Friday Food: Cheesy Meat Loaf Minis

I had never been a fan of meat loaf but that was my mistake.  Now this is a delicious recipe and full of protein and you can add anything extra to it that you can think of.  Enjoy this one.


Ingredients:
-1 oz fresh breadcrumbs (about 1/2 cup)
-Cooking spray
-1 cup chopped onion
-1/2 cup ketchup, divided
-1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
-2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
-1 tbsp prepared horseradish
-1 tbsp Dijon mustard
-3/4 tsp dried oregano
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
-3 oz. white cheddar cheese, diced
-1 1/2 lbs ground sirloin
-1 large egg, lightly beaten

Prep:

1. Preheat oven to 425 deg.

2. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat.  Add breadcrumbs; cook 3 minutes or until toasted, stirring frequently.

3. While breadcrumbs cook, heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Coat pan with cooking spray.  Add onion and garlic; sauté 3 minutes. Combine onion mixture, breadcrumbs, 1/4 cup ketchup, and remaining ingredients. Shape into 6 (4 x 2 in) loaves on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray; spread 2 tsp ketchup over each.  Bake at 425 deg for 25 minutes or until done.

Courtesy of: myrecipes.com

How Much Protein Should You Be Eating?

By: Andrew Jagim

As a follow up to the article I was interviewed for in SHAPE Magazine last week on protein requirements, I figured I would elaborate on why we need protein and how the recommended dietary allowance (RDA) value probably needs some serious readjustments.  Gone are the days of high protein diets only being used by bodybuilders and athletes as now we are realizing the importance of protein for everyone. 

To start off, protein is one of the three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat), which contains 4 calories per every gram consumed.  However, protein offers much more than a source of calories, or energy for that matter.  Protein is a vital nutrient as it provides several structural and functional benefits throughout the body such as the maintenaince of muscle tissue, enzyme production, hormone synthesis and cell growth.  

Whereas fats and carbohydrates on the other hand are primarily used as fuel sources.  Unlike carbohydrates and fats, which we can store within the body for later use, we need a continual influx of protein daily because of the rapid turnover.  The RDA value for protein is 0.8 grams per every kilogram of bodyweight per day (g/kg/d). 

However, when people are regularly active their protein needs go up in order to help with protein turnover (i.e. recovery, repair, and maintain muscle mass) within the body.  Depending on the type, amount and intensity of exercising/training you are doing you may require anywhere from 1.0-2.2 g/kg/d.  However, some of the more recent research emerging on protein requirements is telling us two things: A) People already struggle to meet the RDA value of 0.8 g/kg/d; and B) The 0.8 g/kg/d recommendation may be too low (on a side note, don’t believe the myth that a high protein intake will shut down your kidneys as this is simply not true). As they age a lot of people suffer from the medical condition, sarcopenia, which is described as a loss of muscle mass resulting from the aging process. 

Whether this is an outcome of the aging process in general or a result from a reduction in activity combined with an inadequate protein intake OR all of the above has yet to be determined.  For this reason, protein becomes very increasingly important later in adulthood; as once you begin to lose muscle, your strength goes next, which unfortunately is then usually followed by the inability to function on your own.  

This is a reality that is far too common in today’s society as people are living longer however, some individuals are not able to live as they’d like and spend their remaining days on bed rest or with very limited capabilities.  Moral of the story, ramp up your protein as it is essential for maintain your muscle mass, strength and autonomy.

Mobility Monday: Low Back Pain/Butt Wink

Poor mobility can be a killer when it comes to squatting.  All the problems you might experience there also can cause problems in your daily life.  In this Mobility Monday we have Roop Sihota of Mobility WOD explaining the mechanisms behind your low back pain and why you get the 'butt wink' at the bottom of your squat.  

Things It Can Fix:
The obvious
-Low back pain
-Butt wink
The Not So Obvious
-Tight Hips
-Weak Glutes

Study Spotlight: Athletes w/ Specific Genotype at Greater Risk for Longer Recovery From Concussion

Genes.  When everything comes down to it they are the basis for everything.  Things are moving faster and faster in the world of using genes in athletics.  We have talked before about Nutrigenomics and utilizing genes to actually showy what foods you respond to best and which ones you don't (our article HERE).  Most recently a story has come out showing how Baylor Football is using DNA testing to look at how they should be working out their athletes.  It's incredible and now that world is moving into concussion management and prediction.  Check out what one study found below:

What They Did:

Researchers documented information on 40 athletes that were diagnosed with concussion in a hospital concussion program.  They monitored and checked several ares to see how athletes responded after they suffered the concussion.  These included vestibular ocular assessments, balance testing, ImPACT (computer) testing as well as a salivary sample to isolate certain DNA.

