Instead of eating three big meals a day-plus random snacks-eat five or six smaller meals spaced out evenly throughout the day. Keep each meal between 250 and 350 calories. "By eating smaller yet more frequent meals, with correct proportions of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, you may be manipulating your hormones in favor of reaching the weight you want," says Geoffrey Redmond, MD, director of the Hormone Center of New York in New York City and author of The Good News about Women's Hormones.

Here are theories about why mini-meals work:

• Spreading small calorie loads throughout the course of a day may trigger growth hormone, which helps keep your body's metabolism efficient-and burning calories.
• The closer that one small meal is to the next, the less your glucose levels will soar, which means lower insulin on a regular basis.

Make breakfast a must. It is the "single greatest factor in maintaining portion control and stable hormone levels throughout the day," says Dr. Redmond. 

Begin with a protein "appetizer" 10 minutes before each meal. It's possible that doing this sends your body the right signals not to overeat, since protein stimulates the production of the appetite-regulating hormones cholecystokinin and glucagon. Have string cheese or a very small handful of nuts before you sit down to dine.

Forget fat-free foods. Compare labels of fat-free treats with their full-fat versions, and you're likely to find that, in many cases, the calories of fat-free foods are as high or actually higher. That's because sugar and other quickly digested simple carbohydrates are used to make up for the fat-based ingredients. Getting your blood sugar off track can boomerang by making you hungrier in a little while.

More from Prevention: Diet Foods That Sabotage Weight Loss

Week 4: Move that Body

Lacing up your sneakers is virtually a call to action for the weight loss hormones that reverse fat storage and curb eating. "Your muscles are loaded with insulin receptors," says Christiane Northrup, MD, author of Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause. "The more muscle mass you have and the more heat you generate from your muscles on a regular basis, the more efficiently you'll use insulin and burn carbohydrates and body fat."

There's strong evidence that moderate exercise—a brisk walk, a 45-minute "date" with the Nautilus machines—also triggers the release of "pleasure chemicals" known as endorphins. Finally, working up a good sweat also activates the "feel good" neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin, which reduce the symptoms of depression.

Your basic exercise plan is as follows:

Get your heart pumping. Prevention recommends 30 minutes of moderate activity, such as brisk walking or bicycling, at least five times a week for fitness. Or, 45 to 60 minutes of moderate activity at least five times a week for weight loss. Before starting any exercise program, talk with your doctor.

Lift weights. Muscles are your calorie-burning furnace, so the better you maintain them, the higher you keep your metabolic rate. "Weight training is essential for women over 40 to compensate for the decreased muscle mass from falling hormones," says Dr. Peeke. (Here's why you should start lifting weights today.)

Prevent the PMS Munchies

If out-of-control cravings drive you to the cookie jar every month, here's what you can do to avoid packing on extra pounds over the long haul:

First, realize that it's normal to experience food cravings around the time of your period, says Prevention advisor Pamela Peeke, MD, MPH. The menstrual cycle delivers a double whammy of two different female hormone groups increasing at the same time: sex hormones (estrogen and progesterone) and stress hormones (cortisol and epinephrine). Some say that the neurotransmitter serotonin also fluctuates with your monthly cycle. These changes drive up your appetite and prompt you to eat the kind of foods that increase your insulin levels.

To minimize the munchies, here's what Dr. Peeke recommends:

• Eat a little more protein, such as an egg or a cup of beans, at every meal when you have PMS to help prevent wild cravings, Dr. Peeke says, "because protein can give you an exquisite sense of satisfaction."
• Get your calcium (the recommended Daily Value of 1,000 mg a day from food and supplements). Research shows that it works to reduce PMS cravings. 
• Exercise, no matter how bad you feel. The aerobic charge will dampen your appetite.

Published November 2011, Prevention | Updated October 2012

http://www.prevention.com/weight-loss/weight-loss-tips/how-your-hormones-affect-your-weight

Read more: http://www.prevention.com/print/23958#ixzz2MCyIozSV

Boys: The Declining Virility of Men and the Importance of T

Boys, read the following article on testosterone and then answer the following questions (in complete sentences, restating the question) in your notebook.

1) Why were your father and grandfather more manly than you are?

2) How much less testosterone do men have today as compared to two decades ago?

3) What are some of the causes of the declining levels of testosterone in men today?

4) How does lower testosterone affect our thinking, virility and swagger?

5) Should men today seek artificial testosterone replacement or find ways to naturally increase it?

http://artofmanliness.com/2013/01/13/testosterone-week-intro/

Testosterone Week: The Declining Virility of Men and the Importance of T

by BRETT on JANUARY 13, 2013 · 98 COMMENTS

in HEALTH & SPORTS, WELLNESS

At the end of last August I decided to start an experiment on naturally increasing my testosterone levels. Kate and I had just finished a month-long series called Heading Out on Your Own: 31 Life Skills in 31 Days. We cranked out a 2,000-4,000 word post every day for 31 days straight. Writing over 75,000 words in less than a month was physically and emotionally taxing on both of us. We were hardly sleeping, were eating like crap, and our workouts became spotty. On top of that, we were stressed to the max.

Knowing a bit about the link between testosterone and a person’s health habits, I had a suspicion my T-levels would be in the tank. Curious, I got myself tested at a lab here in Tulsa.

