Why Diet Coke Is So Popular

A Hunter Gather's Way To Diet And Good Health

Here is a great and easy to follow guide on eating the Paleo way.

Fitness Motivation

Realistic Universal Healthcare

This is healthcare that will absolutely work for everyone no matter what political party affiliation!

Paul R. Testimonial

"Before Sam Y started All Out Effort Personal Training, he needed someone to test out his various exercises, diet plans, and be on the receiving end of his various punches and submission holds. From early 2004, I was that guy. Was it tough? Absolutely. Did I want to quit? All the time. Were there days when I wanted to key Sam's car? Every day.

But because of his early dedication to my continued fitness and personal goals, I was able to achieve them and much more. He's the kind of coach that Hollywood loves to recreate time and time again: He'll work you like a dog but pushes you to achieve your potential with a few wise words during intense training montages.

His knowledge in the field continually gets better and shows no sign of deteriorating." Read it on Yelp.

Things Personal Trainers Always Get Wrong Part 1

Here are some common things I always see personal trainers get wrong. Check back for more videos on how to navigate the world of fitness.

All Out Effort Donating To A Good Cause

I'm donating 4 sessions to a very worthy cause. It's to the Needlework Guild of America who donate clothing and linens to many causes. One of the perks though is that I get to go to their annual benefit dinner hosted by Andy Richter!

I wonder how my brand of fitness will do with this high end crowd where things like yachting trips, private wine tasting, and one on one pilates training are also on the auction block. We shall see...

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Master Personal Trainer, Coach, Certified Nutritionist, Performance Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The American Diet

"The United States has experienced a major health transition in the last 150 years, which has included an increase in the prevalence of obesity, diabetes and coronary heart disease. As these conditions are heavily influenced by food choices, it is important to understand how the American diet has changed over this time period. This talk will describe qualitative and quantitative changes in American food habits that may be relevant to modern disease patterns."



Dr. Stephan Guyenet from the University of Washington gives a talk about the American diet at Tedx (independently organized TED event) given at Harvard Law.

Bob Harper Meets Crossfit

How do you feel between the marriage of Bob Harper and Crossfit? Is this a good thing or a bad thing for this fledgling fitness movement? Is Bob just jumping on a popular bandwagon or is Crossfit trying to capitalize on his star status? Will this hurt their image or help?

Change Your Life

I sent some reading material to a client a few days ago regarding health. I asked them if they had read it. They said they didn't have time... I noticed the client had gotten their hair done in this time. I asked how long it took to do their hair? They said 5 or more hours.

I said, "you have 5 hours for your hair?"

"You know what I could do with 5 hours," I continued?

He said, "what?"

I said,   "I CAN CHANGE MY WHOLE F'N LIFE IN 5 HOURS." 

Please share.

I Really Deserve Cake Today!

When A Female Client Says "I Don't Want To Get Buff"

Ladies...just to clear the air. Having ABS will NOT make you look like a MAN.

How The Paleo Diet Cured Dr. Terry Wahls Of MS

An important video about health, food, diet, and how we were evolved to eat.

Man Dies While Eating Burger

Man Suffers Heart Attack While Eating ‘Triple Bypass Burger’ at Heart Attack Grill

Are We Supposed To Be Vegan, Vegetarian, Carnivore, Omnivore, Herbivore, Or Paleo

So What Are We Supposed To Eat?

(Disclaimer - What you are about to read may annoy you or make you angry. These are my opinions and by no means a scientific doctrine.)

It seems now everyone uses evolution to preach their eating preferences. There are many arguments on both sides; whether we are an omnivore or an herbivore (vegan or vegetarian or raw).

Both sides will agree we are not meant to eat purely meat. The argument then stems from whether we should eat some meat, or no meat at all.

I think you should eat any way you please. If your reason for eating a certain way is evolutionary or based on what you think science claims and this is what you preach to others, and not because of any moral, religious, cultural, or preferential reason, then I have to clear the air.

Herbivore Argument

On that side people will argue that we were never designed to eat meat. The comparisons are drawn with carnivores to prove this point. This is already a weak comparison, comparing us to a group that only eats meat when even the most meat loving human will only meat less than a third of the time. So a group that only eats meat compared to a group that sometimes eats meat is like comparing apples to oranges.

Why don't we have fangs and claws? Why don't we have the stomach acid of carnivores? Because man evolved without needing those things. Man had the superior intellect, ability to use tools, and fire. All of which were needed for survival. Man originally only needed to eat, sleep, and procreate. We didn't initially need tools to build cars and write books. Tools had to somehow help us live, help us get food, help us hunt, keep us warm. Now tools are about convenience and entertainment but it wasn't always the case.

We may not have the stomachs of carnivores, but we also don't have the stomachs of herbivores either. If we did we would have multichambered stomachs or highly developed digestive sacs.