What They Found:

What Dr. McDevitt and her team found was that athletes carrying a specific genotype (CACNA1E s704326, to get technical) were found to have a much greater risk of prolonged recovery following a concussion.

What It Means:

So this could mean all kinds of things but personally I think it lend to the safer return of athletes who have suffered from concussion.  There has been much research looking at concussion protocols to get people back healthy and safe but it is such a subjective injury that often can be hard.  Having more objective data and knowing people are subject to longer recovery can aid in the recovery process and help eliminate an overly quick return to activity.

When I talk to athletes about concussion I emphasize one thing, it is your brain.  You can recover from ankle sprains and probably play through a good part of them but you use your brain forever and if it goes wrong it goes wrong in a big way.  Take your time and heal.

Source:
McDeviit, Jane.  Athletes carrying specific genotype at greater risk of prolonged recovery following concussion.  American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine

BMI Definitely Lacks TMI

I figured I would write an article as a follow up to the Washington Post article I was quoted in last week to further elaborate on what we can take away from the use of BMI.  But first, a little background information on BMI. For those who aren't familiar with the Body Mass Index (BMI) it is simply a ratio of your height and weight. It is often used to classify one's bodyweight as healthy, or overweight, or obese.

However, the problem with the use of this index to classify an individual's body weight is that it doesn't tell us anything about the COMPOSITION of that weight.  For example, I am someone whose BMI has always been around or above 30 kg/m2 which means that I would fall in the category "Obesity class 1" according to the table on the right.  However, when I take into consideration my actual body composition my body fat percentage usually falls within the range of 10-15% depending on my level of training and focus on nutrition at any given time. When classifying my body fat percentage I typically fall within the "lean" or "moderately lean" categories (see table below).  So what is body composition actually measuring? Well, like the name implies, it is telling us what the composition or make-up of an individual's bodyweight actually consists of.  Depending on what type of technology you have available to you, you can get very precise with the measurement and get an idea of fat mass, lean muscle, bone mass etc. 

The most common measurements used outside of a laboratory setting uses a 2 compartment model that is used to assess body composition. From this, you typically get an individual's body fat percentage, as I described above, that can then be used to calculate the amount of weight someone has that consists of fat mass and fat-free mass. To some extent, we need a certain amount of body fat for survival and this can be described as essential body fat and then we have non-essential body fat that accumulates if one constantly consumes an excess amount of calories and may compromise your health.

So back to the Washington Post article...  The article focused on the idea that even though your BMI may be "normal" you may be a high risk for developing certain medical conditions, increasing your risk of dying prematurely. So how can this be? Well, with a "low" and even "normal" BMI you may actually have an excess of non-essential body fat. Because, as was mentioned above, BMI tells us nothing about someone's body composition. So just because someone is of normal weight according to their height they could be (what I like to refer to as) "skinny fat" meaning they do not have an optimal ratio of fat-free mass to fat-mass per their overall body weight.  Or, a low BMI could even indicate that you have too low of a body fat percentage and could potentially be malnourished.  Regardless of the scenario, it is difficult to extract any kind of beneficial information from the BMI and therefore I always recommend body composition testing if you are trying to classify yourself as "healthy" or having excess body fat in order to assess your risk of developing cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders etc.  Just make sure you are using an accurate test for determination of your body fat percent...stay tuned for more on that!

Mobility Monday: Landing Mechanics Safety & Super Frog

Good landing mechanics are worth their weight in gold and the first part to this video is a great way  to test how you 'naturally' land.  Have someone video it or do it in the mirror and where you end up with tell you all kinds of things about your position and tightness.

The second part of the video shows you some great ways to loosen up your adductors and TFL to address some of your positional faults that you found before.  

Things It Helps:
-Landing mechanics (and injury risk)
-Flat feet (beginning to fix)
-Tight hip flexors and 'groin' muscles
-TFL (start of IT band problems)

Friday Food: Chicken w/ Grapefruit

By: Joel Luedke

Continuing with our chicken theme from last week but changing up the flavor substantially.  There are a lot of additions to this one that as always you can customize to your taste (personally not a huge fan of watercress).  Enjoy this one for a date night or just to change it up this weekend.

Ingredients:
-4 boneless chicken breasts
-1/2 tsp dried thyme
-1/2 tsp salt
-1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
-2 tbsp olive oil
-1/4 cup dry white wine
-1/4 cup chicken broth
-3 tbsp grapefruit juice
-2 tsp honey
-3 cups trimmed watercress
-2 grapefruit, cut into segments



Cooking Directions: 

1. Season chicken with thyme and half of the salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.  Brown chicken, 6 minutes per side.  Add wine, broth, juice, and honey. Simmer until reduced to 1/3 cup.  Season with remaining salt and pepper.

