City to Bay Training 2012
May 15th
Once again, Mitise Health will be training up a myriad of people to complete this year’s City to Bay event in September.
Developing on our hugely successful team from last year, this year’s team will be privy to high class coaching guaranteed to teach efficient running styles, injury prevention, restoration and regeneration after heavy training as well as pace keeping and finally the skills needed to be able to dodge thirty thousand people while still trying to run in a straight line!
Whether you are a fitness fanatic hoping to better your times from years past or are just hoping to complete the City to Bay for the first time – this team is for you.
Each participant who signs up to the 12 week course receives:
- 12 x 60 minute coaching sessions with one of Mitise Health’s experienced personal trainers
- 3 x monthly take home programs focusing on cardiovascular conditioning and core integration
- 1 x corrective exercise program designed to re-align your posture and assist in correcting any muscle imbalances you may have. Poor posture is one of the main inhibiting factors towards efficient movement pattern development!
- 2 x 60 minute long seminars throughout the course of the training program: Efficient Running and Biomechanics and Nutrition Pre-Event, designed to provide you with the knowledge to derive the maximum energy from your body before completing the event
- 1 x Mitise Health City to Bay 2012 commemorative training singlet
- A post-City to Bay feed at the finish line
- Access to our private City to Bay 2012 Training Team forum and finally,
- A City to Bay team exclusive discount voucher for 6 x personal training sessions with one of our trainers!
So now for the final details; dates, times and costs…
The first training will be held on Sunday the 17th June at 9.30am in the CBD, with subsequent sessions to be held at 9.30am each Sunday until the 2nd of September.
To be involved in the team and to reap the benefits of all we have advertised above, your investment is just $26.50 per week paid via a direct debit*, or an upfront payment of just $299.00.
*Amendments can be made to be fortnightly or monthly depending on your pay cycle
For further enquiries or to sign up to the team, contact josh @ mitisehealth.com!
So You Want To Lift Heavy?
Apr 24th
When performed correctly, a heavy lift is a beautiful thing to watch. It shows you strength in its rawest form. It shows what the human body is capable of achieving. It shows dedication to a cause and the conviction to follow that cause through to the end.
Unfortunately I don’t get to witness this thing of beauty when I walk into a gym nowadays. Instead, I get the feeling that a LOT of people are going to need the help of skilled trainers, chiropractors and surgeons in the future to fix blown knees, bulging or prolapsed discs or even neck and spinal injuries.
Why?
Too many times I walk into the gym and see gym-goers, generally males, consistently lifting heavy things off the floor, or pushing them above their chest, or over their heads with improper technique.
Whereas a heavy lift executed correctly is a beautiful thing to watch, an improper lift carelessly undertaken with no regard for form, posture or technique churns my stomach. Closing my eyes I can only pray to the Gym Gods that they have very expensive and all-encompassing private health cover.
So it is my duty as a trainer and a coach to impart my knowledge onto you, BEFORE you stride into the gym thinking you are strong , only to hobble out with a back injury because really – you aren’t.
Not yet…
Here it is then, the Mitise Health Three Step Plan for Lifting Heavy Sh*t:
1. Get a good trainer.
Hiring yourself a trainer skilled in human physiology and the lifts you wish to complete is of paramount importance when embarking on a journey of LHS (lifting heavy sh*t). The reason for this? They have the knowledge, the skill set and the programming prowess to be able to get you where you need to go, safely and efficiently. A good trainer will focus first on working through the CPTs of heavy lifting:
i. Core Strength – without a solid foundation, you cannot, and will not, ever be safe throughout your lifts.
ii. Posture – a weakened and imbalanced posture puts unnecessary and higher magnitude strains on the body, dramatically increasing the chances of sustaining an injury.
iii. Technique – technique is paramount. As with posture, an improper lifting technique puts unnecessary and higher magnitude strains on the joints and can lead to some pretty nasty injuries if consistently done over time.
