I think it might make sense to first talk a little bit about fasting and the origins.

Fasting is not inherent to humans, although we would like to think we came up with the idea. It’s a pretty common thing among animals in nature.

It would appear in some respects animals are far more smarter than us humans when it comes to listening to our bodies.

If you have ever seen an animal even your own dog or cat, when they are injured or sick, one of the last things that they often do is eat. They instinctively know that they need to give their body a rest to recover and repair.

If you stop to think about it, digesting food is one of the most energy intensive things your body can possibly do on a daily basis.

The digestive system incorporates at least six organs to do its job, including but not limited to: mouth, esophagus, stomach, pancreas, liver, small intestine.

Here is a great table that breakdowns the functions:

The six primary processes of the digestive system include:

1. Ingestion of food
2. Secretion of fluids and digestive enzymes
3. Mixing and movement of food and wastes through the body
4. Digestion of food into smaller pieces
5. Absorption of nutrients
6. Excretion of wastes

When we factor in the cycles our body goes through each day just to maintain us it is simply amazing.

Cycles Of The Body

According to the concepts of Orthopathy also know as Natural Hygiene the human body’s diges­tive sys­tem goes through three, eight-hour cycles every twenty-four hours:

Noon – 8pm: Appro­pri­a­tion of food (eat­ing and digestion)

8pm – 4am: Assim­i­la­tion of food (absorp­tion and use)

4am – Noon: Elim­i­na­tion (excre­tion of waste)

Understanding these cycles is critical to one of the most important parts of the boy, the digestive system.

So what does this all mean?

Well in a past post I wrote about this subject with the intention of explaining the health benefits of detoxification through fasting. The fact that many are using this to get cut and lean, aka intermittent fasting is no real surprise.

The whole subject of intermittent fasting is can be summed up in one sentence: Give your digestive system a break for an extended period of time.

Of course there are variations on this idea:

In some contexts, fasting allows the consumption of a limited amount of low-calorie beverages such as coffee or tea.^[2]

One form of intermittent fasting, alternate day fasting (ADF), involves a 24-hour fast followed by a 24-hour non-fasting period. This is sometimes referred to as every other day fasting or every other day feeding. Alternate-day calorie restriction may prolong life span.^[3]

Modified fasting involves limiting caloric intake (e.g., 20% of normal) on fasting days rather than none at all. A study suggests that this regimen may retain most of the benefits of intermittent fasting.^[3] The scientific literature for intermittent fasting, in its various forms, was extensively reviewed in 2014.^[4] Another form involves eating only one meal per day.^[5]

More generally, forms may choose to specify various ratios of fasting to non-fasting periods. The BBC2 Horizon documentary Eat, Fast and Live Longer^[6] covered people who committed to fasting two non-consecutive days per week. Known as the 5:2 diet, people consumed 400–500 calories (women) or 500–600 calories (men) during the days of fasting. During feed days, the diet was regular.^[7]

Human health

Studies on humans suggest possible benefits:^[4]

• Alternate-day fasting may encourage fat oxidation.^[17]
• Alternate-day fasting may reduce body weight, LDL, and triglyceride levels to the same degree regardless of maintenance of low fat or high fat diet on the feeding day.^[18]

The above mentioned benefits are just a couple of the massive advantages that come from fasting. Of course, like anything in life, if you do it in excess it can become detrimental to your health, so please don’t go overboard on fasting or intermittent fasting.

It is a tool like anything else.

I personally incorporate mini-fasts each day, usually not eating anything until 1 or 2 PM. Normally I may take a smoothie before hand but nothing that can serious tax my digestive system. I also, use fasting, when I feel a bit under the weather or sense my body is a little off. Typically with the change in seasons, the temperature can drop and the barometric pressure can affect me.

This is anecdotal and I have not double blind study test results to prove the change in temperature or barometric pressure affects everyone, I am speaking just from my own experience.

What I tend to do, is just refrain from eating heavy foods, and normally just take vegetable juices or fruit smoothies as completely whole and with no processed foods mixed in like rice milk, etc. Just vegetables, fruits and water, juiced or blended. I do this, as soon as I feel something off in my body.