3. Put watercress and grapefruit on 4 plates.  Top with chicken and sauce.

The Facts: 
Calories: 266
Fat: 10g
Carbs: 15g
Protein: 27g

Courtesy of: Men's Health

Study Spotlight: Pre-Season Shoulder Strength May Determine Injury Severity in Baseball Pitchers

Arm injuries in baseball are becoming far too common.  There are even stories of people purposefully  injuring their elbows to get Tommy John surgery to further strengthen it, scary thought.  There has been a lot of focus on strengthening within the arm to try and prevent these injuries but often they don't tell us much.  This study tells us a little something different.

What They Did:

In this study they measured preseason shoulder strength over a five-year period, in all there was 144 major and minor league pitchers analyzed.  The motions that were tested were prone internal rotation (IR), prone external rotation (PER), seated external notation (SER) and supraspinatus (SS) and this was done during spring training prior to the season.  Each pitcher was then tracks throughout the year.

What They Found:

Often with these studies they don't find much in terms of significance, but this one is a little different in a good way.  There was significant association between PER, SER and SS strength with throwing related injuries that required surgery.  There was also some evidence showing an association between PER/IR strength and how often people got injured.

What It All Means:

The good news in all of this is that it makes your training worth it and it also allows you to track it.  Often too many of these studies go on to be 'inconclusive' and don't really show if you get something out of testing and strengthening. This study shows us otherwise.  With sport specialization being a hot topic in youth sports it can often lead to overuse injuries earlier and earlier in a athlete's career.  We can do something in the case of throwing with strengthening and then mechanics become the next major focus.  But that is for another Study Spotlight.

Link: Article Summary

Source:
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine. "Pre-season Shoulder Strength May Determine Injury Severity For Baseball Pitchers." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 10 July 2009.

Clinically Pressed in Madison: What We Learned and a Preview

By: Joel Luedke

It's spring break for AJ and I and we decided to kick back, relax, pull Kyle away from work and get down to Madison, WI to shoot three upcoming episodes for Clinically Pressed.  We shipped out of La Crosse at 6:15am and got down to start shooting at 9:00am sharp.  We learned a lot through the day and without giving away what the episodes are completely about we wanted to use this article to high light some trends and themes we experienced throughout the day that are very relevant to what anyone trying to achieve goals in fitness or in life in general.

Life Themes:

-Finding a passion and getting after it, relentlessly.

• There are so many options for careers out there but you have to find something that excites you to get out of bed in the morning (well most mornings).  When it becomes work its time to re-evaluate.

-Limiting your desire to be a 'jack of all trades'

• This one is up in the air but it is almost impossible to be all things to all people.  Find your niche and find other people that can help fill the rest of those where you work.  In sports performance its finding the combination of experts that know enough about everything to consult but still have the area they thrive in.

-Listen to everything but accept nothing without challenging it with your own ideals.

• This goes along with out 'jack of all trades' point.  Always be listening to other 'experts' but critically think based on your own ideas and knowledge.  If you always go back and try and argue against what you think and you can't, you know what you think it pretty good.

-Never stop learning

• Simple said and the best part of health, wellness and nutrition: You can never know it all but that means you can always learn something new.

Training/Performance Goals:

-Training vs. Working Out

• Just going into the gym each day and blowing it out until you can't walk isn't going to allow your body to get to where it needs.  You need to have a plan and understand just working as hard as you can won't always help you out.

-It's all about progression and figuring out where you're at. Build a stable foundation while establishing a good base and build upon it.

• We can't just look at what the 'elite' are doing and say, we need to be doing those same things.  We need to look back at what those 'elite' were doing when they were where we are.  Understand it takes steps and time.

-There isn't one solution to every problem, you have to figure that part out.

• No one training system or tool fixes everyone or creates elite athletes every single time.  That is the pain and the beauty of it all that you have to adapt to what works for individuals, then you can start setting yourself apart.

-Don't speak in absolutes, it rarely (or never works)

• This ties into our one above.  Don't get so set in specific ways that you never vary and won't have it any other way, you will most likely get set for failure.  Have your system but remain adaptable.

Stay tuned in the next couple weeks for the release of all the episodes on Clinically Pressed.

Mobility Monday: Perfect Pushup External Rotation Lie Detector

By: Joel Luedke

I won't lie, I bought a pair of these and had an idea of how they worked and why I bought them but never really paid that close of attention or understood the underlying mechanism behind them.  Well turns out they can tell you a lot more about how your push-ups are going and how much external rotation you have or are lacking in your shoulders.  Turns out they were a good purchase but save yourself the ~$40.00 and check out how you can see what kind of torque you are generating in your shoulders after testing it out.  Check it out below:

Things It Fixes:
-Pain w/ Push-Ups
-Weakness w/ Push-Ups
-Shoulder Pain

Friday Food: Spinach-Tomato-Feta Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breast w/ Brown Rice

By: Joel Luedke

This is a great good in mass meal and be able to take it with you wherever you go.  Oh and when you open it up and people check out what you are eating you're going to have some very jealous people.  A solid recipe but one that won't break the bank or take you forever in the preparation process.  I mean the picture looks awesome (although we recommend storing in glass containers as much as possible.  Enjoy this one everyone and have a great weekend.