WARNINGS:
i. A friend isn’t a trainer. Just because your buddy has been going to the gym for years and years and he can lift heavier sh*t than you does not make him a good coach. Learn from someone who is paid to teach, all day, every day and who has an exemplary reputation. Remember – you will get what you pay for.
ii. Get a trainer with experience. Hire someone who has been doing it for at least two or three years, someone who has experience training lifters and who can give you the names and numbers of successful clientele they have trained in the past. You don’t want to be someone’s guinea pig.
iii. Your trainer should be able to lift your weight. If your trainer cannot lift your weight – your trainer cannot spot you. Period.
2. Eat nutrient dense foods.
Providing your body with the most nutrient dense foods you can find is of utmost importance if you wish to be able to LHS. Every individual cell in your body is derived from the foods you place in your mouth, and so to ensure the optimal functioning of each cell you MUST only reach for the highest quality foods. Forget protein shakes, super-highly-energising sports drinks and multivitamins. Instead, reach for organic meats, vegetables and fruits, and be sure to eat consistently throughout the day. Every time you eat something of poor quality, your body uses valuable energy to break these foods down. Energy that could be better used… lifting heavy sh*t.
3. Sleep. A lot.
Want to lift heavy but don’t sleep enough? Then forget about it. Muscle repair and recovery occurs primarily during the night-time hours, when our stress hormones are down-regulated and our body is relaxed. Neglecting this crucial time for rest (generally between the hours of 10pm and 6am) means you will not adequately repair your muscular system, leading to deficiencies in the muscles that will then present as deficiencies in your lifting technique and the maximum weight you can lift. Combine this with the fact that your hormonal system goes into total disarray when you are sleep deprived and no heavy lifter in his or her right mind would EVER skimp out on such a valuable commodity. So forget the footy – hit the hay.
It is my firm belief that if you wish to lift heavy weights OR even just get the most out of your current training program, following the above three steps will set you on the right track.
Forget listening to your oversized friend, the muscle mag you just bought or the latest hype on Today Tonight – think about your body from the perspective of optimal health. Your body can be a heavy lifting machine; you just have to treat it like one. So provide it with the right fuel, keep a strict maintenance schedule with it and ensure all of the moving parts are working in the angles and geometries they should be, and you will have yourself a lean, mean, heavy-lifting machine in no time.
Happy Lifting!
Take the Time, Today…
Apr 8th
Every day we wake up. We go about our business like the day before, and the day before that, and the day before THAT.
Weeks pass, months slide by and the years eventually blend into one: a big memory bank full of experiences, time becoming irrelevant as the distant glow of past events fades and new ones take their place.
Sometimes things can happen though, in an instant, that totally alter our view of the world – our past experiences mean little, the future becomes uncertain and emotions relentlessly and continually crash upon us, like storm waves upon a quiet beach.
Premature death of a friend or loved one can leave us distraught, filled with negativity and regretting past decisions to not spend time with them, to not having made the most out of each day they were with us.
Having seen the consequences of unfortunate, untimely deaths these past couple of weeks it has made me re-evaluate my own life and the relationships I have with MY loved ones- leading to some thoughts on life, love and the relationships we have with our friends.
Each day you wake up is another day to tell someone you love them, that you care for them and you are there for them. Each day you wake, is another chance to repair petty broken relationships with former friends, or to make a family member happy, or to do some good for a close friend.
Each day you wake, is just another chance.
So if there are friends and family members you haven’t seen in a while, or who you wish to spend more time with, or who you haven’t expressed your feelings for recently – do it today. Take a minute to send a quick text message, to make a phone call or to catch up with for a coffee. Share a laugh, reconcile old disputes and start to look forward to a closer future together.
Because you never know when a tragic car accident, a health breakdown or some other unforseen event will take them from you, leaving you unable to tell them how you really felt…
Heart felt wishes go out to the Uy, Yav, and Lim families, the Bear family, and the Jones family for their recent losses. Those loved ones will always remain with you, in your hearts and in your minds.