What about our jaws? We can move it side to side like other herbivores. Yes we were designed to eat lots of vegetable matter. But we also weren't designed to chew cud for hours, vomit it up and chew it again or be able to poop out highly nutritious pellets that we would eat again to absorb more nutrients.

We also didn't need to have jaws of lions because we became the apex predator due to our intellect.

Our small intestines are much longer than carnivores, and more like the herbivore. But if you measure us from mouth to anus, the length of it would put us somewhere between a lion and a cow. Right near the middle as far as length, like an omnivore should be.

What's also interesting is though we don't have the ability to break down meat like a lion, we can't break down cellulose either like a horse or a cow. If we could break it down like that, there would be no need for a juicing craze. We would be able to break down all that cellulose and extract the nutrients on our own.

But the whole point of why its so popular, and extremely popular in the vegan and vegetarian communities is because of that very fact, that the human body can't break down the nutrients so we need to juice it out instead. Juicing is natural they say, its what we were meant to do. Except we never evolved with juicers and we were evolved to eat the plant in whatever form and combination it came in. We evolved right along with the plants we ate. We go and study native diets to see how they fight off diseases, and the foods they eat in what combination. Then we use reductionist science to get the good stuff and put it into a drink. How is that anything like eating a native diet? We need a blender and a juicer and chemists to get back closer to how the natives ate? Its like reducing an orange to a vitamin C pill and telling you it's just as good as an orange. Certified nutritionists will actually use that logic with clients and sell them on cleanses and pills.

Its totally contrary. To say we can't break down cellulose so we need to juice, and then say we need to juice and eat vegan because we were only meant to eat plants and not meat. If we were designed to only eat plants, why do we need to juice to break down the cellulose? Why can't our stomachs break it down like every other herbivore can? Why do we need the juicer to extract all the nutrients when we were meant to only eat plants? Its completely contradictory. Their argument for why we should juice is the same argument why we aren't good herbivores. The evolutionary justification of this diet does a terrible job explaining why you should do it. They should just stick with it being good for your health. Or the best reason, it truly is the best way to lower toxicology. Not the best in macro-nutrients but good in cleaning your system. Use a holistic reasoning. Not a genetic one, because that reasoning that will prove you wrong. I don't understand why people who eat a certain way feel the need to explain it with evolution. Don't. It's totally the wrong talking point. There are much better ways to build your case. (I think personal training so many lawyers has been affecting my writing style.)

What about chimpanzees? They mostly eat plants. Mostly. Even they will go out of their way to get meat. That's not the counter argument though. The counter argument is, as close as chimps are to us, we are much closer genetically to the neanderthal. The neanderthal was the predecessor of man who mostly ate meat. Which also isn't efficient, because any food source can become scarce. There is about 6 million years of evolutionary difference between us and the chimpanzee as well. Things change.

Why do native tribes do so poorly now in the hunt when their tools are more advanced than the stone tools used in the past? Well why are there so many extinct animals? Modern versions of early tribes like Pygmies don't have the same abundance of animals to hunt because wild animals are now scarce to begin with.

Scarcity and Thrifty Genes

Actually we were designed specifically for scarcity. We were never meant to be able to eat a whole lot like some animals. We could eat a small amount and be able to do a great deal of activity off of that little amount of energy. It's why we gain weight so easily now, because humans were never designed for a world where food is unlimited. Those thrifty genes that kept us alive during famine, is what's killing us now with obesity. Your body needs less food than you think.

What about "The China Study?" A lot of criticism has been written about this book already so I won't recap it all. And yes more vegetables is good for you. My dad currently has cancer and one of the first things we did was get him off all the sugar and processed carbs and get him eating more fresh vegetables. Denise Minger at Raw Food: SOS does a much better job than I can breaking it down. She is by no means a hardcore meat lover. Quite the contrary, she is a raw foodist. One of the problems with "The China Study" is hand picking statistics and data.

Another good read on another site that is aligned with vegetarians is the International Vegetarian Union. They have a great article on What Did Our Ancestors Eat. The site promotes vegetarianism and veganism throughout the world. Here is the first line of the article:

"You sometimes hear the argument that humans are "naturally vegetarian" or that they evolved as vegetarians. This is somewhat dangerous to pursue as the scientific evidence all indicates that we are omnivores, i.e., we can survive on a wide variety of plant and animal foods"


It is completely fine to be a vegetarian or vegan like I said. The problem I have with it is the use of evolution to justify it. In the above article, though they outline how our ancestors ate meat and evolved to eat meat, we would all still probably be better off if we ate more plant matter or a completely plant matter diet.

To say we should eat this way, I can respect. So eat that way. Just don't justify it with science. Justify it with preference. Actually you shouldn't have to justify it at all. Your choice is your choice. But to say we always ate this way (just because that's how you choose to eat now), is just plain ill-informed and ill-conceived.