My suspicion was confirmed.

I had below average testosterone levels.

My total testosterone was 383 ng/dL, which is near the bottom of the reference range of the lab I used.

My free testosterone (testosterone available for your body to use) was 7.2 pg/mL, which is below the reference range. According to many websites, I was a candidate for testosterone replacement therapy.

Crap.

After recovering from the shock that I had such puny amounts of the virile serum floating through my bloodstream, I got busy crafting a plan on how I was going to raise my testosterone in a natural way. I wanted to see how making some simple, long-term lifestyle changes would affect my T-levels. I gave myself 90 days to see what sort of results my efforts would produce.

Three months later, I got tested again.

Total Testosterone: 778 ng/dL

Free Testosterone: 14.4 pg/mL

I had doubled my testosterone.

But is it really that big a deal? Does testosterone really make the man?

Why You Should Care About Your Testosterone Levels

Forget what you think you know about testosterone for a minute. Try to scrub your mind of juiced-up bodybuilding bros in the gym or paunchy middle-age men rubbing prescription gel on their soft bellies.

The subject of testosterone has picked up some unfortunate associations recently, but in reality it’s something every man should understand and be concerned about — whether he’s an egghead or a jock, a grandpa or a college student.

How so? A man is more than his hormones, right? Doesn’t being a man mean stuff like taking responsibility, working hard, and having integrity?

Sure. But do you know who else takes responsibility and works hard? Women.

When we defined manliness, we said that men and women share many of the same virtues, but often attain and express them in different ways. The metaphor we used was that of two different musical instruments, playing the exact same notes, but producing two different sounds — each which adds rich music to the world.

Testosterone is what shapes the form of your instrument — your body and mind — and the “sound” it makes. And for a long time now, there’s been a lot more flutes in the orchestra than tubas. The notes being played remain the same, but the music’s gotten a whole lot less brassy.

Men ARE Less Manly Than They Used to Be

There’s been a lot of talk recently about what’s the matter with men these days. Some folks think men just don’t seem as manly as they used to be. When they compare their grandfathers with men today, the latter just don’t seem to stack up. Plenty of theories get thrown around as to the reason behind this perceived decline in manhood — changing economy, video games, feminism — and much of it is bunk.

But there is in fact one thing about manliness that we can objectively point to as being in decline. Testosterone levels.

Most of you probably know that your individual testosterone levels fall as you age. But studies have shown that men today, across the population, have about 20% less testosterone than men the same age did just two decades ago. That’s a huge dip.

What’s causing this decline? Rising obesity and less smoking, for starters. The latter, while causing a myriad of deleterious health effects, actually increases your T. Go figure. But even when these factors are taken into account, they don’t explain the whole decline. It has been theorized that environmental toxins are also playing a big role. Many modern household products and foods contain chemicals that raise your levels of estrogen, and decrease your T.

Not only does this society-wide drop in testosterone negatively impact men’s health and well-being, which we’ll talk about in more detail in the next post, but it also likely affects the preponderance of traditionally masculine ways of thinking, acting, and feeling.

So if you’ve ever felt like men today just don’t have the same swagger, the same virility as your grandpa did, that they don’t look and act as masculine as the strapping men you see in black and white photographs, well it turns out it’s not all in your head. There’s a reason guys today are more like the Biebs than the Duke, and it’s because we don’t have as much T flowing through our veins anymore.

Testosterone Week at AoM

Even if you’re healthy and young, the testosterone deck is stacked against you. And I know plenty of men who regularly live their lives like I was back in August: they eat garbage, they don’t exercise, they get little sleep, and they’re stressed out. On top of the health issues like obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes that come with such poor lifestyle choices, these gents are likely lowering their T levels even further.

Unfortunately, instead of making the lifestyle changes that would allow their bodies to naturally create optimum testosterone levels, more and more men these days are asking their doctors to prescribe expensive (and potentially dangerous) testosterone replacement therapies.

The sad thing is that many doctors are pushing this artificial testosterone on their male patients instead of encouraging them to lose some weight, get some exercise, and get a bit more sleep. Unless you’re suffering from a severe thyroid problem or have had testicular cancer, there’s really no reason to use artificial testosterone replacement therapy. You can increase your T levels naturally by making some simple changes in your lifestyle.

When I first began my testosterone experiment, I really didn’t know much about it. And what I found in my research is that good, accessible information on the subject is surprisingly hard to find. So what I’ve decided to do is devote a week on the site to helping men understand what testosterone is, how important it is to their health and virility, how to get tested for it, and how to naturally increase it.

Here’s the roadmap for the rest of the week.

Monday: The Benefits of Testosterone – Men of all ages should take advantage of the myriad of powerful benefits that come with having optimal levels of testosterone. I’ll also discuss some of the myths about testosterone.

Tuesday: Understanding Testosterone – We’ll take a look how our body creates testosterone so we can understand how we can increase our T naturally.

Wednesday: What’s a “Normal” Testosterone Level and How Do I Get Tested? - We’ll look at why “normal” testosterone levels are deceptive and how you can get your testosterone levels tested.

Thursday: How to Increase Testosterone Naturally - In my final post I’ll share with you everything I did to double my testosterone.

Tagged as: Testosterone

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