Friday, 03Feb12

TGIF

First Round

• Burpee & a half x 60 seconds
• KB swings x 60 seconds
• Mtn. Climbers x 60 seconds
• Diamond Sit-ups x 60 seconds
• DB Thrusters x 60 seconds

In rounds 2-3-4 all above movements will be done at 45 sec, 30 sec, 15 sec… respectively. There will be rest in between rounds respective to the times of rounds. 1st round 60 sec rest… 2nd round 45 sec rest and so on

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 Raw Juice Therapy

By Grata Young

Raw juice therapy is a method of treatment of disease through an exclusive diet of juices of fruits and vegetables. It is also known as juice fasting. It is the most effective way to restore health and rejuvenate the body.

During raw juice therapy, the eliminative and cleansing capacity of the organs of elimination, namely lungs, liver, kidneys and the skin, is greatly increased and masses of accumulated metabolic waste and toxins are quickly eliminated. It affords a physiological rest to the digestive  and assimilative organs. After the juice fasting or raw juice therapy, the digestion of food and the utilisation of nutrients is vastly improved.

An exclusive diet of raw juices of fruits and vegetables results in much faster recovery from diseases and more effective cleansing and regeneration of the tissues than the fasting on pure water. Dr. Ragnar Berg, a world-renowned authority on nutriton and biochemistry observes:

“During fasting the body burns up and excretes huge amounts of accumulated wastes. We can help this cleansing process by drinking alkaline juices instead of water while fasting. I have supervised many fasts and made extensive examinations and tests of fasting patients, and I am convinced that drinking alkali-forming fruit and vegetable juices, instead of water, during fasting will increase the healing effect of fasting. Elimination of uric acid and other inorganic acids will be accelerated. And sugars in juices will strengthen the heart. Juice fasting is, therefore, the best form of fasting.”

As juices are extracted from plants and fruits, they process definite medicinal properties. Specific juices are beneficial in specific conditions. Besides specific medicinal virtues, raw fruit and vegetable juices have an extraordinary revitalising and rejuvenative effect on all the organs, glands and functions of the body.

Friday, 20Jan12

Kick ass in the early morning with this fat burning class.

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F***king Friday

The clock will be set to go for 40 second work with a 20 second rest with a 1 min rest between the 3 rounds.

• Recline face pulls
• DB Squat Hang Cleans
• Bounders
• KB Deadlifts
• Bear Crawls
• DB Thrusters

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Thursday, 19Jan12

Kettlebell Crazy Eights

Chris, hope you can make it for this one!!

8 reps of each 8 exercises for 8 rounds. This is for time… or 22 mins

• KB SumoDeadlift HighPull
• KB Renegade Row
• KB Racked Squats (switch between rounds)
• KB Diamond Situps
• KB Hold to figure 8
• KB Push press
• KB Alternating stand-kneel-stand
• KB Swings

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Ready for Anything Training!!!!!

This class is a 1 hour ass kicking circuit that will leave you in a puddle of sweat.

Your cardiorespiratory and muscle strength will benefit from our motivational, challenging and fun circuit training set to energetic music.

Let’s see what you’ve got!!!!

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Monday, 16Jan12

Monday Met-Con

This is a timed 30 second work / 20 second rest for 4 rounds ~ no rest

Circuit A  

• Jumping pull-ups
• Sit-up to a wall toss w/dynamax ball
• Burpees w/a roll right (stand & jump) repeat roll left
• Reverse KB contralateral lunge (KB right side/lunge back with right leg)

Rest 2 minutes… set up for another 4 rounds ~

Circuit B

• Recline overhead pull
• Kettlebell deadlift jumps
• Sit-outs
• KB swings

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          Go Giants!!

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Every great
dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength,
the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the
world.
Harriet Tubman

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19 Reasons To Ignore Everybody And Follow Your Dreams

We’ve been conditioned to believe that we need to keep our heads down and follow a template for living.

It goes something like this: Go to school, go to college, find a job that you kind of like (but really don’t), get married, have some kids, save for retirement, and slowly give up.

But we don’t have to live like this. Just because a lot of people do something, doesn’t mean that’s the only way to live. You can follow your own path, wake up excited, and live on your own terms.