Media Response – All Red Meat is Bad for You
Mar 15th
Earlier this week I had the pleasure of reading not one, but six lovely little articles based on a study conducted by the guys at the Harvard School of Public Health, each proclaiming the significant and extreme dangers of eating red meat over the course of a lifetime. In fact, some of the sensational claims in these articles included ‘all red meat is bad for you’, ‘red meat can be lethal’ and ‘red meat is blamed for one in ten early deaths, no matter WHAT type of death’.
Sooo…
You get hit by a car – blame the steak you just ate. Death by electrocution? It was that lamb chop’s fault. Oh, and don’t let that kangaroo snag cause you to fall off the balcony at the pub.
Specifically, the study claims that eating red meat – especially processed red meat – leads to a greater chance of dying prematurely (13% for those eating unprocessed red meat, with a 20% greater chance of premature death for those who eat the processed kind such as bacon and hotdogs).
Now, besides the fact that most of us know that processed foods are particularly bad for us anyway, I have the following issues with this study (I shall be focusing on the unprocessed meat statistics in this case):
Issue number one:
The study does not take into account the source from which the red meat was derived. I mean, was the red meat these people were eating coming from an organically grown, grass-fed, stress free cow, or was it from a sick and lethargic cow taken from nature, fed grains to make it fat and sick and tightly cramped into a pen with thirteen other cows who all have no choice but to relieve themselves upon its feet?
The quality of the meat is directly proportional to the quality lifestyle of the cow, which then influences the quality of the cells your body can produce (due to our cells being derived, in part, from the quality of the food we eat).
Poor food = poor quality human body.
Issue number two:
The study relies on massive amounts of data from a wide range of people who may or may not be able to answer the questions they are provided as accurately as one would hope. It is very well known that large epidemiological studies of survey data are nowhere near as rigorous as double-blinded, randomised trials under ‘lab conditions’. We cannot, therefore, be certain that these claims are accurate.
Issue number three:
From all accounts it does not look like the researchers even attempted to divide the participants into their metabolic typing groups to determine if the deaths occurring were, in fact, occurring across all typing paradigms.
If you are a person who genetically, environmentally and historically survived on carbohydrates in the form of root vegetables and legumes, including meat in your diet (especially red meat) may cause you to develop disease and die prematurely anyway, as your slow metabolic processes are not used to having to assimilate such heavy food stuffs.
So was it these people who were dying prematurely, or was it those who were designed to thrive on a meat diet?
Issue number four:
If red meat causes premature death and disease, how is it that the Masai people of Africa, the native American Indian tribes of North America and various other ancient civilisations managed to survive in near perfect health for so many years, when their diets were primarily based on the consumption of red meat and protein?
You can’t disregard the evolutionary evidence.
Issue number five:
This study takes into account only red meat consumption and the death of those consuming it.
What percentage of those red meat eaters consumed processed carbohydrates, sugar, grains, ingested alcohols or were exposed to chemical pesticides on a daily basis? What percentage also experienced high stress levels as part of their lifestyle – whether it be from relationships, work or other factors?
Of the 23,926 deaths documented in this study, 5,910 were caused by heart disease and a following 9,364 were caused by cancer. I won’t go into the details now (as it is cause in itself for another blog post/seminar), but since when was heart disease caused by meat? I thought it was caused by chronic inflammation of the arterial walls due to an overload of toxicity in the blood…
Final thoughts:
So my final thoughts on this issue are: this study has not definitively proven that red meat causes premature death. It has shown us without a doubt that to every story there are two sides. If you want the answers, and you want the truth, you must dig deeper. You must ask the hard questions, you must think about the issue at hand, and you must ask yourself: who conducted the study, and did they have an agenda?
Until next time,
Josh
P.S. For those of you who would like some further readings and audios on this issue, check out these guys coming straight out the States! Mark Sission from Mark’s Daily Apple posted this little beauty, while Robb Wolf and Sean Croxton have their own articles and audios respectively. Enjoy!
