High Intensity Metabolic Conditioning
by Mike Brower, NASM-CPT and Smith Sports Trainer

High Intensity MetCon (metabolic conditioning) is an extremely effective way of training for all sports. This type of training will do a number of things to the body to increase anaerobic/aerobic threshold, increase lean muscle mass which results in an increased metabolic rate, and lastly increase power! In my own workouts and with the clients I train I am a very strong believer in MetCon. It has helped me in my own fitness life and has helped client’s look and feel their best, as well as set new Personal Records! Creating the proper MetCon workout is the challenging part, but I will give you the tools necessary to get out there and do it on your own!

Anaerobic threshold and Aerobic exercise are the two biggest factors in any athlete’s life. Anaerobic threshold is exercise intense enough to trigger your anaerobic metabolism. You reach this zone when doing high intensity/short duration training. This may be 60 seconds of work with 30 seconds rest. Aerobic exercise includes lower intensity activities performed for longer periods of time, such as running and cycling. These exercises require much more oxygen to sustain for longer periods of time. Now what if we were to create workouts where we are simultaneously training both energy systems? Well, that there would produce tremendous athletes! At the end of your race, that last half mile don’t you want to be able to kick it into high gear and sprint harder than you ever have before? That is what MetCon will do for you! These workouts will not be easy. At times you may find yourself bent over gasping for air or attempting to push yourself off the ground but your muscles are too burned out do it and most people will lose their lunch at some point.

Now we get to the part everyone loves but some will never admit! Increasing your metabolic rate is a huge part of training. Increasing your lean muscle mass will increase your metabolism. One pound of muscle burns 10 times the amount of calories one pound of fat does. The muscle needs more nutrients to sustain and to build so this will increase the rate at which you digestive or use the food you consume. You definitely want to be eating right when all of this is going on to get the best results!

Increasing your power or building some “Hurtin Bomb’s”, as Matt O’Brien and I would refer to it in our training sessions, is very beneficial for any athlete. During MetCon workouts you will be challenged with different forms of explosive exercises. This is going to tap into your fast twitch muscle fibers. This type of training primarily uses bodyweight exercises, but will eventually advance to Kettle Bell, TRX and many other odd object training tools, all focusing on compound movements. These movements train multiple primary muscle groups simultaneously to give your body a complete workout. This type of training is going to greatly increase core strength which is the stem of all power. When your core gets stronger you will get faster on swimming, biking, and running!

Now it’s time to learn the ways of the MetCon trainer…well some of them! The scale at which I use to create my workouts is called the “Suck Factor” meter. An example is the following 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups and 10 atomic Sit-ups would rate a 3 on the suck factor because it is very easy. On the contrary, 10 rounds of 10 push-ups, 10 pull-ups, 10 atomic sit-ups followed by a quarter mile run would rate around an 8. This is obviously not an official scale, but it does work. You take 3 simple but effective exercises add in a short distance cardio interval and do that for a number of rounds with little to no rest in between and you have yourself a MetCon workout. For different examples you can refer to the workouts I post weekly on the website! Now the main thing: Just get out there, train hard, and have fun!

The Master Cleanse
by Ali Molnar, ACSM-CPT, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, RRCA Certified Coach
There are several variations of “Detox” and “Cleansing” diets out there, but which ones are worth the effort and which ones are you just flushing your money down the toilet instead of…well, you know…

After watching my good friend, Adam Davis drink some yellow tinted liquid for several days on end while still working and exercising, my curiosity got the best of me and I needed some more information. It’s called “The Lemonade Diet” and after my own research, found it was part of “The Master Cleanse”, which was first created and authored by Stanley Burroughs in 1976. Check out his book.

After reading more about The Master Cleanse, Dave and I decided to give it a shot. It actually sounded pretty simple. Squeeze fresh lemons, and then add rich maple syrup and cayenne pepper into pure water. Drink a minimum of 6-12 glasses throughout the day whenever you are hungry. Do a “salt water flush” in the morning and drink an herbal laxative tea (or take an herbal laxative tablet) in the evening. The amount of days you follow this program is entirely up to you and your body. The average is 14 days, but some do 3 days while others have gone past 30 days. We decided we were game for 3 days just to see what it was all about. Before I tell you about our experience, let me give me the details about this program.

