Not sure what grass-fed beef is? Jordan Rubin explains below:

“The American Grass-fed Association defines grass-fed products from ruminants including cattle, bison, goats, and sheep as ‘those food products from animals that have eaten nothing but their mother’s milk and fresh grass or grass-type hay from birth to harvest all their lives.’

Being raised grass-fed truly makes a difference in the produce. Grass-fed animal products are higher in beta carotene and other antioxidant vitamins, conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and omega-3 fatty acids, which support healthy brain function and cellular health as well as healthy cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure levels.”

The Nashville area has some nice choices for obtaining grass-fed meat. We recommend checking out the following places:

1. Gourmet Pasture Beef – Used by lots of local Nashville Businesses, they provide an excellent product at a good price. 100% Grass-fed and Grass-finished. For the money, they can’t be beat.

2. West Wind Farms – They have a great operation going and you can get lots of great things from them (check out their dairy), they are a little pricey, but it is worth it.

3. Triple L Ranch – They produce nice beef, better than anything you would get at a grocery store, although not completely grass-fed as they do give some feed which consists of corn, wheat, and soy. The cows are raised in the open on pasture.
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In discussing De Lorme, who helped to develop a complete modern training program for clinical application, the Physiology Of Strength, by Theodor Hettinger, says this about his review of empirical studies:

“De Lorme, in 1945, gave an excellent review of the results obtained in both clinical and athletic fields by these empirical methods, summarizing the principals established as follows:
1. Increase in muscle strength can be accomplished by a few repetitions against strong resistance.
2. Increase in the performance of the circulatory system can be accomplished by many repetitions against slight resistance.
3. These two methods are not interchangeable; one cannot replace the other.”

We have some highlights for you today from “How To Exercise Without Moving A Muscle -Isometrics For Everyone” by Victor Obeck.

“The word isometric comes from the Greek iso, meaning ‘the same’, and metric, meaning ‘length’. Isometric contraction refers, therefore, to the tightening of a muscle without changing its length.”

“There are some people in the field of physical education who will tell you that if you get enough isotonic exercises, you do not need isometrics. I disagree–and for very good reasons. For one thing, isometrics exercise muscle fibres that would otherwise remain idle. For another, they tone up muscles far more efficiently than do isotonics–they do a better job in less time. And lastly, how many people do you know who have the time to devote to a complete regimen of vigorous exercise? You can run through the whole set of isometric exercises in 90 seconds a day–in your spare time. But a full set of the necessary isotonic exercises may take up to ten times as long–and usually you can’t be doing something else at the same time.”

Online viewable book available at Transformetrics.com>Classics

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In this video, John Peterson demonstrates how to correctly do hanging leg raises!

We all know that aging is inevitable and even a good thing. We don’t want to keep people from aging, but we definitely want to help people age well and avoid some of the physical problems associated with aging. Enter: exercise.

Dr. Mark Tarnopolsky, professor of pediatrics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, was surprised to find that exercise kept a strain of mice from becoming gray prematurely. New research published showed that exercise reduced or removed almost every detrimental effect of aging in mice that had been genetically programmed to grow old at an accelerated pace.

The finding with regard to mice gives hope to the body of evidence that suggests exercise combined with excellent food choices can overcome genetic tendencies.

For the experiment, Dr. Tarnopolsky and his colleagues used lab rodents that carried a genetic mutation which affected how well their bodies repair malfunctioning mitochondria. Mitochondria combine oxygen and nutrients to create fuel for the cells, they are the power generators.

As we age, mitochondria can accumulate small mutations, and over time our system cannot repair them and mitochondria start malfunctioning and dying. Many consider this dying off of mitochondria to be an underlying cause of aging in mammals. As mitochondria falter, the fuel they supply dwindles and cells respond such that muscles shrink, brain volume drops, hair falls out or loses its pigmentation, and soon enough we are, in appearance and beneath, growing old.

So what happened to the mice?

All of the mice lacked the necessary repair mechanism for their mitochondria, so they developed malfunctioning mitochondria as early as 3 months (human 20 years). Half were allowed to exercise and half were not. At eight months, the half that did not exercise were frail, weak, and crippled, with spindly muscles, shrunken brains, enlarged hearts, shriveled gonads, and patchy, graying fur–all died before reaching a year of age.

The other half–the mice which were allowed to exercise–ran on a wheel for 45 minutes three times a week beginning at three months. At eight months they remained youthful with full pelts of dark fur, no salt-and-pepper shadings, and they maintained muscle mass and brain function with normal gonads and heart size. They still had the genetic mutation, but mitochondria had proliferated so much that they had enough with far fewer mutations than the sedentary mice. At 1 year, none of the exercising mice had died of natural causes.