Ingredients:
-6 oz. chicken breast
-1/2 cup raw spinach
-1 roma tomato
-2 tbsp feta cheese
-1/2 cup brown rice

Cooking Directions: 
1. Set oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Slice the chicken breast down the middle to make it look like a butterfly; be careful not to slice all the way through the chicken breast.
3. Season the chicken breast with your choice of seasonings.
4. Open the chicken breast and, on one side, layer spinach, tomato slices, and feta cheese.
5. Fold the chicken breast like a sandwich and use toothpicks to hold the chicken breast closed.
6. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until the chicken breast is completely cooked.
7. Cook brown rice and add garlic and diced onion for extra flavor.
8. Plate chicken and brown rice.

The Facts:
Calories: 363
Fat: 6g
Carbs: 32g
Protein: 43g

Recipe Idea from BodyBuilding.com

One STEP Closer to Your Weight Loss Goals

By: Andrew Jagim

I have posted several times on some of the benefits of being active and moving around more throughout the day which is hands down one of the simplest recommendations for becoming "healthier" but at the same time probably one of the more difficult strategies to actually following through with.

To give you an example of how important being active is, world-renown researcher Dr. Steven Blair has dedicated his life to highlighting the importance of physical activity in terms of how it can reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease, metabolic disease and ultimately one's overall risk of dying. In fact, the title of a lot of his presentations is revolve around the topic of "Fitness vs. Fatness" and he makes a strong case that activity levels are much more important than your overall weight in terms of your risk of dying.... but that is a topic for another day.  With my "Weight Loss 101" seminars I always highlight the importance of being active throughout the day and reducing sedentary time as much as possible for weight management in addition to its health promoting benefits.

One of the reasons activity levels can help so much with someone's weight loss goals is that daily activity levels contribute to our non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) calorie expenditure.  Calories burned via NEAT can actually make up a fairly substantial amount of our daily calorie expenditure.  Coincidentally, it's also one of the bigger areas of metabolism that takes a "hit" when people lose weight as our bodies seem to self-regulate activity by actually decreasing the amount of calories we burn via NEAT. Part of this is unavoidable as a result of metabolic adaptation (See previous article for more details) however another aspect of it is that we just simply don't move around as much as we lose weight and are dieting whether it be a result of us being tired, hungry, crabby or the fact that our body is just incredibily good at maintaining a constant energy expenditure.  Regardless by focusing on being active we can help to maintain our NEAT energy expenditure which again is one of the simplest ways to help manage one's weight.  Keep in mind, NEAT calorie expenditure and daily activities are outside of your time spent lifting weights or running, or participating in group exercise classes etc. NEAT is everything else you are doing throughout the day. One of the easiest ways to monitor activity levels is by wearing movement trackers! One of the ones I personally use and love is the FitBit.

One of the things I enjoy abbot the FitBit is the online profile and how it does a great job of summarizing weekly and monthly step patters.  I posted previously on how the arrival of our second daughter really took a toll on my monthly step average. (Who wants to walk around when you can snuggle with a baby in a rocking chair all day?!).  Anyways, one of my goals since then has been to get my steps back on track. As you can see in the figure on the left. I was on a steady trend up until October (when the baby came). Since then, I have slowly been getting my step counts back up however in Wisconsin during this time of the year this can become increasingly difficult. I strongly encourage people to purchase some type of activity tracker to get an idea of how active they are on a daily basis. For a general rule of thumb the American Heart Association advocates 10,000 steps a day for the health-promoting benefits but in reality anything is better than nothing!

"10K a day, keeps the doctor away" - Dr. Jagim

Mobility Monday: PNF Your Prime Hip Movers

By: Joel Luedke

Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) technique has been around a while and is use very commonly to help improve range of motion but to also help restore motion after an injury.  There is some evidence out there stating it isn't all its cracked up to be but the practical proof in using it in my everyday work makes it worth the try.  Also it is simple and doesn't take a lot of time and is generally safe.  

What it entails is using muscle contraction while you are stretching (either the muscle you are stretching or the muscle on the opposite side) to create an inhibition in the stretch muscle.  During this inhibition period of the muscle you are able to increase the range of motion and get a bigger stretch.  This can help if you are trying to improve your range of motion but is also useful in getting motion back after injury.  Give it a try.

What It Improves
-Range of Motion (General)
-Hamstring motion
-Reduce pain after injury