I want to share 19 reasons why you should ignore everyone and follow your dreams:

1. The only “yes” you need to follow your dreams is yours.
2. You’ll regret it later in life, and if you’re delaying it, you’ll question yourself why didn’t you do it sooner.
3. Not following your dreams makes you feel unaccomplished.  Eventually, this will stop you from dreaming altogether.
4. It will attract some attention, even from the naysayers ad haters. You will feel strong as you prove the naysayers wrong.  As Walter Bagehot said; “The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.”
5. People who follow their dreams are doers.   Doers have more power to create, influence, and change their environment… and eventually the world.
6. Life feels more memorable, hence you feel/become more memorable.
7. Following your dreams might take unexpected turns, but those are the interesting and memorable challenges of living the dream.
8. Those challenges will help you grow as they make you step out of your comfort zone.
9. Dreams make you take chances, but chances can bring more opportunities.
10. Afraid about it? Good. Being afraid makes you feel more alive, so smash through that brick wall of fear.  Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.  Elbert Hubbard once said, “The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one.”
11. Your dreams and your actions define you.  Don’t let others define you with what they tell you to do and not to.
12. You will inspire other to follow their own dreams, even if they know nothing about you.
13. Following your dreams makes you interesting.
14. Who doesn’t love to challenge the status quo?
15. There are no rules in life so why limit yourself to what everybody else is doing?
16. Accomplishing your dreams will spark even bigger dreams.
17. You feel you have something more to live for.
18. Even if your dreams fail, you’ll feel proud you gave it your all to accomplish them. Dreamers tend to fail, but they tend to learn more in life. You learn from failure.  So, dust yourself and try it again.
19. It’s your life, live it under your terms!

It is up to you to live your dreams.

]]> http://nxtlevelnow.com/2012/01/rod-011612/feed/ 0 http://nxtlevelnow.com/2012/01/rod-011212/ http://nxtlevelnow.com/2012/01/rod-011212/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2012 06:16:07 +0000 Coach D http://nxtlevelnow.com/?p=8217 ROD

Thursday, 12Jan12

It’s just another Kettlebell Day!!

30 seconds on/30 seconds of rest. Continue for 4 rounds then move to the next couplet until you are done! Enjoy!

Couplet 1

• KB Snatch/ right
• KB Snatch/ left

Couplet 2

• KB Clean  & press/ right
• KB Clean & press/ left

Couplet 3

• Reclines with overhead pull
• Dbl KB swing (outside legs)

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Ready for Anything Training!!!!!

This class is a 1 hour ass kicking circuit that will leave you in a puddle of sweat.

Your cardiorespiratory and muscle strength will benefit from our motivational, challenging and fun circuit training set to energetic music.

Let’s see what you’ve got!!!!

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This is for you Jennifer !!

Losing Weight with Hypothyroidism

How an Underactive Thyroid Can Affect Weight Loss

Many hypothyroid patients struggle with an inability to lose weight. At first, if you’d gained weight before your thyroid problem is diagnosed, you were probably told you’d be able to lose it more easily — or perhaps you were even told you’d lose all the extra weight — once you started on your thyroid hormone replacement.

So you take your thyroid hormone, and the weight doesn’t come off.

Later, despite “normal” TSH levels, and lower-calorie, low-fat diets and exercise, you find yourself still gaining, or not losing weight. You may also have high cholesterol levels. The doctor then tells you that your weight problem doesn’t have anything to do with your thyroid.

Some of this site’s visitors have reported to me that they were on a 900-calorie a day diet, walking 3 miles a day, and not losing weight, and the doctor says, “well, you just must be eating too much.”

What thyroid patients need to know more about are three factors that are likely at work for many of us with a difficulty losing weight — a changed metabolic “set point,” changes in brain chemistry due to illness and stress, and insulin resistance.

Metabolic Set Point

According to Dr. Lou Aronne, author of the best-selling Weigh Less Live Longer, when you begin to take in too many calories, you have a small weight gain. Then, in order to maintain your set point weight, “your metabolism speeds up to process the excess calories, your appetite decreases, and some of the newly gained weight drops off.” He calls this metabolic resistance.

Dr. Aronne believes that every person’s body has what is called a weight “set point.” Just like your body works to maintain a temperature “set point” of 98.6, it also appears to work toward maintaining a particular weight “set point.”

His theory is that in people with a chronic weight problem, the body puts up only modest metabolic resistance to weight gain. If you continue to take in more calories than you burn, the metabolic resistance loses strength, and your body then establishes a new, higher weight set point.