An Open Letter to the Unknown Dietician
Mar 13th
To the Unknown Dietician,
First of all I would like to introduce myself.
My name is Josh Smith and I am a qualified personal trainer. Although I have a couple of other qualifications that allow me to discuss holistic health with my clients, none of them are degree qualified nor of a diploma level, so I will not bother going into the details of these at this stage.
I enjoy reading and was taught to read at a young age. I have therefore read a couple of hundred books in my time and a couple of thousand studies from various academic institutions and universities. Basically you can rest assured that my thirst for knowledge keeps me busy and my bookshelf full, and it ensures I am up to date with the latest information regarding nutrition, health and physical activity.
But enough about me. Here is the reason for my letter.
Recently you visited the workplace of one of my clients, and in the process of conducting your work, you engaged my client in conversations about food and required nutritional intake. From what has been relayed to me, your beliefs on certain issues regarding food and nutrition are completely the opposite to mine (which is fine considering the amount of ‘information’ that is out there). My concerns are due to the warning you gave my client that my practices as a trainer and a health professional ‘may be substandard’ and that she needs to ‘exercise extreme caution’ when dealing with me.
As we do not know each other and do not have (and will probably never have) a professional working relationship, I feel quite comfortable pointing out the following flaws in your recommendation that she should aim for three to six servings of brown bread, rice or pasta per day to achieve her required daily intake of carbohydrates.
Let us start by taking a look at this from an evolutionary perspective…
The agricultural revolution started approximately 10,000 years ago, which is when man selectively began cultivating certain crops in certain areas to be able to maximise food production and efficiency. One of the crops introduced at this time, and one that has grown considerably in abundance and size over the course of time, are the grain crops.
As it stands today, western societies rely almost exclusively on grains and grain-based products for food and sustenance, mostly due to the recommendations from health authorities, government bodies and the grain industry itself. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you look at grains from a macronutrient point of view.
A singular piece of whole grain bread contains (on average): 41 grams of carbohydrates (7 grams of dietary fibre), 13 grams of protein and 3 grams of fat – enough to provide you with a bit of energy, a bit of protein for recovery and a little bit of fat.
All well and good, until you think about it this way…
Flaw one…
Human beings have been on the Earth for around six million years (since we split from our ape ancestors), in various ways, shapes and forms. In this time, we have been scavengers, gatherers, and eventually, hunters – eating anything and everything supplied by Mother Earth. We have successfully managed to evolve over millions of years living off nothing but plant and animal matter in its rawest forms. No-where in our history… were we bakers.
In terms of time then, humans have only been eating grains (in ‘processed’ form) for roughly 0.17% of our time as humans. The other 99.83% of time (or 5,990,000 years) have been dominated primarily by the raw plant and animal matter mentioned above. This may not seem like a problem until you take into consideration that geneticists estimate that it takes 100,000 years to change a single genome one tenth of one percent (0.1%). In lay-mans terms, what geneticists are saying is that in order for the human body to evolve and change itself to be able to derive energy from a new food source (such as grains) it would take roughly one hundred thousand years.
Until this evolution occurs then, what happens in the body when we eat something not naturally designed for us? Irritability, inflammation and disease.
So then, flaw two is thus…
By eating grains and grain- based foods, our gastrointestinal system becomes irritable and inflamed, much the same as your skin would if you rubbed a toothbrush over it for a decent amount of time. When this occurs we limit the amount of good food that can be digested, leading to deficiencies within the body of essential vitamins and nutrients. Over a period of time these issues then manifest as different types of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and metabolic disease, while the short term responses are things such as body fat gains, poor quality skin and hair and a higher susceptibility to colds and flus.
And finally, flaw three…
If that isn’t enough, the amino acid sequence that is contained within most grains is very similar to that of the amino acid sequence that is contained in the synovial fluids around the joints in the body. When we ingest these grains and our body marks them as pathogens, our immune system then sends out worker cells to try and track down any other similar pathogens within the body, consequently finding them in our synovial fluid. Once there, they work to destroy these new ‘pathogens’ for as long as the threat remains in our system.
