For those of you who have completed P90X, P90X+, One on One, and/or P90X2, you have probably become quite fond of the creator of the programs, Tony Horton. I myself have over time course of these programs grown in respect for him as I have listened to his own fitness story, his drive, motivation, and outlook on life. I encourage those of you who do share my respect for Tony to take advantage of the fact that he travels quite a bit for public workouts and training events. From him, you can learn a lot more than just fitness.

One great way to get more of Tony is to become a Beachbody Coach, and go to the national events, like the Beachbody Summit. There you can meet the trainers. In addition to Tony Horton you will get a chance to meet Shaun T, Brett Hoebel, Chalene, and many more.

Note:

The video comes from a Wall Street Journal interview with Tony. For the complete interview and details, check out the Wall Street Journal’s full article:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577213680069437326.html

So What is the Beachbody Challenge all about? This Challenge is Beachbody’s (the makers of P90X, Insanity, and Turbo Fire) health and fitness contest to reward people for achieving results using our fitness programs and/or Shakeology>. To help you every step of the way, they offer you peer support and chances to win cash and prizes for every workout you log into the online gym.

In the past few years there have been many stories of people, like Richard and Greg, who have used programs like P90X to make the changes necessary to improve their health. There are also many stories of people who have drastically improved their health just by regularly drinking Shakeology. If you need some extra motivation to lose weight or get healthy, join Beachbody’s challenge by clicking here. Got questions about the challenge? Feel free to contact me.

As a big fan of P90X, P90X2 and Tony’s One on Ones I have been very interested in how he came about making all the moves that goes into his workouts. They have many ‘Making of P90X’ videos out on youtube; but sometimes its difficult finding them. So I decided to host the collection of videos here on my blog so they can be in one location for all of Tony’s fans’ viewing pleasure. I will also put the collection of links on my P90X page so they can all be in one place.

Paul (above) brought up a good point that I have failed to emphasize in posting these Beachbody/Running Hybrids. Many of the workouts I planned list two workouts on the same day. For example, in my hybrids you may see Asylum: Strength with Insanity: Pure Cardio. Another example is how I like to have a lifting workout (e.g., Chest and Back) paired with a short run (e.g., 3 mile run). Personally, you have a few options when it comes to these workouts: 1) Do them back to back (the hardest choice), 2) do one in the AM and the other in the PM (easier depending on your schedule), or 3) just do one of them.

In doing these hybrids, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that you successfully complete the beachbody workout that is involved in the hybrid before trying the hybrids. For example, I suggest you finish Asylum and/or Insanity and P90X2 before you attempt the Asylum/P90X2/Insanity/running hybrid. After all, if you made it through all of that you can survive anything. This is a suggestion; but I know many of you are extreme, so just be careful.

Just remember what both Shaun T and Tony say, “Its about getting fit, not getting hurt”. So if you get to one of those days where the plan calls for you to do double duty, don’t feel like you are cheating if you have to modify or if you have to skip one completely. Do what you have to do, to make it to your goal. So if your goal is a marathon, half marathon, or a 10K, don’t risk injuring yourself just because my plan says do “x, y, or z”

My first time through my own hybrid I had to ‘cheat’ a few times; but eventually I got to the point where I could do it as described in the plan. So, moral of the story, just do your best!

Make sure your training gets you to Your finish line!

Its been a long time since I have posted about the progress of my fitness goals. Lately I have been focusing a lot training for a series of half marathons and two, maybe three marathons in the late summer or early fall. Since I started using hybrid workout programs that combine running, P90X, P90X2, Insanity, and Insanity: the Asylum I have been making some significant improvements in speed.

Before my first hybrid program, I was running a 7:40 and 8:00 min/mile paces for my 6 mile and 10+ mile runs respectively. Currently I am running at a ~7:00 and ~7:20 min/mile pace for my  6 and 10+ mile runs. In the interest of clarity, these are all on fairly flat courses, which is a rarity here in southern California. In the last two half marathons I posted a 7:20 and 7:17 min/mile overall pace in races that contained some significant hills. One of them had a ~400 foot climb in the last mile (ouch, see my post about the Hollywood Half Marathon). Before my hybrids my best race time had a 7:27 pace. This may not seem like a significant increase; but considering this was on a flat course and my two recent races contained significant hills….I consider this a big improvement. More evidence for this lies in the increase in speed that I have seen on my training runs as mentioned above.

So, this means that my hybrids are working! I also was met with a pleasant surprise when I was digging in my closet and found an old pair of jeans that feel huge on my now.

So when I started getting back into fitness and healthy eating I was wearing size 36 pants; but today I’m down between 28-31 depending on the designer. In the transition from the midwest to SoCal, I’ve had some hiccups on my diet; but no major deviations.