Why Cleanse?
The idea behind The Master Cleanse is not only to detox and cleanse your body by eliminating all the waste, but there are two other important factors taking place. The first is the psychological aspect of the cleanse. We all have our own “issues” when it comes to eating and most of them are psychological issues. We want to eat, not we need to eat. Given then the majority of us are dehydrated on a regular basis, it’s safe to say we are confused when we are actually thirsty and when we are actually hungry, and we typically opt for food to quench that “need” for something. The second factor deals with your body’s pH balance. By eating the way Americans eat, taking the unnecessary amount of medications that Americans take and stressing about everything known to man that Americans stress about, all on a regular basis, the body’s pH level is thrown into an acidic state. When the body is acidic, yeast, bacteria, viruses and cancer can thrive. Conversely, when the body is alkaline, foreign bacteria, viruses, yeast and cancer can not live. Our body has a natural balance, but when we are too acidic, minerals, such as calcium, are leached from ours bones to help alkalize the body. Another way our body tries to protect us from acid is too buffer it with fat and store it in the body. The Master Cleanse creates an alkaline state in the body, allowing detoxification to take place, purging the toxins from your joints, soft tissue, cartilage, and mucous membranes especially.

Starting the Day: The Salt Water Flush
The Salt Water Flush is very important. Upon arising, add 2 level teaspoons of uniodized sea salt to a quart of lukewarm purified water. Shake it up, and then drink the entire quart. Many sources say it’s also good to massage the colon as it helps to “move things along”. It’s very important to use uniodized sea salt, as opposed to regular or iodized salt which will not have the same beneficial effect. The Salt Water Flush will do just as its name claims, flushing out your entire digestive tract and colon from top to bottom, usually within a 1-2 hour time period. You will be relieving yourself 3-7 times, possibly more during this time frame, so make sure you get up extra early as you don’t want to be heading off to work before the salt water flush is done with its job! Because your body doesn’t digest the solution, it will be immediately expelled, along with the plaque and debris from the walls of your intestines, as well as the parasites that have been living there. Not a pleasant thought, I know!

The Lemonade Now that we got that out of the way, let’s move onto the main, and more enjoyable, part of the cleanse, “The Lemonade”. You will need: 2 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice (~half a lemon) 2 Tbsp of rich maple syrup, Grade B or C 1/10 tsp of cayenne pepper 1-2 cups of pure water First, roll the lemon on the cutting board to get it nice and juicy. Then cut the lemon along its belly and juice it, either manually or with a power juicer. Measure 2 Tbsp into your cup of pure water. Next, measure and add 2 Tbsp of rich maple syrup and 1/10 tsp of cayenne pepper to the cup. Mix it up and drink it immediately.

To ensure it is fresh and will retain as much of the nutrients and energy as possible, you should prepare the Lemonade just moments before drinking it. If this isn’t possible, due to work, then combine the fresh lemon juice and the rich maple syrup, forming a concentrate. The rich maple syrup will preserve the enzymes and nutrients in the lemon juice. This concentrate should be stored in a cool, dark, glass container. When you are ready to drink, combine 4 Tbsp of the concentrate with the water and cayenne pepper.

While following the Master Cleanse, eat nothing, but be sure to drink plenty of purified water in addition to the Lemonade drink. The Lemonade contains all the vitamins and minerals you need. That doesn’t seem possible given the fact it’s a liquid when we are used to having to chew on food for calories, but these 3 ingredients combine to keep you fueled and satisfied throughout the day.

The Lemon Juice
Yes, lemons are acidic, but not when they are consumed. They actually have an alkalizing effect on the body due to their high levels of magnesium, calcium and potassium. The acids in the lemon juice have the ability to break down calcified substances including gallstones and kidney stones. Lemons are a natural cleanser, high in Vitamin C, and contain B-5, B-6, Niacin, Riboflavin and Thiamine to name a few. This is why it’s so important to drink the lemon juice fresh. As you probably now realize, nearly all packaged foods contain little to no living enzymes due to cooking and processing. “Live” food contains all the active, living elements necessary to cleanse the body.

Rich Maple Syrup
Though lemons are an amazing source of nutrients, we need a primary source of energy and that’s where the rich maple syrup comes in. Now, this isn’t your Aunt Jemima highly processed and refined table sugar “maple syrup”, but the REAL thing that comes from trees. Check the ingredient to be sure it says maple syrup. Grade C is the most natural form, but this can be difficult to find. Grade B can be bought at the grocery store and will work just as well.