And the next day, it’s like a reset button for my body, I feel recharged and renewed.

In conclusion, intermittent fasting, is nothing new. It’s just giving your body and more so your digestive system a well-deserved break. There are many different methods but I personally like to just refrain from eating anything until 1-2 PM. Just juices or water.

I hope this helps to shed a little light on this subject.

One more thing, here is my recipe for fruit smoothies:

1-2 Tablespoons Vitamineral Green

2 Apples

1 Tablespoon Goji berries

2 cups of sliced mangos

1 banana

Blend and enjoy

I suppose I need to give a brief summary of the details leading up to this poignant and important talk.

As with probably all 11-year-old kids, my son feels that the world is unfair when he does not get what he wants at the exact moment that he wants it.

Actually I know many adults that act in similar fashion as my son. For me, the vast majority of the supposed “adults” are all just grown up kids in adult bodies, with the only difference being their age.

Back to the story at hand, realizing that this might just be a grand opportunity to impart some timely wisdom, I sat him down and we began to talk.

Really, I began to talk and my son just listened.

What I wanted to most convey to him was that pain and suffering are not necessarily bad things and that in fact we can use our pain and suffering to move us in the direction we really want to go.

I realized that when we experience what we consider pain and suffering is the opportune momentum to use that energy to our advantage.

I told him that, “Do you think you are the only one on this planet that has experienced tough times? You are not the only one that has had to endure some form of pain and suffering. The only difference is that you complain about your pain and suffering. Is it the end of the world? No. You have to learn a very valuable lesson, that the difference between the victors in life and the victims is that the victors use their pain and suffering. They use the energy to move them in the direction that they want to go and they don’t complain about it. They take action. Use your pain and suffering. Do you think myself or Mommy have never had pain or suffering in our lives?”

In this brief talk, I felt somewhat guided as I spoke to him, as if it was meant to happen.

He paid attention, well as much attention as an 11-year-old can.

What I wanted to most instill in him was that you can achieve anything in life you want and desire if you will just be committed and work through the ups and downs. And I wanted to teach him that in life we often get more downs than ups and we need to learn that when life gives us lemons to make lemonade.

The next Saturday, my son was to compete in a cross-country run, of 1,25 kilometers.

The day before the race I made sure to tell him that, “It doesn’t matter what place you finish, what matters is to have fun and to just finish, to not give up, no matter what.”

Well lo and behold he did just that.

He pushed through and at the end of the race he told me that,”He had pain, that he felt his hip and some soreness but he told himself to keep going and to ignore it.”

After the race, completely unplanned, I had wanted to go check out a public outdoor rock climbing gym. I simply wanted to see if there was a number and to find out more information.

As luck would have it, there was an open introductory class that had just started for beginners, and  the two of us signed up, right then and there.

It was great. We had such a fantastic time.

What you need to know is that, my son has fear of heights.

And we each climbed to the very top of course with professional help from the course we enrolled in.

Afterwards, he told me that, “You know, I was scared inside, but I ignored it and pushed through it.”

It was a perfect day as far as I was concerned.

Great time spent by a father and his son.

The lesson to be learned is that we all experience pain and suffering in our lives. Really the only people that don’t experience pain and suffering can be found in the cemetery.

Pain is a part of life.

How we each choose to deal with the pain is another story.

You control how you perceive the pain and suffering that you have experienced. You can either deal with and use it to your advantage or be a victim.

It really comes down to a choice. A clear decision to not settle for anything less than you can be. And realize that every freaking person on this planet has endured challenges and hardships, pain and suffering, the difference between those that achieve and those that do not is the choice to push through it.

He spoke about the three life lessons that he learned and quite honestly I have to agree with one of the commentators, “it was one of the very best explanations on the difference between those that deal with adversity (“Strong”) and those that succumb and cave in (“Weak”).”

I thought I would share with you these brilliant pearls of wisdom, with a slant towards, of course Calisthenics. Here is a list of the three lessons:

1. Never believe a prediction that doesn’t empower you.
2. You are not your condition(s).
3. The real prison is your mind.

All of us deal with our own trials and tribulations. We all experience heart ache and to some degree of suffering, and if you have not had your fair share than your are probably not really living.