What is it commonly called when our own body attacks the synovial fluid sites around our joints? Oh that’s right – Rheumatoid Arthritis…
Pretty nasty stuff.
As a researcher, I can provide the required references, names of studies and details of the authors and scientists that support my statistics, but just some names to get you started are Sally Fallon and her book Nourishing Traditions, Paul Chek and his audio series You Are What You Eat, Weston A Price and his book Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, and Gary Taubes and his book Good Calories, Bad Calories.
I realise that this was not your only recommendation during your chat with my client, and that you also recommended she eliminate her saturated fat (animal fats) intake, citing the reason that it causes heart disease and high cholesterol levels.
Once again, I disagree one hundred per cent with what you are saying and as such will be writing a second letter outlining my grievances with you on this point. With so much research coming out now from heart surgeons, scientists, and health practitioners in favour of animal fats and their non-existent link to heart disease, I feel I need to outline a few points to you before you start making your clients fatter and sicker with that low-fat/no-fat approach.
Please, do not hold back in your response to me. I look forward to hearing what you have to say.
Yours sincerely,
Josh
P.S I just had a look over your association’s website and find it very interesting that the major sponsors of your industry are (in no particular financial-backing order): – Kellogg’s Australia (makers of fine cereals and grain-based products), Nestle (producers of chocolate and dairy, but also producers of breakfast cereals such as Golden Nuggets and Shreddies) and the Grains and Legumes Nutrition Council, amongst others.
Just saying.
Mitise Health Lifestyle Challenge 2nd April
Mar 11th
FINAL WEEK FOR SIGNING UP! CLOSING 5.00PM MONDAY 26TH MARCH, BE SURE TO REGISTER BEFORE YOU MISS OUT!
In order to help all participants achieve the greatest results they can in the six weeks, Josh has agreed to run FREE training sessions each week specialising in the Challenge programs and exercise sessions! With over $420.00 worth of value being given away FREE, what more could you ask for!?
January… Gone.
February… Gone.
March… Going…
With the year seemingly flying by this year, have you had time to stop and think about your New Year resolutions?
Did you happen to have any regarding health and fitness, or about losing body fat, getting fitter, or actually making a positive change to your health this year? Have you achieved them?
If not, or if you just wish to make a massive positive difference to your health, your happiness and your midsection; then Mitise Health’s latest six week lifestyle Challenge is DEFINITELY for you!
Crafted by our very own PT extraordinaire Josh Smith, Mitise Health’s Lifestyle Challenge is designed to get YOU well on your way to your peak physical condition in just six short weeks.
With our last Challenge participants achieving average losses of greater than 3 kgs, 17 cms and increases in energy, skin health and a more positive view on life itself, we know we have a formula that WORKS, is EASY to do and is tailored for ANY person!
Oh, and did we mention that some of the results we achieved in our LAST challenge included:
- From office worker to ripped abs: Craig D achieving his lifelong goal of getting definition in his abdominals (read his testimonial here).
- Sleepless to sleepy: Pauline M finally being able to get a decent night’s sleep (in excess of 9 hours by the end of the Challenge!) after years of insomnia and
- Half a metre of health: Marie D completely changing the way she looks at food and in the process losing a whopping 49.5 centimetres!
In keeping with our holistic health approach, we have devised a package that can be done in the comfort of your own home; that addresses all issues necessary to elicit a definitive change in your body and does not also cost an arm and a leg!
Intrigued? Read on to find out the specifics…
Launching on 2 April 2012, the Mitise Health Lifestyle Challenge will finish on 13 May 2012 (that’s right – only six weeks in total!!).
Participants will be challenged to EAT, TRAIN, SLEEP, BREATHE and STRESS differently in order to achieve marked and definitive changes in their body, including (but not limited to):
– noticeable and measurable body fat losses
– muscle tone increases
– skin rejuvenation
– significant energy increases and not to mention…
– the confident mindset of knowing how to use nature to achieve results no diet, pill or machine could!!