Maple syrup is a very high quality, concentrated source of energy when consumed in its purest state and is packed full or nutrients, minerals and vitamins. The amount and variety of nutrients depends on where the maple syrup is from and the soil conditions of that location. The tree takes up nutrients from the Earth and “becomes” the tree.

The first question that comes into most people’s minds when hearing of a “liquid diet” is “Where do you get your calories"? 1 Tbsp of maple syrup provides 55 calories and 1 Tbsp of lemon juice contains about 4 calories. If you were to drink 8 glasses of lemonade each day, you would consume 944 calories.

Cayenne Pepper Cayenne Pepper is an herb, and according to most herbalists, cayenne pepper is more powerful than any other herbs. Capsaicin is the ingredient that gives peppers their heat! In addition to adding heat to the pepper, capsaicin acts to reduce platelet stickiness and relieve pain. Cayenne peppers also contain vitamin E, vitamin C and carotenoids. Cayenne is used to treat a variety of health conditions, such as poor circulation, weak or poor digestion, heart disease, chronic pain, sore throats, headaches and even toothaches. When consumed, cayenne soothes the digestive tract and stimulates the flow of stomach secretions and saliva.

When adding cayenne pepper to your Lemonade, start with less and add more to taste. The “hotness” is measured in a unit called Scoville ranging from 40,000 to 100,000 IU’s. Try the 40,000 unit version first and move up to the 100,000 IU’s. The more cayenne pepper in your Lemonade, the better. If the package isn’t marked with a unit measure, it is more than likely 40,000.

Another benefit to cayenne pepper is its ability to increase blood flow faster than any other herb. When you have a “sick area”, there’s often a restriction of blood flow to that area. Blood flow is what takes nutrients and the healing properties of herbs to those cells. Blood flow is also what carries out and removes waste material. According to one source, “cayenne pepper is like TNT. It blasts through all that blockage to get to that area which is sick, taking with it all the minerals and vitamins from the foods you eat, and all the vital chemicals from the herbs you take”.

Two more important points to make about cayenne pepper are its ability to raise the metabolism and to break up mucous. When you are not digesting food, your metabolism slows down, but the cayenne pepper helps to keep the metabolism from dropping too low. As I mentioned earlier, mucous is where all our illness causing substances get trapped. This is why we get stuffed up, congested, sneeze and cough. Breaking up and eliminating the mucous if one of the major benefits of the cleanse.

Herbal Laxative
At night, you will take an herbal laxative. There are several that work well, so this is a personal preference whether you want to take a tablet or drink an herbal laxative tea.

How Long Should I Cleanse?
Stand in front of the mirror and stick out your tongue, what color is it? Is your tongue pink again? If so, you are “cleansed”. Your tongue becomes very white while toxins are being eliminated, much like when you are sick. As the toxins are reduced in numbers, this effect decreases. Some people never get white tongues at all, having had fewer toxins. Another sign it may be time to end the cleanse is when your movements are growing increasingly clear.

Ease-Out
This step is essential. When you finish your desired days of cleansing, don’t start to eat solid food too soon as you may become nauseated. The most important factor to keep in mind during this stage is to drink a lot of water, especially if you choose to juice fruit and veggies. It is important you understand that the juice will have a great deal of fiber, and you need to make sure you have enough water in your system to keep you from becoming constipated. Here is one sample Ease-Out Diet:

Ease-Out Day 1 - Orange Juice
Manually or electrically juice enough oranges to make 2 liters of Orange Juice, mixed with water (to taste). You can add 2 Tbsp of maple syrup to increase your caloric intake.
Ease-Out Day 2 - Juicing, Blending, Soups and Broths
This step preps your body for a liquid diet and delivers macro nutrients more quickly to your bloodstream. By breaking down the foods to liquids we can more readily take in the nutrients from the food. Fruit and vegetable juicing is very enjoyable. There are endless combinations of tasty juicing recipes. Blending is equally enjoyable. Green smoothies are like drinking a glass of healing. If you do not have a juicer, you can make soup or broths.
Ease-Out Day 3 - Living Food Diet
To do the Living Food Diet, you need only to eat live foods. Simply remove processed foods, meat and dairy from your diet. Enjoy shopping for, and eating interesting fruits and vegetables. Savor the rich flavor and textures.
Ease-Out Day 4 - Regular Diet
You can eat “normally” again, but it’s best to stick with the living food diet as much as possible, bringing in grains, nuts and seeds.