In the future, I’m going to stick with my latest running/P90X2/Asylum/Insanity hybrid for the next few half marathons and then I’ll be working on the new full marathon hybrid. One thing that has really helped has been foam rolling (Its helped so much, I am planning on posting a series of blogs on the effectiveness and proper use of foam/rumble rollers). Its all thanks to my good friend BriAnn Williams and the infamous Tony Horton. BriAnn has been doing marathons for a while and used to always tell me to foam roll; but being a stubborn guy I never started until I injured myself a few times. But since I have started foam rolling, I haven’t had any cramps, aches, or joint pains during my training or racing. So for those of you out there who have had constant problems with achy/sore muscles, I highly recommend foam rolling.

New and improved shakeology waffle recipe:

1/2 cup of soy flower (or regular/wheat flour)
1 scoops of protein powder ( I do chocolate) or Shakeology
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
few packets (~5) of sugar substitute (splenda, stevia, equal)
few dashes of cinnamon
egg whites (5-6)
1/2 cup of oatmeal (dry and uncooked)

2 ¼ cup skim milk

Mix ingredients well with a fork or mixer. While mixing, be sure that the waffle iron is warming up. As soon as the waffle iron is ready, pour batter and cook to desired crispness.

So the first half marathon of the season is under my belt and its time to evaluate how well my training is progressing. First of all, the race:

The Hollywood Half Marathon was an inaugural race. For a First race I think it was organized well; but I hear that there were a lot of problems for the main wave (I was in the top 150 of ~6000). From what I heard, the main wave ran out of water, so luckily I didn’t have that problem. The only issue I had was with the fact that the only mile marker came at mile 12. With that being said, I think the organizers did quite a good job, especially for a first time race in the middle of Hollywood and Universal Studios.

The race itself was a bear. The start was a 500 foot decline with an average grade of -5. So everyone was blasting it at the start (This of course was not the hard part). The course was definitely not flat; but the real bear was the last mile. The end was a ~550 foot climb with average grade 5. Coming at the end of the race, this stopped a few racers in their tracks. On my way up, I passed numerous racers who were ahead of me; but just couldn’t keep running up the hill and either stopped or started walking up.

Start of the 'climb' to the finish

As for my progress, I posted a 1:37:40. I had a 7:07 min/mile pace up to the climb in the last mile and overall I ended up having a 7:24 min/mile pace. In prepping for this race I mostly followed my P90X2/running hybrid that I have posted not too long ago. This worked out well; but I missed the intensity that I had with my Asylum/P90X/running hybrid.

In saying that, I don’t mean that P90X2 is not intense; but the speed work and volume of ‘Asylum’ is definitely heavy. For the two weeks before the half marathon I made sure to do Asylum’s ‘Speed and Agility’ and ‘Vertical Plyo’ workouts and I also did a 8+ mile run that had at least a 500 foot climb with +6 grade. Altogether, these three things definitely prepared me for the last mile of the Hollywood Half Marathon’s course. A huge testament to the training schedule is the fact that my previous best half marathon time was a 1:40:11 and this was on a completely flat course. Add in the fact that there were numerous hills and a huge climb at the end of this race and the bottom line is that a time of 1:37:40 is a huge improvement and definitely came for the training plan.

So now that this race is done, its time to go back to the drawing board and determine if my training plan can be improved. At first glance, I’m thinking of mixing P90X2, Asylum, and running to make a new hybrid and take on my next half marathon. Keep posted and I will soon post a new schedule on the blog.

At the Finish Line!!!!

So I finally completed an Insanity/Half Marathon training schedule. For those of you who have requested it, sorry it took so long. Soon I will take all the hybrids that I have made and I will publish them together on a new page dedicated to hybrid schedules. For those of you who have requested P90X/Half Marathon Hybrids, I will have those done soon. As always, click on the above image to get the higher resolution version that you can save as an image.

Cheers

So far I’ve got a lot of requests for different hybrid schedules. Pretty soon I am just going to make an entire page on this site that is just dedicated to hybrid workouts. Right now I’m training for a few half marathons in Southern California; but my wife got me P90X2 for Christmas. I didn’t want to wait until after the half marathons to start P90X2 so I made a hybrid schedule to try and do both. First I did a week’s worth of workouts for each phase of the P90X2 schedule just to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into. Now I’m a few weeks into this new hybrid and its definitely feeling good. Not as hard as my P90X/Insanity/Asylum/Half Marathon hybrid schedule; but it is definitely gonna get the job done.

**Note:

The image above may seem small; but click on it and the file will be enlarged so it is easier to read.

Can eating unhealthy, fattening food be addictive? As a person who struggled with obesity in the past, I can attest that some food (my weakness was Zebra Cakes) has a ‘power’ over us. No matter how much you can try to not eat certain food, it just ends up finding a way onto our plates. Through my years of training as a neuroscientist/neuropharmacologist, I have learned how many things can ‘hardwire’ our brain into forming habitual patterns (as a side-note, If you want to see my scientific qualifications, see the ‘About me’ page). This is well established for addictive drugs (i.e., nicotine, cocaine) and tragic events (post-traumatic stress disorders); but in recent years, neuroscientists have begun to accumulate evidence that high-fat food can cause addictive patterns, similar to drugs like cocaine.