What this means is, if several years ago, as a woman at 5’7″ and 160 pounds you needed 2500 calories a day to maintain your weight, and now, after a diagnosis of hypothyroidism and a steady weight gain, at 210 pounds, you need 2800 calories to maintain your weight, if you dropped your calories back to 2500, would you lose the extra 50 pounds? No, as you reduce your calories and lose weight, your metabolic rate slows down, and according to Dr. Aronne, you’d probably only drop to around 197 pounds, although you’d be consuming the same number of calories as another woman of the same height who’s stayed steady at 160 pounds.

This is probably the mysterious factor at play when we see someone who apparently eats even more than we do, but maintains a lower weight level, or conversely, the person who swears they don’t eat that much, but gains weight, or stays heavier.

Dr. Aronne believes you can’t completely eliminate the metabolic resistance, but a slow steady approach to dieting helps to minimize it. Also, a key way to increase metabolism is through exercise.

Changes in Brain Chemistry

Hunger is intricately tied to your brain chemistry. According to Dr. Aronne, your hypothalamus senses you need energy, and issues the brain neurotransmitter neuropeptide Y (NPY) with the message “eat carbohydrates.” The surge of NPY is what you experience as “hunger,” Once the hypothalamus senses you’ve eaten enough carbohydrates, it releases serotonin to tell the body, “enough carbohydrates.”

But this system can be dramatically altered by several factors, all of which can be present in chronic thyroid disease:

• Your metabolism is too slow for the appetite level set by your brain. Thyroid disease slows down the metabolism. What your brain perceives as appropriate food intake levels can then exceed your body’s metabolism, creating weight gain.
• Your body is under stress, which interferes with the neurotransmitter functions, and is known to reduce the release of serotonin. In fact, part of the success of the recently recalled diet drugs fen-phen was the fact that they increase serotonin and create a “feeling of fullness.”

Dealing with brain chemistry, and helping to stimulate serotonin can be dealt with in several ways in addition to taking traditional anti-depressant drugs. Alternative medicine guru Andrew Weil, M.D., author of bestsellers Spontaneous Healing,, and Eight Weeks to Optimum Health believes that the natural alternatives to boosting serotonin include aerobic exercise. Dr. Weil recommends at least 30 minutes of some vigorous aerobic activity at least five times a week. Dr. Weil also recommends the herbal treatment called St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum). More information on Dr. Weil’s natural recommendations for dealing with serotonin are featured at his website.

Insulin Resistance

Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas. When you eat foods that contain carbohydrates (which make up the majority of most of our diets), your body converts the carbohydrates into simple sugars.  These sugars enter the blood, becoming “blood sugar.” Your pancreas then releases insulin to stimulate the cells to take in the blood sugar and store it as an energy reserve, returning blood sugar levels to a normal level.

Carbohydrates can be “simple,” high-glycemic carbohydrates such as pasta, bread, sugar, white flour and cakes, or “complex” lower-glycemic carbohydrates, like vegetables and whole grains.

Current theory claims that sugars and starches are far easily broken down than in our more prehistoric past, and today, many of us simply do not need and cannot process the amounts of carbohydrates that are considered “normal” by current dietary standards. For an estimated 25% of the population, eating what appears to be a “normal amount” of carbohydrates in fact raises blood sugar to excessive levels.  The pancreas responds by increasing the secretion of insulin to the level where it will drive down blood sugar. For this group, consistently eating too many carbohydrates — but remember, what is too many for this group is not necessarily too many for the average person — creates a situation called “insulin resistance.”

Insulin resistance means that cells have become less responsive to the effects of insulin. So your body has to produce more and more insulin in order to maintain normal blood sugar levels. The insulin can also remain in your blood in higher concentrations. This is known as hyperinsulinemia.

In addition to those who seem to have a lowered need for carbohydrates, some people simply eat too many carbohydrates. Today’s low-fat diets emphasize more and more pasta, bagels, Snackwells, and sugary fat-free products, and most of these are high-glycemic carbohydrates. Basic over-consumption of  high-glycemic foods carbohydrates can also trigger insulin resistance and overweight.

If you are insulin resistant, eating carbohydrates can make you crave more carbohydrates. You’ll gain weight more easily, and have difficulty losing it. It is estimated that 25 percent of the general population — and 75 percent of overweight people — are insulin resistant.

High insulin levels can stimulate your appetite, making you feel even hungrier than normal for carbohydrate rich food, while lowering the amount of sugar your body burns as energy, and making your cells even better at storing fat, and even worse at removing fat.

When you’re creating this excess insulin, it also prevents your body from using its stored fat for energy.  Hence, your insulin response to excess carbos causes you to gain weight, or you cannot lose weight.

