I found and read this article and thought that I would share it here. Its a little long and scientific, but it covers a great number of areas. What I found was most interesting was the studies done which found that cells respond to tactile cues of the environment around them and how that influences them with regard to healing. Let me know what you think of the article.
Cheers to your health,
Lynk
Here is the FetLife link for the class I am presenting on Body Mechanics of the scene.
http://fetlife.com/groups/307/group_posts/499638
Its on March 6th from 1-5pm at Castle Griffin
Sign up for the event is through Event Bright (click for the event sign up)
If you are not part of FetLife, but are interested, please check out the links to the right under ”Kinky” to sign up. Its free and easy to sign up. If you don’t want to sign up, drop me a message here so that I can send you the details.
Cheers to your health,
Lynk
Suffering from Belly Fat?
By John Romaniello
Like many people, you probably suffer from regional fat storage issues. That is, while you store fat over your entire body, it’s probably most noticeable in certain areas, and it’s from these areas in which we struggle most to lose fat. You know–the problem areas.
These problem areas are influenced heavily by your hormonal environment, and where you store that last bit of fat is determined by which of your hormones are most out of whack (and yes, sometimes it’s quite a few of them).
Today I’m going to talk to you about belly fat specifically.
One of the things that has been talked about quite a bit in fitness media lately is the relationship between belly fat and a hormone called “cortisol.” To put it simply, the higher your cortisol levels, the more belly fat you’re likely to have.
By the same token, if you have a good deal of belly fat, it’s reasonable to assume that you have high cortisol.
Having high cortisol is detrimental for other reasons, but for our purposes, let’s focus on the fact that cortisol is keeping you not-so-little in the middle.
Rather than just suffer through this, the obvious solution is to try to lower cortisol levels and resultantly lower belly fat. And I’ll tell you, lowering cortisol is a LOT trickier than you might think.
I’m sure you’ve seen the late night TV ads trying to sell you anti-cortisol pills. Even if they worked (they don’t), it’s a hormone like cortisol can’t be fooled by a little pill.
Besides, wouldn’t it be much more effective to find a solution without taking expensive pills? Something that is also going to help you burn fat overall?
Well, that’s actually possible.
You see, I’m big on using certain hormones to tame other hormones. Essentially, you CAN actually fight hormones WITH hormones. Clever, I know. It’s just a matter of finding which hormones work well against one another. When it comes to cortisol (and belly fat), you need look no further than Growth Hormone.
Also known as Human Growth Hormone or simply GH, growth hormones is produced in the pituitary gland and is responsible for growth (obviously) among other things. More specific to this writing, growth hormones is actually one of the most effective things in the world to offset cortisol.
Put simply, if you want less cortisol, just make more growth hormone.
Just tell you body to do it. Make a few calls.
Okay okay, it’s not that simple…but I have some really good news.
Did you know that there are certain types of training that are actually exceedingly effective at producing growth hormone?
It’s true–indirectly.
You see, growth hormone is normally produced and released in response to something, and in the case of training, GH is released as a response to the production of something called lactic acid. Lactic acid is a waste byproduct of some of the chemical and metabolic processes that happen during exercise.
So, if you do exercise in a specific way, you can produce MORE lactic acid, which will then produce tremendous amounts of growth hormone as a result. That growth hormone surge will also help to work against your high cortisol levels. And as we’ve established, that will absolutely assist you in getting rid of your stubborn belly fat.
Of course, you’re wondering: how to I do it!? It’s easy. While lactic acid is produced in most forms of intense exercise, there is an unusual style of exercise that can actually produce even MORE lactic acid than is generally possible with other types of exericse. Appropriately (and not-so-cleverly) called “lactic acid training,” this type of training uses slow lifting speeds and fast lowering speeds.
The reason for the structure is that lactic acid is primarily produced during the “concentric” or positive/lifting phase of an exercise, and not so much during the “eccentric” or negative/lowering phase. To take advantage of this and produce more lactic acid, we simply–with apologies to Bing Crosby–accentuate the positive and (almost but not quite) eliminate the negative of each rep on all of our exercises.
To quantify it a bit, for each rep, you’d lift it over a period of about 4 seconds, and lower the weight extremely quickly, but safely.
If you were squatting, you’d drop down to the bottom position relatively quickly, and push slowly back to the top. In an overhead press, you’d lower the dumbbells quickly but safely, and press them back over your head over a period of 4-6 seconds.