Take a moment to digest that….high-fat food can cause addictive patterns similar to drugs like cocaine. The number one contributor to obsesity, high-fat foods, causes addictive behaviors. This even more concerning given that obesity is the number three killer in America (Following cancer [#1] and tobacco addiction [#2]) (Kenny, 2011). According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), obesity-related health care expenses in the United States between 1998 and 2000 were approximately $213 billion. They are certainly higher today, given the steady rise in obesity rates in America where current estimates suggest >30% of Americans classifying as obese (Flegal et al., 2010). Not to be depressing; but 300,000 deaths in the United States each year can be attributed to overweight- and obesity-related diseases (Allison et al., 1999).

So where is the evidence that high-fat food can cause cocaine-like addictions? Well, here you go:

When presented with a choice, rodents overwhelmingly prefer to consume a saccharin (sugar) solution rather than cocaine (Lenoir et al., 2007). Rodents will also consume high-fat or high-caloric food in patterns that mimic those of cocaine and heroin (Kenny et al., 2011). Additionally, well-fed rats will voluntarily expose themselves to extreme cold (-15^oC), heat pain or footshock to obtain high-fat food items, such as cake, meat pate’ , peanut butter, Coke, candy, chocolate chips, or yogurt drops, even when lower fat, standard chow is freely available (Cabanac and Johnson, 1983; Foo and Mason, 2005; Oswald et al., 2010).

Reprint of a Figure from Kenny et al., 2010, depicting how rodents will easily consume high-fat (palatable) food in a manner similar to cocaine and heroin.

Consumption of high-fat food has also been shown to enhance mood in humans (Dallman et al., 2003; Sclafani et al., 1998). These effects are likely related to the stimulation of brain reward systems by food. In many addictive drugs, it is well known that addictive processes are initiated and/or maintained through elevated levels of dopamine (a very important neurotransmitter) in cognitive, emotional, and habit-enforcing areas of the brain (i.e., prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens). Imaging studies in human brains have shown that food can activate these same brain circuits that are implicated in drug-reward (Bragulat et al., 2010).

So what does this tell us? This makes me think of the family members that I have (that many of us have) who are obese or morbidly obese and need to make a change in lifestyle; but are unable do so because they can’t stop eating junk. It sounds crazy how many Americans have a choice between changing their eating habits and having a long, healthy life or a life of hypertension, heart failure and high blood pressure; but continue to choose the latter option. Now we (I’m speaking for us scientists and health professionals) may need to look at these cases in a different light. Maybe we should consider these people in need of a lifestyle change as we do recovering alcoholics oar recovering drug addicts?

I just want to clarify that I in no way think that we should ban high-fat or high-caloric food. I’m not one of those people who thinks that McDonalds should be shut down. I just believe that we just need to exercise control over what we eat, just how we already control what we say and do. But next time you think “Man I NEED some cheesecake”, just think about if it really is a good decision.

References:

Allison, D.B., Fontaine, K.R., Manson, J.E., Stevens, J., and Vanltallie, T.B. (1999). Annual deaths attributable to obesity in the United States. JAMA 282, 1530-1538.

Bragulat, V., Dzemidzic, M., Bruno, C., Cox, C.A., Talavage, T., Considine, R.V., and Kareken, D.A. (2010). Food-Related Odor Probes of Brain Reward Circuits during Hunger: A Pilot fMRI Study (Silver Spring, MD: Obesity).

Cabanac, M., and Johnson, K.G. (1983). Analysis of a conflict between palatability and cold exposure in rats. Physiol. Behav. 31, 249-253.

Dallman, M.F., Pecoraro, N.C., La Fleur, S.E., Warne, J.P., Ginsberg, A.B., Akana, S.F., Laugero, K.C., Houshyar, H., Strack, A.M., Bhatnagar, S., and Bell, M.E. (2006). Glucocorticoids, chronic stress, and obesity. Prog. Brain Res. 153, 75–105.

Flegal, K.M., Carroll, M.D., Ogden, C.L., and Curtin, L.R. (2010). Prevalence and trends in obesity among US adults, 1999-2008. JAMA 303, 235-241.

Foo, H., and Mason, P. (2005). Sensory suppression during feeding. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 102, 16865-16869.

Kenny, P.J. (2011) Reward mechanisms in obesity: new insights and future directions. Neuron. DOI: DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2011.02.016.

Lenoir, M., Serre, F., Cantin, L., and Ahmed, S.H. (2007). Intense sweetness surpasses cocaine reward. PloS ONE 2, e698. 10.1371/journal.pone.0000698.

Oswald, K.D., Murdaugh, D.L., King, V.L., and Boggiano, M.M. (2010). Motivation for palatable food despite consequences in an animal model of binge eating. Int. J. Eat. Disord., DOI: 10.1002/eat.20808.

Sclafani, A., Bodnar, R.J., and Delamater, A.R. (1998). Pharmacology of food conditioned preferences. Appetite 31, 406.