So how is the challenge structured?
Each participant will receive a Challenge folder that becomes their ‘Challenge Bible’ for the duration of the six weeks. Each folder contains:
– introductory pages outlining what the challenge encompasses
– detailed information on each of the challenge’s subsections (Nutrition, Exercise, Sleep, Stress, Breathing)
– weekly food, exercise and ‘Challenge’ diaries, as well as:
– a choice of four different training programs (Male/Female – Active/Non-Active, Gym/Home)
– a sample meal plan detailing what our trainers eat on a weekly basis and recipe ideas to help you with your nutrition, and finally…
- discount vouchers for use with any of Mitise Health’s BootCamp, Group Training or Personal Training packages!!
All participants will also receive access to our online ‘Challenge Forum’ which aims to bring participants together in one place to discuss challenges, nutrition ideas or to just generally ask for help, weekly emails and phone support, not to mention group training sessions (charged separately) and social events!
And now for the kicker…
As an added bonus, each participant of the Lifestyle Challenge will receive one free training session focusing on the Challenge programs, while the person who we deem to have made the most changes to their body, mindset, attitude and way of life* will receive six by sixty minute long sessions of Personal Training with Josh valued at $240.00!!
Finally, after all the hustle and bustle about what the challenge is and how you will benefit from participating, how much does it actually cost and what are the payment details?
The Autumn Lifestyle Challenge is only $220.00 per participant, which can be paid up front or via a weekly direct debit of just $36.67 for six weeks.
So for roughly the cost of six cups of coffee, pints of beer, or one night of takeaway per week, you could be well on the way to achieving the body fat losses, muscle gains and increases in self esteem and body image that you deserve!
Sign up today by emailing Josh@mitisehealth.com or phoning 0430 105 296.
Will YOU take the challenge?
*Conditions apply
$25.00 Training Sessions!
Mar 6th
With the demand for our services going up and the necessity to keep our pricing competitive and economical for our clientele, Mitise Health have now decided to release two special sets of training sessions priced at only $25.00 per person per hour.
The sessions are designed around our current training principles and will be broken up into four x 60 minute time slots, two on both Monday and Wednesday nights from 5.30pm on wards.
We will only be taking on four people per session so as to be able to minimise costs to those participating, but also to keep the group nice and small to emulate the effectiveness of a personal PT session.
The sessions that will be offered are the following:
Monday Night (meeting at Elder Park):
5.30pm – Strength Session 1
Utilising kettlebells, tyres, barbells, medballs and rings, these sessions are designed to build upon your current base of muscular strength and help you tone, trim and maximise performance from your body while still achieving body fat losses and functionality. Think Power Lifts, Throws and Cleans!
6.30pm – Endurance Session 1
A high volume cardiovascular-based exercise session designed to keep your heart pumping efficiently, effectively and effortlessly. Equipment used in this session will include such things as parachutes, speed harnesses, cables, hurdles, the agility ladder and your own body weight. Ideal for those wishing to get a bit more from their training and to try something new!
Wednesday Night (meeting at Elder Park):
5.30pm – Endurance Session 2
(As above)
6.30pm – Strength Session 2
(As above)
When booking for a session you will initially purchase a four-pack of sessions which have an expiry of five weeks.
The sessions will only run with three people minimum, any less than this on any given week and the session shall be postponed to the following week.
Sessions will be starting as of Wednesday the 14th March, and with only sixteen places available be sure to book YOUR spot soon!
Note: Strength Session 2 will NOT be running on the 21st March due to our Nutrition 101 seminar being held this same night.
2012 New Year Lifestyle Challenge (Update)
Mar 6th
It seems like it was just yesterday that I was out promoting the 2012 New Year Lifestyle Challenge, and now here we are; six weeks later with the Challenge recently finished and some phenomenal stories to boot.