Looking Back and Ahead
As I mentioned previously, we only did the cleanse for 3 days as a trial run. I was quite surprised how I didn’t feel hungry, I still had energy throughout the day, I felt great, and I wasn’t bloated. Instead, I felt so incredibly lean, which every woman likes to feel! This is a great opportunity to “start over” with your nutrition plan and rid yourself of the addictions you have, whether it’s coffee, alcohol, or a particular food.

Now it’s your turn. I will be doing the full 14 day cleanse beginning March 21st as my sacrifice to God for the final two weeks of lent. I challenge you to join me in The Master Cleanse during this time. Email me if you are ready to take the plunge, detox your body, and feel better with me!

Fit Kids and Absolute Fitness
by Ali Molnar, ACSM-CPT, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, RRCA Certified Coach
Smith Sports has some exciting new programs currently running, and more starting up soon in your area!

Fit Kids
As athletes, trainers, and teachers, we are growing increasingly frustrated watching the obesity rate rise exponentially in children today. We are concerned about the lack of time spent educating kids on healthy eating and exercise. To combat this problem, Smith Sports has decided to take action and develop Fit Kids, an 8-week program focused on educating, promoting healthy eating, encouraging good citizenship, building self esteem, and motivating kids to become more physically active. Through progressive training and a creative exercise program that incorporates muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, speed and agility, cross-training, as well as cardio respiratory conditioning, we can help children engage in daily physical activity and help eliminate childhood obesity. Children will experience the benefits of physical activity and stretching, progressing at their own speed in a safe, non-competitive environment, perform goal setting, and experience pride in personal accomplishment. Most important, they will learn life-long positive habits while having FUN!

Fit Kids is currently being offered in Belleair, FL at the Dimmitt Community Center on Mondays and Wednesdays from 3:30-4:30 pm for ages 7-10 and 4:30-5:30 pm for those older than 10 years of age. If you are interested in this program, please contact us.

Beginning the week of April 5th, Fit Kids will be offered again at the Dimmitt Community Center in Belleair, as well as First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland. Belleair Fit Kids will take place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00-5:00 pm for all ages and Lakeland Fit Kids will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:00-5:00 pm for all ages. Cost of the program is $160 for an 8-week session. For more information, please check out our web site. For further questions or to sign up, please contact us.

Absolute Fitness
This program isn’t your typical Boot Camp. Instead it’s a complete approach to fitness, not only shaping your body, but also shaping (or re-shaping) your mind. During this 8-week fitness program, you will progressively challenge yourself through cardiovascular and endurance training, strength and muscular endurance training, speed and agility work, core conditioning, and balance and flexibility. We will primarily use bodyweight exercises, but progress to more advanced training tools, such as Kettle Bells and the TRX. Our workouts are based around high intensity metabolic conditioning, or MetCon as you can read about in Mike’s article. This style of training is proven to increase anaerobic and aerobic threshold, increase lean muscle mass and increase power and energy!

Beginning the week of April 5th, Absolute Fitness will be offered at the Dimmitt Community Center in Belleair and at First Presbyterian Church in Lakeland. Belleair Absolute Fitness will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:30-10:30 am and Lakeland Absolute Fitness will be held on Mondays and Wednesdays from 9:15-10:15 am. Cost of the program is $160 for an 8-week session. If you would like more information, want to register, or would like to request another Absolute Fitness at a different location and time, please contact us.

50K - One Long Day In the Swamp!
by Poncho Smith, Smith Sports Athlete
After the Goofy Challenge, Coach Ali and I began talking about me doing a 50K race this winter. Fortunately (or unfortunately…) for me, the Dances with Dirt Green Swamp 50K race was scheduled for February 13th. I signed up, not thinking twice about it and we began tweaking my training program for the race. Wow, the things that go through your mind in preparing for your first ultra race. I definitely went into this race with the intentions of just getting it done! As it ended up, that is ALL I got because it sure wasn’t pretty…both the trails and myself by the end, I mean. They did start us out on some really nice trails, both high and dry.