The weight problems are not the worst aspect of insulin resistance. Insulin resistance may set up a whole syndrome of other serious health problems. For example, insulin resistance and hyperinsulinemia, which tend to go together, are often precursors of diabetes. And insulin resistance is also associated with a substantially increased risk of coronary artery disease, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

Insulin Resistance and Thyroid Disease

It seems likely that hypothyroidism, with its penchant for slowing down everything else in our systems right down to our cells, slows down our body’s ability to process carbohydrates and our cell’s ability to absorb blood sugar. Hence, the carbohydrates we could eat pre-thyroid problems now are too much for our systems to handle. So excess carbohydrates equals excess insulin equals excess weight. Plus, the fun side effects of blood sugar swings (tiredness, dizziness, fatigue, exhaustion, hunger, etc.) that we may be mistaking as thyroid symptoms and our doctors say can’t possibly be.

Any illness — such as the chronic thyroid problems we all face — also creates physical stress. And stress raises cortisol levels. And increased cortisol increases insulin levels. (I know my cortisol was through the roof last time the doctor checked. She had no idea why.) More insulin means increased chance of insulin resistance.

There’s also a vicious circle aspect to this. The liver mediates between the activities of the insulin-releasing pancreas and the adrenal and thyroid glands, which are supposed to “tell” the liver to release glucose. If the adrenals and thyroid aren’t working properly on the “telling” end, or if the liver is sluggish, stressed out, or toxic, and not working on the “receiving” end, the system goes out of balance. Either way, the result is elevated excess insulin. And ultimately, if your adrenal glands are stronger than your pancreas, this can potentially lead to diabetes. If your pancreas is the stronger organ, which is more common, then you get fatigue, lowered body temperature, and low blood sugar (hypoglycemia).

All these factors mean that insulin resistance is probably even more of a factor for overweight people with hypothyroidism than for the general population.

How to Lose Weight and Fight Insulin Resistance

Weight loss is the most important method of eliminating insulin resistance. So it’s one of those chicken and egg situations. The less you weigh, the less insulin resistant you will be. But insulin resistance makes it difficult to lose weight.

So, for people who are insulin resistant, one of the only effective methods is by eating a low fat, low carbohydrate, protein sufficient diet. This means that in addition to the usual restrictions of a low-fat diet, you also need to seriously limit intake of sugar and starches, cutting back on pasta, rice, potatoes, white flour breads, cereal, corn, peas, sweet potatoes, desserts, dairy products, meats, and fruit with a high sugar content.

You may feel frustrated that there’s nothing left to eat. But you need to rethink your eating habits, shifting to a diet of chicken, turkey, fish, non-starchy vegetables, legumes, and certain grains. And for those who are insulin resistant, once you start eating this way, you’ll find it easier, as your carbohydrate cravings will subside dramatically.

Exercise

Finally, according to Jean-Pierre Despres, PhD, Professor of Medicine and Physical Education and Director of the Lipid Research Center at Laval University Hospital in Quebec, “Exercise is probably the best medication on the market to treat insulin resistance syndrome.” “Our studies show that low intensity, prolonged exercise — such as a daily brisk walk of 45 minutes to an hour — will substantially reduce insulin levels,” says Dr. Despres.

This article was adapted from the book, The Thyroid Diet, by Mary Shomon

Mary Shomon, About.com’s Thyroid Guide since 1997, is a nationally-known patient advocate and best-selling author of 10 books on health, including “The Thyroid Hormone Breakthrough: Overcoming Sexual and Hormonal Problems at Every Age,” “The Thyroid Diet: Manage Your Metabolism for Lasting Weight Loss,” “Living Well With Hypothyroidism: What Your Doctor Doesn’t Tell You…That You Need to Know,” “Living Well With Graves’ Disease and Hyperthyroidism,” “Living Well With Autoimmune Disease,” and “Living Well With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.”  Click here for more information on Mary Shomon.

http://www.lowthyroidhelp.com/hypothyroid_diet.html

Monday, 09Jan12

Power & Strength

This is a 40 second work to 20 second timed set with a 1 minute rest. One note on the minute rest guys let’s “Earn It”, the rest that is. There has to be more force production during the lifts, not some half ass lifts with minimal work involvement. Let’s push the envelope and get it cranking. There’s only 162 days till summer.

• TRX pushup w/walkouts
• Landmine overhead staggered push (alt. r/l)
• Single side suitcase deadlifts (r)
• Single side suitcase deadlift (l)
• KB Renegade rows
• Single leg DB split squat

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Intermittent fasting, whey protein, and weight loss?