Having not seen each person’s Challenge booklet yet I cannot aggregate the scores and give you some definitive numbers, but I can tell you some of the stories that I have been told first hand by people who have completed the Challenge (which are probably EVEN BETTER than reading the figures!).
Some of the stories coming through so far include:
- One lady who has managed to almost completely eliminate her insomnia and reduce (and even eliminate I’m led to believe) her need for sleeping tablets to get a good night’s sleep. Combine this with the fact that she has gone from only being able to perform four dips (a tricep strength based exercise) at the start of the Challenge to over twenty by the end of it and you have one awesome story! Oh and the kicker… She turns sixty years old in just under four weeks!
- Another one of our participants who managed to lose almost thirty centimetres off her body measurements by the three week mark (safe to say we are looking forward to seeing her final results this week), and who is now working with her doctor to minimise her reliance on her blood pressure and cholesterol lowering medications, saving her what we like to call a sh*tload of money per year (and not to mention the nasty long term side effects prescription drugs can cause!).
- And finally a third participant story of previously having been to a myriad of physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths and back specialists for chronic pain in her lower back, only to have it completely clear up by the two week mark of the Challenge and which hasn’t returned to date! Fingers crossed it doesn’t come back if she goes back to her pre-Challenge lifestyle, which I don’t think she will be now…
But don’t think that’s all of it and that the girls were the only ones who had some fun…
I managed to convince a personal friend of mine who has been dying to achieve ‘ripped abs’ (as he likes to call them) for the last three years to participate in the Challenge, with the promise that if he doesn’t rip up in the six week period (provided he does everything that is asked of him) I will gladly refund his money and buy him lunch for a week. I am not going to get into this story myself, but instead I shall let him tell you in his own words how he went (struggles and all) here… His analysis and results may surprise you…
So all in all I believe it would be fair to say that this Challenge has been a success once again, with people achieving some great results that I don’t think even THEY were prepared for (and some of which neither were we, to be honest!).
Finally, if you would like to achieve some of the results that these participants have, be sure to check our blog for our upcoming Challenge details, starting on the 2nd of April 2012!
Craig Dolley – One happy camper!
Mar 6th
It’s great when one of our clients and close friends is happy with our services! Recently completing our latest six week Lifestyle Challenge, Craig Dolley shares with us his thoughts on the Challenge and how he found it as a time-poor professional working in the CBD.
“I used to think that I was “generally” a fairly fit and healthy guy, frequenting the gym a few times a week and eating fairly well.
I say “generally” as I have now come to realise just how much fitter and healthier I have become by taking part in Mitise Health’s six week Challenge!
My initial motivation for signing up for the challenge was a way of making myself accountable. Following the new year (and a LOT of partying during the festive season I might add) I’ll admit I had definitely slipped away from the gym and my diet was heading in the wrong direction. I had hoped that the challenge would get me back on track and give me the kick I knew I needed and wanted.
What I achieved was so much more.
When I first read through the challenge booklet I was confronted with a myriad of holistic lifestyle changes that I would have to make over the coming six weeks.
A few I was very successful on, and others I found harder to complete. As a busy professional time can often be my worst enemy, so I definitely needed to start planning for meals, when I would train, and how I would make time for the sleep and stress challenges.
In saying this though I thoroughly enjoyed reading through many of the challenges as I found I learnt quite a lot of new information, different form the usual “stuff” you read in the magazines and see on TV. Some of the stats and facts really surprised me!
Throughout the challenge my mindset was one of strength. It’s not easy being faced everyday with temptations; sweet, sugary foods were tough for me – I’m a sucker for lollies. But I knew that I wanted the results and was determined to succeed and actually managed to successfully cut out all junk food! I upped the tempo of my training and stuck with the nutritional recommendations as well, and coming to the end of the Challenge I can honestly say I have never eaten this healthily, nor felt this amazing!
Not only have I achieved greater muscle definition through the training programmes (through which I learnt 
how to push myself even harder) I am eating a higher quality of foods and feel more energised. I still struggle to get a full 8 hours sleep, but over all the results have been fantastic, I am more confident and my lifestyle has definitely changed for the better. Not only that, I am amazed at how quickly I achieved results. Even just after the first two weeks I was seeing major improvements to my physique and lifestyle.