Dangers Of High Heels

Not long ago, Neil J. Cronin, a postdoctoral researcher, and two of his colleagues at the Musculoskeletal Research Program at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, were having coffee on the university’s campus when they noticed a young woman tottering past in high heels. “She looked quite uncomfortable and unstable,” Dr. Cronin says. 


Some observers, particularly women, might have winced in sympathy or, alternatively, wondered where she’d bought stilettos. But the three researchers, men who study the biomechanics of walking, were struck instead by the scientific implications of her passage. “We began to consider what might be happening at the muscle and tendon level” in women who wear heels, Dr. Cronin says. 


How shoes affect human gait is a controversial topic these days. The popularity of barefoot running, for instance, has grown in large part because of the belief, still unproven, that wearing modern, well-cushioned running shoes decreases foot strength and proprioception, the sense of how the body is positioned in space, and contributes to running-related injuries. 


Whether high heels might likewise affect the wearer’s biomechanics and injury risk has received scant scientific attention, however, even though millions of women wear heels almost every day. So, in one of the first studies of its kind, the Australian scientists recruited nine young women who had worn high heels for at least 40 hours a week for a minimum of two years. The scientists also recruited 10 young women who rarely, if ever, wore heels to serve as controls. The women were in their late teens, 20s or early 30s 


The scientists asked the heel-wearing women to bring their favorite pair of high-heeled shoes to the lab. There, both groups of women were equipped with electrodes to track leg-muscle activity, as well as motion-capture reflective markers. Ultrasound probes measured the length of muscle fibers in their legs.
All of the women strode multiple times along a 26-foot-long walkway that contained a plate to gauge the forces generated as they walked. The control group covered the walkway 10 times while barefoot. The other women walked barefoot 10 times and in their chosen heels 10 times.


It was obvious, as the scientists had suspected watching the woman during their coffee break, that the women habituated to high heels walked differently from those who usually wore flats, even when the heel wearers went barefoot. But the nature and extent of the differences were surprising. In results published last week in The Journal of Applied Physiology, the scientists found that heel wearers moved with shorter, more forceful strides than the control group, their feet perpetually in a flexed, toes-pointed position. This movement pattern continued even when the women kicked off their heels and walked barefoot. As a result, the fibers in their calf muscles had shortened and they put much greater mechanical strain on their calf muscles than the control group did.


In that control group, the women who rarely wore heels, walking primarily involved stretching and stressing their tendons, especially the Achilles tendon. But in the heel wearers, the walking mostly engaged their muscles.


That biomechanical distinction is important, says Dr. Cronin, who is now a researcher at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. “Several studies have shown that optimal muscle-tendon efficiency” while walking “occurs when the muscle stays approximately the same length while the tendon lengthens. When the tendon lengthens, it stores elastic energy and later returns it when the foot pushes off the ground. Tendons are more effective springs than muscles,” he continues. So by stretching and straining their already shortened calf muscles, the heel wearers walk less efficiently with or without heels, he says, requiring more energy to cover the same amount of ground as people in flats and probably causing muscle fatigue.


The obvious question raised by the findings, though, is so what? Does it fundamentally matter if a woman’s calf muscle fibers shorten and she neglects her tendons while walking, especially if she loves the looks of her Louboutins?


That question is difficult for a biomechanist to answer, Dr. Cronin admits. Aesthetics are outside the realm of his branch of science. But the risk of injury is not. “We think that the large muscle strains that occur when walking in heels may ultimately increase the likelihood of strain injuries,” he says. (This risk is separate from the chances that a woman, if unfamiliar with heels, may topple sideways and twist an ankle or bruise her self-image, which is an acute injury and happened to me only the one time.)


The risks extend to workouts, when heel wearers abruptly switch to sneakers or other flat shoes. “In a person who wears heels most of her working week,” Dr. Cronin says, the foot and leg positioning in heels “becomes the new default position for the joints and the structures within. Any change to this default setting,” he says, like pulling on Keds or Crocs, constitutes “a novel environment, which could increase injury risk.”


It should be noted, he adds, that in his study, the volunteers “were quite young, average age 25, suggesting that it is not necessary to wear heels for a long time, meaning decades, before adaptations start to occur.”


So, if you do wear heels and are at all concerned about muscle and joint strains, his advice is simple. Try, if possible, to ease back a bit on the towering footwear, he says. Wear high heels maybe “once or twice a week,” he says. And if that’s not practical or desirable, “try to remove the heels whenever possible, such as when you’re sitting at your desk.” The shoes can remain alluring, even nestled beside your feet.