For those of us who’re looking to lose weight, a recent study published in the British Journal of Nutrition might offer some hope.  Losing weight is never easy as it requires a lifelong commitment to changes in dietary habits as well as activity level.

Years ago, I read a book by Greg LeMond, the former three-time Tour de France winner.  I loosely recall him mentioning something about you can’t lose weight by sitting on your couch eating hot-fudge Sundaes.

Conventional wisdom being the usual edict of calories in and calories out holds true for the most part.  However, some recent research suggest that intermittent fasting might offer an unconventional weight loss strategy.

Though I’m not going to bother citing a reference here, the Body for Life book by Bill Phillips was probably the first mention of the often promulgated advice of 6 small meals per day.  The purported benefit of this meal plan was that it would prevent your metabolism from slowing down while also keeping you in an anabolic state for those who engage in resistance training.

For most people, if you’ve ever tried the eat 6 small meals per day method, you probably find that you end up getting used to never feeling hungry.  After awhile, chances are you lose discipline over portion control and the next thing you know it leads to simply eating too much and too often.

Not wanting to stop at my intuitive feelings over the meal frequency myth, I found a very recent review study that has debunked this myth.  A review published in the Journal of Nutrition made the following conclusion:

Taken together, these findings suggest that increased eating frequency (>3 eating occasions/d) has minimal, if any, impact on appetite control and food intake, whereas reduced eating frequency(<3 eating occasions/d) negatively effects appetite control.

Okay, so this review only addresses the effect of meal frequency on appetite control and food intake, what about weight loss?  From a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, they found that meal frequency had NO benefit on promoting weight loss in obesity subjects on a calories restricted diet:

We conclude that increasing MF (meal frequency) does not promote greater body weight loss under the conditions described in the present study.

Intermittent Fasting?

Contrary to this diet regime, a recent study published in the International Journal of Obesity suggest that intermittent fasting can not only be effective for lowering insulin resistance, blood pressure, and cholesterol, but also promotes weight loss.  This and other studies in this area contradict the fear that your metabolism will ‘slow down’ causing you to gain weight if you don’t eat 6 small meals per day.  In fact, intermittent fasting was more effective than calorie restriction at reducing insulin resistance in this particular study.

Okay, so now we’ve established that eating frequently won’t suppress your appetite , reduce your energy intake, or help you lose more weight.  If you want to improve your insulin resistance and lose weight, intermittent fasting is an option worth considering (in consultation with a health professional).  What if you just want to suppress your appetite to help you lose weight, is there anything that works?

Effects of whey protein on suppressing appetite:

Speaking of losing weight…  Another recent study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found that there’s a dose-response effect for drinking a whey protein beverage 90 minutes prior to eating.  Participants in this study, however, were already within a healthy weight range (BMI 19-25, both men and women).

In this study, the participants drank a 400 ml  [400 calorie] beverage 90 minutes prior to eating an ad libitum test meal.  In addition to a placebo beverage containing flavored water, they were also randomized to a 400 calorie beverage containing 12.5, 25, or 50% of the calories from whey protein.

Energy intake after preload:

• placebo – 987 Calories
• 12.5% protein beverage – 841 Calories
• 25% protein beverage – 808 Calories
• 50% protein beverage – 681 Calories

From this data, consuming a whey protein beverage prior to large meals, particularly dinner, may be beneficial for those looking to reduce their appetite and lose weight.

Wednesday, 28Dec11

Resolution Prep

Work / Rest ratio 30/15 work for 5 rounds at each couplet with a 1 minute rest in between each set of couplets.

• TRX chest press
• KB Swings

1 minute rest

• Sit-outs
• DB Umpas

1 minute rest

• TRX single arm rows
• KB Shoulder passes (heavy)

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The New Full-Frontal: Has Pubic Hair in America Gone Extinct?

Women sport a stark-naked mons veneris for many reasons, ranging from the practical to the provocative. Herbenick’s explanation is a tame one: She thinks it’s mainly a response to skimpy clothing trends. “Our underwear today is a lot smaller than women’s underwear was 20 years ago,” she says. “And if you have hair sticking out the sides of your underwear, that’s just kind of, like, unkempt.”

Low-slung pants, too, may be a factor: “Certainly when I think of the younger version of Britney Spears and the extremely low-cut jeans she would wear, I remember thinking, If she had pubic hair you would be able to see it,” she says.

