When I was in grad school in Regina I went to Las Vegas for a guys trip. This was the first time I had been to Las Vegas and we went to see Andrew Dice Clay.If you're familiar with ADC this isn't someone to check out on YouTube with the kids around. And while my life and tastes have changed since that show, I'll admit that I did have fun.And there was one point in the show where ADC was commenting how everyone in the crowd was looking good and appeared ready to go out and have some fun. Except for one guy.ADC pointed out one guy in the crowd and said 'You're wearing beige? You're in Las Vegas. You can be anyone you want. You can do whatever you want (within reason). And whatever happens in Las Vegas...'This poor guy. He wasn't looking to heckle the comic or draw attention but ADC was sure giving it to him.At one point, ADC comes back to this guy and says 'You know who wears beige? People on safari! People who are looking to blend in with their surroundings. People who don't want to stand out. And you're wearing beige in Las Vegas?'So besides reminiscing about Las Vegas and stand-ups why share this with you?It's because ADC had a point.And that was to stay away from the middle.Here's what I mean by staying away from the middle.Having the best health, fitness and performance means making daily choices. And when we choose we should be choosing all the way for the good staff and avoiding the bad stuff (as much as possible).For example, if we're talking about getting enough sleep for recovery we should get 8 hours every night. Preferably more of these hours should occur before midnight. Once in a while we might take...

In the last post we talked about why people may use a heart rate monitor. Click here if you missed that post. Besides the most common value people check when they use a heart rate monitor, which is calories burned there are a number of other benefits to using one. But first we should do a quick review so we're all on the same page as to what we're talking about. So here's a quick recap of some of the terms you may get thrown around on blogs and in training circles. Anaerobic Threshold - This is the intensity of exercise where energy demands cannot solely be supplied by oxygen and must be supplemented by anaerobic metabolism. Lactate Threshold - As the demands for energy produced anaerobically increase there is a lactate accumulation in the blood as well. Lactate accumulates because it is being produced faster than it can be cleared from the blood. The units for this measure may be expressed as mmol/L. VO2max - This is the highest rate of oxygen consumption at maximal intensity exercise. In other words when we are below our VO2max we can still consume more oxygen with increasing intensity. However once our VO2max has been achieved further increases with intensity will not result in increased oxygen consumption. In terms of units it is usually expressed as ml/kg/min. If I've worked with you before or you are familiar with our coaching style at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc you'll know we use a lot of analogies. So here's the analogy for lactate threshold and VO2max. Lactate Threshold is like the floor in your home. VO2max is like the ceiling. With my own training I would like to improve my lactate threshold. In other words I want to raise the floor up towards the ceiling. Let's throw...

If you are serious about getting better at something than you need to test yourself every now and again. For example, you can't claim to be a fast runner if all you do is go for runs but have never stepped up to the line in a race to measure yourself. However that's the way a lot of people approach their training. The put in training session after training session, week after week and this continues on indefinitely. Not only does this approach never really tell you how good you are if never really tells you what your weak links are and what could be improved. Lactate Testing at UBCORecently I had the opportunity to go out to UBCO and do some testing. This was a test performed on a stationary bike to determine my VO2max, lactate threshold, max power and other interesting facts about what my body does when cycling. The first thing you notice when you do this test for the first time is that it's not comfortable. And I'm not talking about the physical discomfort. That comes later. Instead I'm talking about the unusual sensation of having your nose plugged and a snorkel type of mouth guard connected to tubing that can measure your expired air. In other words a computer can detect changes in the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air that is exhaled. So picture a halo type of apparatus sitting on top of your head, with a mouth guard and tubing attached to the computer beside you and a nose plug to ensure gas exchange only occurs through the mouth. And this is what is a little uncomfortable. Because once in a while in normal living we may have to take an irregular breath. Instead of the normal inhale-pause-exhale pattern of breathing sometimes we...

In the last article I discussed some things that are commonly used to assess the effectiveness of a training session. And I explained why mainy of these factors may not qualify as determinants of effective training.So what does constitute an effective training session? Well if you looked at the list from the previous post all of the items had something in common. And that is that they were subjective measures and therefore difficult to measure. What we should be using to evaluate the effectiveness of our workouts are objective and measurable tools. Below is a list of 7 Things You Can Measure to Determine the Effectiveness of Your Workouts. #1. Body Changes This one is fairly easy, low cost and doesn't take much time. And it's easy to see trends over time. For example you can track the following: * weight * bodyfat * tape measures * pictures from the front, back and side And while the bathroom scales you can pick up at any big box store aren't the most accurate way of measuring bodyfat they are consistent and do not depend on the expertise of the user. Photos are great because they will show changes in body shape and tone when the net gain on the scale may be zero. #2. Tracked Workouts We record every workout at Okanagan Peak Performance Inc for our clients and ourselves. We are so aware of the numbers that when a staff members posts that they were able to dumbbell snatch 60 lbs for 4 reps I know this is a personal best. And I know the previous best. And when they set their previous best. Besides loads we know distances and times during energy system workouts. We know heights jumped on plyo boxes. And we know how we felt during and in...

Do you enter competitive events? For example, if you don't play a sport what are you doing to assess yourself?For many, the days of playing competitive sports is long gone and a thing of the past. Now just the thought of getting in a workout feels like a accomplishment let alone thinking about actually entering a race or competitive event.But there are huge advantages to entering some type of competitive event. Here are a few.1. You'll zero in on the weak points of your training.Let's say you entered a powerlifting competition and tested your squat, deadlift and bench. And you put up a personal best in your squat and bench but not in your deadlift. You would know where to put more of your attention in the next phase of your training.You can also get very specific about certain aspects of your lifts. I won't go into all the details here but let's imagine you had difficulty locking out the arms to finish the lift. That would be a clue as to how we could modify your training so this is not an issue for you.2. You'll get a better appreciation for tapering.For example, if you were to enter an 8 km race on a Sunday it may not make a lot of sense to go out late on Thursday night and run intense sand dunes and initiate a swim program on a Saturday (more details below).If doing something you routinely do for a race feels difficult on race day, chances are you didn't back off on the training enough, increase your rest enough, or both.The higher the level you attain in your sport the more you'll appreciate the benefits of tapering and adjusting your training as race day approaches.3. You'll be more clear of what you're capable.If I weren't a runner...