Source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/scientists-look-at-the-dangers-of-high-heels/

I Am Your Personal Trainer Not Your Therapist

You don't want me to care. You don't pay me to care. Your friend can care. Your dad can care. I just want you to work.

Cindy's Review

"It's one thing to personally be in shape and another to be a good coach/trainer/teacher. Sam Y. at All Out Effort is one rare individual who embodies the incredible qualities of being a truly great teacher. His attitude, though laid back, comes with a stern set of expectations. Sam makes you take charge of your own health and fitness while standing by your side and empowering you with the knowledge to confidently own your personal mental and physical fitness. Training with him is truly invaluable. " Read it on Yelp.

Upcoming Documentary About Eating Disorder to Crossfit

Box of Salvation Trailer from 8th Avenue Studios on Vimeo.

I Hate Calorie Counting

I Declare To The World!

I have all my athletes make a statement declaring how they want to view themselves. This may be the realest declaration of all.

Abby K. Review

"I've only been studying with Sam for almost 2 months but I feel like I'm much stronger and more confident than ever before!" Read More On Yelp!

How To Tie Your Belt

From Inner BJJ



About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

The Personal Training Motto

Whenever a client tells me or gives me a reason why they "can't," my most popular rebuttal is with "I don't care."

Sickness

I know many of you feel like its normal to be sick all the time. Well its not. It's a sign there is something seriously wrong with how your body is functioning. It's actually being overtaxed by a sedentary life!

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Yoga Guru

Okay sometimes people put their yoga gurus on too high of a pedestal.

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized

Genetically Modified Foods

After reading about President Obama appointing the former VP of Monsato as the senior advisor for the FDA and how some Monsato campuses have removed GMO foods from their cafeterias, the battle over GMO foods and our right to either be aware of it or ban it has become widespread. 

Some of the pro arguments:

• Cheaper food
• Food resistant to pests
• Ability to make edible pharmaceuticals

Cons:

• Unintended harm to organisms (like organisms that transfer pollen)
• Gene transfer to non-target species
• Deadly food allergies
• Unknown effects on human health.

If nothing else, we the consumer should be given a choice to be aware of what kind of products we are purchasing. One site I found that does just that is Non GMO Project. 

Something a bit more frightening, Monsato has engineered corn to withstand Round Up and more recently corn resistant to drought, but there are now weeds now immune to the powerful Round Up herbicide. Now Dow has engineered a new strain of corn that can withstand its even more powerful herbicide that should eradicate the Round Up immune weeds. It's become a vicious cycle it seems.

Because of my own views of living and eating in a way more akin to our ancestors, I avoid anything modified or processed.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

A Different Kind Of Before And After

One of my athletes Larry before his first obstacle course race and after. Epitome of eating clean but training dirty.

One Life

Will And Desire

All Out Effort Interval Training

Doing 15 seconds of all out effort. 15 seconds of rest. Moving from station to station. Dips, Bulgarian bag squats, and undulation rope slams.

Of course with the best work out music of all time! These guys train MMA and BJJ, today happens to be a strength and conditioning day for them.

THE FIVE STAGES OF (FOOD) GRIEF

http://whole9life.com/2012/01/the-five-stages-of-food-grief/

How Bad Do You Want It?

Do you want to succeed as much as you want to breathe?

Voted Best Work Out In LA

Thanks LA!

Reminders About Yoga

Yoga is very popular and growing more and more in popularity. With good reason, its a great blend of strength, flexibility, calmness, and breathing. I even teach yoga to my clients and have a background as an instructor. Now with that being said, I have also hurt myself pushing and stretching too hard during yoga.

Hot yoga is very popular and growing more and more so. The chances of overstretching and pulling muscles is even greater with that style of yoga because of the fact that, you are so warm and loose that you hard a harder time knowing where your limit is. It's easy to over stretch. My wife just recently hurt her back during hot yoga.

If you are mindful and present during yoga just like anything else, you will gain a lot of benefit. I practice yoga at least once a week and benefit immensely from it. I also don't try to compete with anyone, and if something feels wrong, I ask for modifications. Even if something doesn't feel wrong, I ease into it or stay within my normal range of motion just in case.

Hot yoga makes you feel like a wet noodle, but you aren't and when you get back home and start to stiffen up you may pay the price. So be mindful, present, and careful. Namaste.

About the Author:

Sam Y. is a Personal Trainer, Coach, Performane Enhancement Specialist, Corrective Enhancement Specialist, Pilates and Yoga instructor, and holds multiple certifications. He is also an avid Martial Artist, training in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Kickboxing, Boxing, and MMA. He is also the author of the popular fitness blog All Out Effort as well as the popular martial arts blog Inner BJJ. You can find him in the Los Angeles area personal training his clients, or at home annoying his wife, or on Facebook at his personal fitness page.

Charlie Chaplin Gives Speech On Citizenship