Pinto’s reasoning, too, is more sensible than scandalous: She just feels cleaner down there.

“It could be attributed to visual pornographers’ desire to infantilize women, or simply to make genitalia more visible to the camera.”

“I work out a lot. I get sweaty,” she explains calmly. “And it starts to smell when you’ve got hair down there. So yeah, it hurts, but I just feel so much cleaner.”

Pinto, who’s candid about her active sex life, points out that she’s never waxed at the request of a boyfriend or a partner. “I did it the first time for me,” she says, “and I still do it for me.” Pinto was 17 when she first waxed it all off.

Though Pinto says sex has never felt any different to her without pubic hair (“Once we get going, who cares?” she says with a laugh), there certainly remains a sexual motive for taking it all off:  Drawing back the curtain of pubic hair exposes the clitoris, the labia and the vagina for plain viewing. There’s a tactile element, too: As one elated young husband named Mark explained to Glamour in 2009, “The skin down there is protected — it never really touches anything, it never sees the sun — so it’s ridiculously soft.

“You can’t really tell how soft it is until a woman waxes. Oh my God, you can’t believe how soft it is when you wax,” 28-year-old Mark gushed. “It’s extremely, extremely soft, so it feels great when you have sex.”

Pinto’s past boyfriends, she says, would wholeheartedly agree. “Once, I started dating someone when I hadn’t waxed in a while,” she says, “And then when I did, he went, Oh! This is awesome! Why didn’t you do this before?!”

“That was my senior year of high school,” she adds. “So every month I would text him, ‘Guess who’s getting a wax!’ And he’d be like, ‘Smiley face, so excited!’”

Many men, like Bob Fitzpatrick, a finance student at the University of Michigan, are more likely to perform oral sex on a female partner if she has no pubic hair.

“If she’s seeking for you to pleasure her and you have pubic hairs in your mouth, you’re not going to be pleased with that,” the 21-year-old says. Fitzpatrick, a bright, chatty Lake Forest, Illinois, native who’s paired off with a casual-but-exclusive significant other, says he prefers a clean-shaven or fully waxed mons pubis, and giggles as he recalls one particularly dismaying encounter. “I was like, Oh no, five o’clock shadow?! This is gonna be itchy on my face!”

* * *

Although sex, hygiene, and clothing are all contributing factors, Fitzpatrick, Herbenick, and Pinto all agree that there’s one main driving force behind America’s villainization of pubic hair: pornography.

When a team of researchers from George Washington University took a closer look at Playboy‘s representations of women’s genitalia throughout the years, they found that in issues dating from the magazine’s inception in 1953 up through the 1970s and ’80s, more than 95 percent of the centerfolds and naked models sported full, apparently natural pubic hair.

In the late 20th century, though, that changed. As Joseph Slade, professor of media and culture at Ohio University, puts it, the media legitimized voyeurism and turned it into a way of life; suddenly, porn viewers wanted to see everything more deeply and without the veil of hair. Thus, Playboy‘s love affair with the au naturel look faded: By the 1990s, more than a third of the models appeared to have removed some of their pubic hair. And in the new millennium, less than 10 percent of nude models now sport the full pubic bush, while a third remove their hair partially and one-quarter remove it completely. Playboy has trimmed down the standard from the un-modified, detail-obscuring “fur bikini” it helped popularize in the 1960s to the vanishing act it promotes today.

Hugh Hefner’s magazine, however, isn’t the only supporter of the tress-less treasure chest. Rather, says Slade, genital alopecia seems to have hit the entire adult entertainment industry. “Depilation took hold in visual porn in the 1990s, though some actresses trimmed for movies before then,” Slade says. “It was easier to keep crotches cleaner on the set. But certainly the practice is widespread in video porn today. Enough so that backlash has created a niche fetish for ‘full bushes.’”

But while the sleek, slick, bare labia majora is more common in visual porn today than ever before, the stylized hairless vulva has actually been around for centuries. According to Slade, as far back as the 15th century, women — especially prostitutes — often shaved their pubic hair to avoid lice infestation, which is where having a muff may have picked up its stigma of being “unclean.” In the years following, medieval and classical European sculptors and painters omitted pubic hair from depictions of female nudes; In fact, the notion of pubic hair in general was so unholy that every last naked prophet on the Sistine Chapel ceiling is completely hairless below the neck. But life didn’t dare imitate art — at least, that is, not until Playboy.