Life is all about facing adversity and seeing who you are and who you become as a result of it.

How this applies to Calisthenics, is very simple, movement and exercise is less about the physical and more about how we manage that thing, called our brain.

Mental excellence doesn’t happen by accident it requires its own type of personal workout, and that is the purpose of sharing these three lessons with you.

Lesson #1: Never believe a prediction that doesn’t empower you.

Life comes down to what you believe about yourself, and what you are capable of. When you believe the things about you that positively inspire and motivate you, then you will most likely be light years ahead of your peers. Everyone has an opinion.

I remember hearing a great quote by Finnish violinist and composer, Jean Sibelius, “Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic.” We are in no big shortage of opinions, predictions, forecasts, or criticisms. And as Deepak Chopra likes to call it the hypnosis of social conditioning, is in great abundance.

Decide today to only believe those predictions that empower you and ignore the rest. This begins with who you choose to surround yourself with.

Birds of a feather really do flock together.

I recently completed in interview with MLB baseball pitcher, Jim Morris, whose life was made into a Walt Disney Movie, entitled, The Rookie, in the interview, Jim likes to describe to two types of people, “dream killers” and the “dream makers”.

Here is a real life illustration of “dream killers”, watch as the crab tries to leave for higher ground and the others pull it down:

Jim goes on to say, “The dream killers are the groups we don’t want around us at any time. But they are around us constantly. You have to know what to do with these types of people. These are the people who want to see you fail. They have either tried to do something in their lives and they failed at it. Or they are too afraid to try. So if they can drag you down to their level they feel better about where they are.

The dream makers on the other hand, are the people who want to see you succeed, for no other reason that they want to see someone go further than what they thought they could do. They want people to achieve. These are the people you want on your team. You surround yourself with the best people possible to be the best you you can be and you are going to be on a winning team”

Belief: Everyone is rooting for me to win; even those that do not know it.

Lesson #2: You are not your condition.

Case in point, singing sensation, Emmanuel Kelly,  who along with his brother Ahmed Kelly, were both born with “severely underdeveloped limbs” due to chemical warfare, were discovered by Moira Therese Kelly, in 1998 at the Mother Teresa Orphanage in Baghdad. The two were left in a shoe box in a park.

If anyone has the right to be bitter or down on oneself it certainly would be Emmanuel, and no one would think twice.

But he has not allowed the conditions of his past to dictate and rule his present and future.

It is a testament to the human will and passion to reign supreme no matter what.

As Sean Stephenson likes to say, “The only disability is one’s refusal to adapt! You have to adapt to whatever environment you are in.”

Amen, I wholeheartedly agree.

Belief: All that we are is the result of what we have thought.

Lesson #3: The real prison is your mind.

Our thoughts are racing at lightning speeds. If we could record all of our thoughts we would probably discover that a lot of the “chatter” or self talk is quite critical or negative.

Did you know that in the English vocabulary we have twice as many negative words to describe various emotions as positive words.

That is incredible!

Your thoughts, beliefs and the words you choose are so critical to your ongoing success, that I would go as far to say, they can make or break a person.

In ancient Egypt, they would throw out the brain during the mummification process, that just shows you how much they valued the brain.

With the advent of technology, I think we are in information overload. We have lost our connection to our soul. Getting in touch with your heart and what your are most passionate about will do more for your spirit.

In the past, intelligence was connected to logic and analysis, but with the findings from people such as Howard Gardner, we are learning that there are other types of intelligence, Gardner came up with 9 intelligences:

1. Musical–rhythmic
2. Visual–spatial
3. Verbal–linguistic
4. Logical–mathematical
5. Bodily–kinesthetic
6. Interpersonal
7. Intrapersonal
8. Naturalistic
9. Existential

Belief: Drop out of your mind and into your heart.

In conclusion, the three important life lessons to be unstoppable are:

1. Never believe a prediction that doesn’t empower you.
2. You are not your condition(s).
3. The real prison is your mind.

Here is the great Ted Talk by Sean, entitled, The Prison of Your Mind:

Of course, I am going to use what I have found in terms of research and apply it to the world of calisthenics.