I will continue to live my life by many of the challenges presented in the booklet, and having seen the results in just six weeks I look forward to seeing the results in another six or even twelve weeks.
Finally, at the beginning of the challenge all I wanted (and all I have ever wanted) was abdominal definition – I wanted abs. Josh guaranteed that I would get abs by following the challenge all the way through, and I am confident to say I am very happy with the results…
I’ll let the photos speak for themselves!!!”
Move more or Sh*t less!
Mar 6th
So you haven’t ‘been’ for a couple of days and things are starting to get really uncomfortable. Your stomach is bloated, gaseous exchanges with the surrounding environment are so thick you need a chainsaw to cut through them and you are starting to wonder if a dramatic evacuation is needed with the help of your old friend Laxette.
Well thankfully, that may not be the case… Yet.
You have probably been told thousands of times by your doctor, your family and your friends that your diet has everything to do with your bowel movements (or lack thereof). They implore you to eat more fibre, or to drink more water, or they tell you that your vegetable intake isn’t what it should be and you need to eat more greens.
As much as they may be correct (food definitely does have correlations to your uh, ‘movements’), the main factor that people do not take into account when discussing these issues is your exercise and the amount of movement your body gets on a daily basis!
Let me explain…
On an evolutionary scale, humans have evolved fairly quickly from apes to hominids to homosapiens. So quickly, in fact, that our gastrointestinal system and the inner workings of our internal waste management systems have struggled to keep up. This is evident in the fact that human beings are the ONLY animals on the planet that have an ascending colon (due in part to our quick evolution to biped movement), the part of the bowel that literally has to push sh*t uphill before it can evacuate it from your body.
If this part of the bowel is not fully stimulated through movement, the natural rhythmic flow of your body (called peristalsis) becomes suppressed and your intestinal ability to effectively and efficiently usher your waste through the recesses of your bowels becomes diminished. Over a period time if this keeps occurring, waste backs up in your colon which can eventually lead to some pretty nasty gastrointestinal issues and diseases.
So in order to minimise the chances of your insides looking (and smelling) like the bottom of your bin before bin day, be sure to increase the amount of time you spend daily on stretching, extending, flexing and twisting your midsection around to stimulate bowel movement.
This can be achieved in the following ways:
- Breathing squats (see picture): This exercise helps to fully extend and flex the abdominal region, really massaging the internal organs and assisting peristalsis in the bowel. Combined with full breath natural breathing, this is a superb exercise to aid in relief from constipation pain and will help shuffle things along quite nicely.
- Full range of motion squats: Similar to a breathing squat, a full range of motion squat allows the bowel to flex and extend naturally, assisting movement. I say full range of motion because most of you out there will be thinking ‘but Josh, I spend all day sitting down in a chair, doesn’t this give me full flexion in my bowel?’. Not at all. The part of the ascending colon that needs to be stimulated sits above the line of flexion of your hips, meaning that sitting down on a chair isn’t going to get this part moving. You must sit down lower than 90 degrees at the hips to achieve stimulation, hence the full range (or bum to calf) movement.
- Twist more! The twist movement is such an integral part of human mobility it needs to be done on a daily basis for total human health, not just to help you poop. Twisting encourages compression and expansion in the lateral parts of the bowel (the transverse and pelvic/sigmoid colons) as well as rotational and shear forces in the ascending and descending colons, making for a total (bowel) stimulating experience!
And finally…
- Breathe naturally: Natural, diaphragmatic breathing means the rise and fall of the diaphragm causes not just stimulation of the bowels from above, but also less chance of rigidity in the lumbar spine and a stagnation of movement in the intestinal tract.
So if you find it hard, or you can’t find ‘it’ at all, it may be time to look at your lifestyle and increase your daily amount of movement!
Happy pooping everybody!
Josh