Slade cites two potential reasons for porn’s fixation on the bare vagina. “It could be attributed to visual pornographers’ desire to infantilize women,” Slade says, “or simply to make genitalia more visible to the camera. Male porn stars often shave their pubic hair for that purpose, too.”

Many feminists understandably take umbrage at the first, Slade says. “Bare pubic areas are most common in videos advertised as featuring young women, because it does infantilize them or  make them look pre-pubescent.” It’s less common, he says, in porn featuring MILFs (American Pie‘s now-famous acronym for “mothers I’d like to fuck”), because mature age is the appeal.

EMPOWERING OR DEFLOWERING?

Herbenick readily admits that today, both men and women alike largely consider pubic hair dirty or unfeminine. In other words, it carries a less-than-desirable stigma among members of both sexes. “But I would put it this way: so does the rest of women’s body hair,” she counters. “Pubic hair was kind of the last to join.” After all, she says, women remove their leg hair and underarm hair all over the Western world, and many report that they would feel ashamed or embarrassed if they didn’t. “They wouldn’t want people to see that on them,” she says. “They say they would feel unfeminine, or that they wouldn’t feel sexy.”

So what does it all mean? Is pubic hair removal a symbol of feminine pride, something that Gloria Steinem might be proud of? Or does it signify submission to a domineering male agenda?

“It’s all in how people deal with it,” Herbenick says. As she’s seen in her lecture-hall encounters, the hairless vulva isn’t always analogous to the clenched fist of female solidarity; just as often, it’s a telltale sign of oppression or forced conformity.

But, she says, uncovered, demystified genitalia can just as easily be a symbol of empowerment. “Many women have started to feel a sense of ownership over their bodies — an autonomy,” she says. “If they want to take it off, they take it off. If they want to grow it back, they grow it back. If they want to shave it into a heart, they shave it into a heart. But they’re doing it because they want to.”

And sometimes, they want to make it permanent. Women aren’t just striving for ways to attain that smooth, glossy, doll-like physique — they’re looking for ways to preserve it, too. Many advocate for laser hair removal as a quick, one-size-fits-all cure for the chronic problem of body hair; Pinto, who’s already permanently depilated her forearms via laser hair removal, plans to undergo the procedure on her bikini area this winter.

Laser hair removal requires commitment: It can take eight to 12 half-hour sessions to completely remove the hair, with three to eight weeks between each treatment, and maintenance sessions are often necessary in later years to keep growth at bay.

Pinto’s mother, a former plastic surgeon, plans to give her daughter the $3,000 procedure as a college graduation gift.

Wednesday, 21Dec

******Holiday Schedule******

Starting tonight we will ONLY have one evening training session per night at 7:30pm.  We will resume our normal schedule on Tuesday January 2, 2012.

Morning , weekend and athlete training sessions will NOT be affected.

Thank you,

Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year

Four Calling Birds

This is a timed 40 sec work / 20 sec rest for 4 rounds with a 1 min rest between

• KB Floor presses
• Sit-outs
• Agility ladder drills
• Mtn. climbers
• Recline face pulls

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This one’s for you Marie A.

Gluten: What You Don’t Know Might Kill You

Tuesday, 13Dec11

Ready for Anything Training!!!!!

This class is a 1 hour ass kicking circuit that will leave you in a puddle of sweat.

Your cardiorespiratory and muscle strength will benefit from our motivational, challenging and fun circuit training set to energetic music.

Let’s see what you’ve got!!!!

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H.I.I.T.

For Time:

• 100 Mountain climbers
•   20 Burpees
•   20 Sit-outs
•   30 DB Thrusters
•   30 DB Renegade rows (each arm = 1)
•   40 Medball slams
•   40 Kettlebell swings
•   50 Diamond leg sit ups

Cue’s to remember:

• Mtn. climbers make sure you hands are underneath your shoulders in a stable position and the only bodypart moving are the legs. Both legs = 1
• Sit-outs, again make sure the shoulder are aligned with the hands and the legs are off the ground in transition.
• Renegade rows, hands are directly under shoulders and make sure when lifting the DB your hips do not shift.
• Med ball slams, make sure there is no bend in elbows going overhead or slamming.
• Diamond situps, make sure your hands are clasped and do not go over your head to create momentum.

Good Luck.