One of the best places to start is to first look at the two two terms and their respective definitions: reps and sets.

“Reps” is short for repetitions. A repetition is the number of times you actually perform an exercise or movement.

For example, if you do 10 push ups, than you have done 10 repetitions of push ups.

“Sets” are the total number of repetitions you do for an exercise or movement.

For example, if you do 10 push ups, than you have done 1 set of 10 repetitions.

Now that you understand to some degree what a “rep” and “set” are, the more important question becomes what is the right mix of reps and sets and rest between sets?

There is no one size fits all when it comes to how many sets and reps. It really depends on your fitness goals, objectives and skill level.

A good understanding of muscle hypertrophy is also an essentially component that sometimes gets overlooked.

Muscle hypertrophy is essentially the ability to grow muscle skeletal muscle.

There are three types of muscle:

1) Skeletal muscle
2) Smooth muscle
3) Cardiac muscle

Lets go over each briefly.

Skeletal muscle are those which attach to bones and have the main function of contracting to facilitate movement of our skeletons. They are the striations that you see on a bodybuilder or someone in great shape. 1

Smooth muscle is also sometimes known as Involuntary muscle due to our inability to control its movements, or Unstriated as it does not have the stripy appearance of Skeletal muscle. Smooth muscle is found in the walls of hollow organs such as the Stomach, Oesophagus, Bronchi and in the walls of blood vessels.2

Cardiac (Heart) muscle is found solely in the walls of the heart. It has similarities with skeletal muscles in that it is striated and with smooth muscles in that its contractions are not under conscious control.3

The Skeletal muscle is what I will be focusing on as I discuss muscle hypertrophy.

There are two types of muscle hypertrophy:  myofibrillar or functional hypertrophy and sarcoplasmic or non-functional hypertrophy.

Think of functional hypertrophy as strength and non-functional hypertrophy as growth.  This is, of course, a gross over-generalization and in no way am I saying that bodybuilders are not strong as well, nor am I saying that the “strongmen” out there don’t grow in size and muscle.

It’s just a way to wrap your head around these two concepts as it pertains to your overall fitness goals.

The amount of reps and sets really depends on what you are trying to accomplish.

In order for the muscle to grow you have to shock it, you have to do something out of the norm, to induce any type of growth. That also goes without saying when it comes to any other area of your life.

If you just go through the motions, and you don’t focus on the actual movements, and you are not pushing yourself to the limits and beyond, you will not see progress.

No matter what rep and set combo you are doing.

I learned this from the P90X founder, Tony Horton:

1. Variety: Mixing it up, changing the routine, to shock the body, this is also called muscle confusion. Muscle strength, endurance and growth are the results of confusing the body.

2. Consistency: A constant routine is also a pillar to muscle growth and strength because it sends a signal to the body to be in a prepared ready state for activity.

3. Intensity: Your workouts need to be intense, otherwise there is no reason to be working out. It”s called working out for a reason, it’s not called going thru the motions. You need to give 100% effort. Or as Arnold Schwarzenegger likes to call it, “Being in the zone. Do it and go all at it.”

 If you want to grow in size than more reps lower rest periods, however if strength is what you are after than you want to lower your reps and you increase your rest periods:

Desired Outcome	Growth Vs Strength	Reps Per Set	Rest Time
Explosive Power	Strength	4-7 Reps	3+ Minutes
Peak Strength (Myofibrillar Hypertrophy/Functional)	Strength	1-3 Reps	5+ Minutes
Strength (Myofibrillar Hypertrophy/Functional)	Strength	4-6 Reps	2-3 Minutes
Hypertrophy (Sarcoplasmic/Non-Functional)	Growth	8-12 Reps	60-90 Seconds
Muscle Endurance (Sarcoplasmic/Non-Functional)	Growth	12-20+ Reps	30-60 Seconds

There are four additional items that I would like to address when it comes to reps and sets, granted these were popularized in traditional bodybuilding but can be easily applied to calisthenics:

1. Drop sets/Pyramids sets: A drop set is the simple technique where you perform a set of any exercise to failure or just short of failure, then drop some weight and continue for more repetitions with the reduced poundage. Increasing the reps/weights is called pyramid sets. (4)