The benefit of regular exercise has been known, and yet it continues to surprise in how beneficial it actually is and how much it affects the systems of the body.

Source: New York Times, “Can Exercise Keep You Young”

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Are you ready for our daily fitness challenge for the month of March?
It will only take you 5 minutes! So there is no excuse! Join in!

Week 1 (March 1-5)
4 sets of 30 second sphinx plank with 15 second breaks in between sets. Do it every single day.

Week 2 (March 6-12)
4 sets of 45 second sphinx plank with 15 second breaks in between sets. Do it every single day.

Week 3 (March 13-19)
4 sets of 60 second sphinx plank with 15 second breaks in between sets. Do it every single day.

Week 4 (March 20-26)
4 sets of 75 second sphinx plank with 30 second breaks in between sets. Do it every single day.

Week 5 (March 27-31)
4 sets of 90 second sphinx plank with 30 second breaks in between sets. Do it every single day.

Tips for success:
1. Make sure you are drawing your navel to your vertebrae – engage your abs!
2. Be on your toes, with your elbows and palms flat on the ground.
3. Try a 5 second inhale with a 5 second exhale – good breathing and it passes the time!
4. Your back does not have to be flat, but your butt should not be higher than your shoulder blades.
5. Have fun!

If you are on facebook or http://twitter.com/LFATerry, each week (or daily if you like) post the graphic below stating that you finished the challenge for the day or week.

A new study in the February issue of Cell Metabolism showed an improvement in the amount of oxygen needed by individuals while exercising after taking a small does of inorganic nitrate for a few days. The findings may point to just one more of the many benefits of eating dark leafy greens.

Interestingly enough, the researchers said the amount of nitrate was equivalent to about what is in a plate of spinach. Maybe Popeye was on to something, ay?

Dietary nitrate, naturally derived from foods, feeds into a pathway that produces nitric oxide with the help of healthy bacteria found in our mouths. Nitric oxide is a well known important physiological component for the body in exercise as it opens blood vessels and lowers blood pressure.

What was also very interesting about the study was that increased mitochondrial efficiency of the cell (needing less oxygen), apparently is owed to the lower levels of proteins… proteins that normally make the mitochondria “leaky” and inefficient.

However, the definite takeaway is that dark leafy greens continue to shine in their benefit to the body. Spinach, kale, collards, and chards are all good choices to incorporate more into your diet.

While testing the packaging of fresh chicken at many of Britain’s leading supermarkets, tests carried out by an independent laboratory found campylobacter contamination all over the outside. Out of twenty samples, eight were found to be contaminated. Seven of the samples contained the pathogen in the meat itself.

A surprising fact was that there was no link between the campylobacter found in the meat and the campylobacter found on the packaging, a find which suggests that the contamination happened between packaging and distribution.

It is exactly studies like this one that should encourage you to do several things including:

1. Getting better quality chicken – preferably pastured poultry
2. Boosting your immune system to be better prepared against an attack from bad bacteria by having a gut that has lots of good bacteria.

For you local Nashvillians, there are several local farmer’s markets that have excellent high quality choices for meat and poultry. There is the downtown market, East Nashville Market, Woodbine Farmer’s Market, Franklin Farmer’s Market, and options like West Wind Farms where you can place your order online and pick it up locally.

Source: http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/2011/02/17/is-your-supermarket-chicken-poisoning-you.aspx

Over the past thirty years, obesity rates have doubled worldwide. Previously 4.8 percent of men and 7.9 percent of women were obese, but currently the rates stand at 9.8 percent of men and 13.8 percent of women.

Being that modern technology has decreased the amount of physical activity that people need to do, as well as the continual industrialization and processing of modern food, it comes as no surprise that populations would experience greater rates of obesity.

As more and more jobs become based around technology, typically the environment encourages a more sedentary and less physically demanding environment. Combined with aisles and aisles of boxed and heavily processed foods that contain all sorts of chemicals for taste and preservation, the average person is in for a tough challenge at maintaining good health and fighting obesity.

Recognition of the problem and a willingness to change habits and lifestyle, such that effective change is wrought, is the first step for an individual to succeed at fighting obesity. It seems most individuals are not willing to apply serious lifestyle changes in order to overcome personal obesity.

Source: http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2011/02/17/worldwide-obesity-doubled-over-past-three-decades.aspx

A recent article on Mercola.com had some handy dandy mottos and sayings to help you remember what foods are best.

“Some simple motto‚Äôs that may help you are:

• If it rots, its probably good for you
• If it comes from a plant eat it, if it is made in a plant stay away
• Lean, Green, and Marine
• Eat real food
• No ‚Äúsugar free‚Äù or ‚Äúfat free‚Äù foods
• Stay away from foods with ingredients you cannot pronounce”

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