The 50K and the 50 milers ran with the half marathoners till around the 8 mile mark where we then went our own ways. This is where things began to get ugly! I came upon the first of many underwater 2-tracks. I thought, how hard can it be to run along the edge of the 2-track out of the water? A lot harder than it looks when the edge of the trail has palm fronds and picker brush along it! I finally gave up trying to stay dry and made the big leap into the water and “ran”. The first water hole wasn't bad, only about 4" deep and 50 yards long. But it got worse, yes, much worse! I think that the race director went out of his way to find some of the wettest trails he could. I suppose the 2" of rain that we got the day before didn't help! After what seemed like an endless run in the water, things began to dry out a little around 11 miles…or maybe not! Instead, there was more water and deeper this time! Did I mention the knee deep creek that we had to run (if you can call it that…) through?

The good news was that the race director told us before the start of the race that at the 13 mile mark where our drop bags would be, it was going to dry out. I have no idea what course he was on, but it wasn't the one he sent us down! I got my dry socks and shoes on (I had happy feet again) and headed back out on the trail. We were high and dry for about 100 yards, at the most! Then, back into the water we go. What a day! You just had to laugh about it and know that everyone had to go through it.

Things did get better someplace out in the woods. We got to a little higher ground where the feet had a chance to dry out. By that time though, I was more worried about keeping the pace and the legs in control. I finally started to get close to the end when I came up to the next to last aid station at the 26 mile mark. I was informed then that somewhere in the woods we had done an extra 4 mile loop! I have no idea where that was, but I was then told I could take the Blue course (marathon loop) back since it was going to be only 4 miles to the end. I did manage to figure out that if I did that I was going to be 1 mile shy of making the 50K mark. So in my dizzy delusional state of mind, I decided to run the rest of the orange course (50K) and make my goal. By the time I got to the last aid station with only 3 miles to go, I then figured out that I would have ran 35 miles! Just keep the legs moving I kept telling myself.

Why is it that this race director loves the water so much?! With less than 2 miles to go, there was another deep water crossing to make. This one was over the knees and cold, but boy did it feel good at this point. I almost stopped in the middle of it and sat down, but I obviously decided not to. I just wanted to get to the finish, find my wife Nan (aka, support crew) and have this thing over with! That’s exactly what I did, finishing 13th out of 38 individuals overall in 6 hours and 27 minutes. Not too shabby for my first ultra! Coach Ali got me to the end with her good training, but we have decided that maybe we need to do another 50K before we move onto the big one, a 50 mile race! All in good time!!

The Health Care Cost of Obesity
by Ali Molnar, ACSM-CPT, USA Triathlon Level 1 Coach, RRCA Certified Coach
With so much talk about the overhauling of our health care system in this country, it’s time to look at the price of obesity in this country! Besides the obvious toll it takes on health and beauty, the largest toll is taken on the wallet. On average obese people spend $1400 more a year on health care compared to someone of normal weight. Regardless of who’s fronting the money, in general, obesity is running up the health care bill.

How exactly does the US define obesity? It starts when the BMI (body mass index) is 30 or more. A 5’5” person becomes “overweight” at 150 pounds and “obese” at 180 pounds. In 2009, 34% of American adults were obese.

Statistically speaking, medical complications, like diabetes, heart disease, cancers and others, increase sharply when one’s BMI is 30 or more, and they all work together to drive up costs. The payments go to doctor visits, lab work, diagnostic tests, prescription medications, hospital stays, the various therapies, and everything else that is a direct cost of the condition. Then there are the indirect costs, such as lost wages and productivity due to sickness and long-term disability. This all adds up to ~$1429 more a year per obese person. These numbers aren’t getting better with time. In fact, medical spending on conditions linked to the obesity epidemic has nearly doubled in the last decade.

Now let’s look at the dent we could put in the health care debt just by losing weight. If there are 72 million obese adults and each one saves $1429 by losing weight, that produces a savings of $102,888,000,000 (almost $103 billion) – or 70% of the money spent on obesity-related health problems. That’s a significant amount of savings, especially for something that everyone craves…to lose weight and/or be healthier!

As everyone is looking to trim their costs in this tight economical time, it’s encouraging to know that by losing weight you can save up to $1400 a year! For the society, the combined savings would begin to make a dent in the health care debt. It’s just one more reason to start the road to better health today.