2. Super sets: A super-set is when one set of an exercise is performed directly after a set of a different exercise without rest between them. Once each super-set is complete, then rest for one and a half to two minutes or more to recover. (5)

3. Training splits: Split system training is a system of weight training that divides training sessions by body regions — usually upper and lower body training. (6)

4. Volume: This is the amount of exercise you do, “high volume” training means that you are doing:

• How much volume is being done per muscle group/body part both per workout AND per week.
• How much volume is being done per exercise.
• How much total volume is being done per workout.
• How much total volume is being done per week. (7)

Incorporating any or all four of these methods into your workout routine can make a dramatic difference.

For example, I am focused on the total number of repetitions (volume) I do per workout session, breaking up my workouts into certain muscle groups (training splits) by doing Legs and Back one day, Shoulders/Arms another day. While I workout, I am doing 2-3 exercises per muscles group, for example 10 parallel bar dips, 10 diamond push ups, and  10 overhead extensions (super sets) and then resting, than I increase the rep count to 11 until I get to 20 reps per exercise (pyramid sets).

As I mentioned before you need to mix it up every single time you workout, because you want to shock the body into growing. It’s all about hard work. If it was easy, everyone would be in fantastic shape, and we both know that is not the case, especially in the states, with 70% of the population being overweight.

In conclusion, how you choose to plan your reps and sets can make the difference between excellence and mediocrity. You need to have a goal, something to aspire to, otherwise, you are just like a ship without a rudder. You have to have a clear direction, an outcome, a purpose.

Once you have the goal, now you just mix and manage with the reps and sets to get you to your goal. It’s not easy, but it’s definitely not boring either. Its hard work, but in the end, the result is to be the best version of you, you can be.

References

(1) http://www.teachpe.com/anatomy/types_of_muscle.php
(2) http://www.teachpe.com/anatomy/types_of_muscle.php
(3)  http://www.teachpe.com/anatomy/types_of_muscle.php
(4) http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/dropsets.htm
(5) http://www.mensfitness.com/training/build-muscle/supersize-your-workout-with-supersets
(6) http://weighttraining.about.com/od/glossary/g/split.htm
(7) http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/weight-training-volume/

Each person is different. And each athlete is different as well. As such nutritional requirements can vary depending on the demands put on the body and what the body needs short, medium and long term to sustain itself in the most optimum manner.

If we just examine the two on their own merits we will need te closely examine what is the  difference between simple and complex carbohydrates.

Yes, I know, everybody, knows what’s the difference, right?

Wrong.

So I set out to find the answer, and make it a bit more palatable for the average person.

There are a few main nutrients that the body needs to maintain, re-charge and revitalize the organs and cells of the body:

1) Fats
2) Proteins
3) Carbohydrates
4) Minerals
5) Probiotics
6) Water

For the purposes of this post, I will be focusing just on carbohydrates.

The word carbohydrates, comes from the fact that it is made of  three separate biological molecules, consisting of carbon (C), hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O) atoms or more easily think of them as hydrated carbons.

Carbohydrates can be generally classified into three categories:

1) Starch (Complex carbohydrates)
2) Sugar (Simple carbohydrates)
3) Fiber (Complex carbohydrates)

Starches, fiber and sugars are fuel for the body. Your body uses either of these as energy.

If you get nothing else from this article and only remember that carbohydrates fall into these three respective categories you pretty much have a basic understanding of carbohydrates. Most people to some degree or another know that carbohydrates are starches, those two words (carbs and starches) have been used interchangeably. What most people don’t realize are the other tow: sugar and fiber.

As you break down (no pun intended) carbohydrates further there are two main sub-groupings that differentiate one from the other in terms of how your body goes about using that food as energy.

The two sub-groupings are: simple and complex carbohydrates.

When it comes to simple versus complex carbohydrates the best way to differentiate the two is in the two words themselves, simple versus complex.

Simple carbohydrates are easily (simple) broken down and digested quickly. In other words, its a lot simpler, but this does not necessarily mean better. Examples include fruits, vegetables, unprocessed plant products, table sugar, fruit juice, milk, yogurt, honey, molasses, maple syrup and brown sugar.