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Monday, 05Dec11

Monday Masher

This will be a timed set of 40 sec work & 20 sec rest for 4 rounds

• Reclines
• DB Thrusters
• Dbl squat jump burpees
• Box jumps
• Agility ladder drill

Men use the heavy DB’s for the Thrusters and for the  ladder drills all participants will use lite dumbbells in hand (3-5#’s)

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The Alzheimer’s Generation: What We’ve Learned in 30 Years 

 Rita Altman, R.N. Vice President, Memory Care and Programming for Sunrise Senior Living

In the early 1980s, most people with Alzheimer’s disease would have simply been labeled as “senile.” Spouses and adult children would take on the responsibility of providing care until it was time for a nursing home, where they received care in an institutional setting.

Since then, there have been remarkable strides forward in the diagnosis, understanding and care for those with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss. Reflecting on the progress we’ve made in the last 30 years helps us to prioritize new advances in the decades ahead.

Diagnosis, Treatment and Education

Every 69 seconds, someone develops Alzheimer’s disease and one out of every eight seniors over the age of 65 has the disease. Yet 30 years ago, no one knew its name. If you search the New York Times archives from 1850 through 1977 for “Alzheimer’s disease,” only one story refers to the disease, although it was first diagnosed back in 1907.

The Alzheimer’s Association, whose resources are invaluable to so many today, was not even founded until 1980, and it was not until 1982 that Ronald Reagan declared an official “Alzheimer’s Awareness” week. Many people regarded the symptoms of confusion and memory loss as just a reality of getting older. The result was that little attention was given to treatment, diagnosis, and more importantly, care and caregivers.

While a definitive cure for Alzheimer’s is still elusive, there are five FDA-approved drug treatments that help relieve the symptoms of the disease. These have all been developed in the past few decades and there are numerous new therapies in the research pipeline.

Care Settings

Prior to the 1970s, resources and services for people with memory loss were virtually non-existent, and care was given either at home or in nursing homes. Fortunately, a major shift occurred in the 1980s when the institutionalized medical model of care provided in nursing homes transitioned to the resident-centered social model provided in assisted living communities.

It was during this period in time that assisted living pioneers Paul and Terry Klaassen, founders of Sunrise Senior Living, designed the type of care and services that would always put the resident first, whether or not they have memory loss. This approach not only champions quality of life, but also honors the residents’ wishes and promotes identity, independence and dignity.

As the assisted living industry grew, dedicated wings or free-standing buildings were built specially for residents with memory impairment. These homelike neighborhoods provided a secure, non-restricting environment and promoted a sense of community. Architects then began to focus on the design elements which give residents with memory loss a sense of orientation through built-in environmental cues that helped them find their way and reduce feelings of insecurity. Design innovations included automatic sensor lights and contrasting colors in bathrooms, tableware designed to be bright and contrasting — all of which further promote dignity and independence.

By the early 2000s, a few assisted living companies identified a need for specialized programs and services specifically designed for residents with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) or early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. These programs were designed to assist seniors with early signs of memory loss to engage in activities that promote cognitive stimulation, social engagement, mutual support and stress reduction with a goal of delaying memory loss. Not until recently did studies suggest that lifelong learning, mental and physical exercise, continuing social engagement, stress reduction and proper nutrition may be important factors in promoting cognitive vitality.

Care Provision

Thirty years ago, there was little consensus about how best to help those who were disoriented and seemed to live in a different time and place because of Alzheimer’s or other forms of memory loss. That changed in 1982, when internationally renowned social worker Naomi Feil published her seminal work, “Validation: The Feil Method, “which introduced caregivers to an empathetic way of communicating with disoriented seniors. Today, thousands of professional caregivers are trained to use validation techniques, through which they are able to tune into the inner reality of the person with dementia. This method helps build trust and restore the person’s dignity.

Activities in memory care have also transitioned away from the large group, one-size-fits-all approach to more intimate small groups that focus on shared interests and promoting a sense of purpose and belonging. Most care also now centers around social engagement with well-designed activities to increase quality of life.

The Future

As progressive as the last 30 years has been to improve care for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of memory loss, the future looks even more promising, especially in the area of technology. The safety-oriented devices such as motion sensor alerting and GPS shoes will continue to proliferate and enable greater independence. Scientists are also testing brain imaging tools and blood tests that may allow for earlier interventions. Computer-based brain fitness products and remote communication with family members are also promising to flourish and help keep those with memory loss connected socially.

Everyone is hopeful that this generation will be the one where a cure is found. While the search continues, there will be even more emphasis on prevention and controlling contributing risk factors. Until then, one of the most important advances we can make is to continue educating, training and supporting everyone who is touched by Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of memory loss.