Complex carbohydrates are a bit more complex or take longer to digest and break down in the body as they typically have more fiber, vitamins, and minerals. Examples include vegetables, whole grain breads, oatmeal, legumes, brown rice and wheat pasta.

One other note worth mentioning when it comes to complex carbohydrates is that there are two sub-categories that fall under it, starchy and fibrous carbohydrates.

Starchy carbohydrates include food choices such as brown rice, baked and sweet potatoes, oatmeal, brown pastas and whole grains.

Fibrous carbohydrates include asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, onions, mushrooms, spinach and peppers and can also be found in most varieties of dark green leafy vegetables.

According to Brian Calkins, in his article Simple Sugars versus Complex Carbs, there are six simple steps when it comes to carbs:

1) Start to put the good carbs into your body: Complex Starchy and Fibrous Carbs that have not been altered or processed.
2) Eat small meals more frequently – every 3-3½ hours, 5-6 times per day.
3) Begin to gain an awareness of food labels and the “sugar” ingredients.
4) Start to reduce or eliminate the simple sugars and the processed carbohydrates.  Remember:  If your goal is fat reduction, sugar is your worst enemy!
5) Focus on making progress and forget about being perfect.  You’ll mess up every so often. Forgive yourself and just move on!
6) Remember that small changes over time will stack up on themselves…and eventually will bring you to a new destination of physical excellence!

The Carb Test

A great way to know what type of carbs you are eating is by gauging how you feel 5-15 minutes after you eat. This is of course presuming that you ate an adequate  portion of food. A good rule of thumb is to use your hand to measure of portions of food.

The palm of your hand, not counting your fingers, is considered one portion size of food. (Remember the size of your stomach is the size of your fist. So the huge servings that you sometimes see at restaurants is way too much food.)

If you have roughly three servings (using the palm of your hand as a measurement), and you wait 5-15 minutes for your food to properly digest, this is typically a good way to measure whether your food was nutrient dense or nutrient poor. If after 15 minutes or so you feel hungry you may be eating nutrient poor food.

Many people can eat, what is often called, “empty calorie” foods, like soda and processed foods with enriched flour, and still feel hungry after. Now granted empty calories can help, it all depends on the circumstances you find yourself in.

The reason for this, is that, the food they are eating is devoid of any nutrients the body can use for energy.

The body is still in desperate need of life sustaining and energizing foods, and therefore sends a signal to send more food, because the body has no idea what to do with the “empty calorie” food ti has just received.

If on the other hand, you eat nutrient rich foods, like kale, spinach, broccoli, brown rice, quinoa, sprouted grains, you will often find that it doesn’t require a lot of food to fill your body.

Your body sends a message to your brain, telling it, that it has received the adequate amount of nutrient rich foods and no more food is required.

Another thing worth noting, many people, confuse hunger for thirst, as the vast majority of the people on the planet are dehydrated.

So if you feel the need to eat, drink some water and you may find that that was what your body was needing.

The Glycemic Index of Common Foods

According to Wikipedia, The glycemic index or glycaemic index (GI) is a number associated with a particular type of food, normally carbohydrates, that indicates the food’s effect on a person’s blood glucose (also called blood sugar) level. The number typically ranges between 50 and 100, where 100 represents the standard, an equivalent amount of pure glucose.

In a nutshell, this is a number that can tell you whether or not that can have positive or negative effects with respect to your blood sugar levels.

Many health related industries use a “high,” medium” and “low” rating system for GI. Using this system, foods get classified in the following way(1):

GI Ratings for the World’s Healthiest Foods

The glycemic index is a good measure to know whether the food you are about to eat may cause serious issues or not. As you can see from the chart above that the “healthy” foods typically are low in the GI index.

In conclusion, not all carbs are created equal. Realizing that there is a huge difference in how your body actually stores and uses carbs for energy can make an enormous impact on the quality of your overall health.

We are bombarded with carbs wherever we go, many of them are really just simple sugars and as a result we are lacking the other type of good carbs, complex carbohydrates, that are bodies so desperately need.

Each has their place, and knowing the difference can really help you to build that body you always wanted.

Reference: (1) http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=faq&dbid=32