Performing exercises with these extended concentric movements is going to create a tremendous amount of lactic acid, which in turn is going to prompt your body to produce fantastic amounts of growth hormone. And that growth hormone is going to help you manage cortisol and fight belly fat.
And if all THAT wasn’t enough, lactic acid training is also just a great fat loss training methods, so you’ll lose fat overall.
If you want to fight your cortisol issues, you need growth hormone. And for that you need lactic acid training. Utilizing this method, you’re one step closer to fighting off your belly fat for good.
———————————————
Pretty cool, huh? Roman is a MASTER at pinning “good” hormones and specific exercise up against the “bad” hormones that cause regional fat storage.
And in his new program (which is available at a full 52% OFF until tomorrow), Final Phase Fat Loss, provides you with specific types of exercises and workouts to combat:
1. Estrogen, “man boobs” and lower-body fat (combatted with “Density” training and Testosterone)
2. Insulin, and your “love handles (combatted with “Dynamic” training and IGF-1)
3. And of course, Cortisol and belly fat (combatted with specific “Lactic Acid” training and Growth Hormone)
If you struggle with “problem area” fat storage, this is THE program to set you free. And right now, it’s still 52% OFF (but not for much longer).
http://budurl.com/LoseTheLast10 <——- End Regional Fat Storage
I hope you enjoyed today’s article, and I hope you choose to invest in Roman’s system before the Grand Opening Special closes tomorrow.
Cheers to your health,
Lynk
Ok, I am going to be the science geek here. I have posted this on FetLife, but thought it was appropriate for this blog as well to answer questions about why if you lose weight, your pain tolerance decreases.
As you increase your physical activity, particularly with resistance training you increase the proliferation of your nerves. Basically to increase muscle recruitment your body grows the nerves and the neural connections inside of the muscles and joints. This results in a greater position awareness and increased recruitment of muscles.
Although BDSM activities do not stimulate muscle contraction, apply enough stimulus to a nerve ending and it will be interpreted as pain (bright light in the eyes causes pain, but your eye has no pain receptors). Since the nerves have a greater number of connections in the muscles and joints they are more sensitive to feedback from the outside environment.
The increased sensitivity is also possibly due to the loss of fat because fat, like the brain and eyes, is one of the few substances that does not have pain receptors. So with the loss of fat you literally lose the pain free padding that is protecting portions of your body. Therefore strikes will be able to reach more sensitive tissues more easily with a decrease in body fat.
One last thing, I promise. Exercise stimulates blood flow to all areas of the body including the skin. With increases in blood flow you have more oxygen and nutrients (key components of healing and growth) delivered to all areas of the body (skin). More blood flow can theoretically results in a increase in the nerve endings and nerve proliferation, making the skin more sensitive to strikes.
Sometimes it is the reverse and people can tolerate more impact after fat loss, but I feel that may be more due to the increase in tolerance of physically demanding activities. Plus, as we increase our fitness level and response to fitness the body more easily enters a state where we can push ourselves (perhaps more mind over matter) and that allows us to tolerate more physically strenuous activity.
On the other hand, more organs (hopefully they are not being hit) and bony parts stick out with decreased body fat. This tends to narrow the striking space so more blows are delivered to a smaller area and that area appears to have a decreased tolerance, but really it is just getting hit more often than usual.
Hope I didn’t make your eyes glaze over and feel free to contact me or post here if you have questions.
I got this article from John Romaniello, who just launched his newest program called Final Phase Fat Loss, and this was one of the introductory articles that people missed out on if they missed the launch, but I saved it and here it is.
Three Hormones You Must Address for Fat Loss
It seems like most fat loss programs focus on one main thing: to burn fat, you have to expend more energy than you take in.
Such a focus makes sense, of course, because if there is a universal truth to fat loss, that’s it.
This is what we call “energy balance.” In order to lose fat, you have to create what we call “energy debt” or “energy deficit” –that is, eliminate the balance and instead be on the negative side of the balance scales.
That works very well for “beginning” fat, of course. However, success doesn’t last forever.
As anyone who’s ever been on a diet and exercise program of any kind can tell you, at first it’s pretty smooth sailing. Eat less, do more, lose fat.
And then it stops—and usually, stops suddenly, as those same people can also tell you.
Of course, the first instinct people have is a very natural one: to simply do more of what was bringing them success in the first place.
So they eat even less and do even more.
And…have no results.
You see, what these people fail to realize (and what most fat loss programs fail to address) is that:
After a certain point, simple energy deficit
no longer covers the tab.
It becomes more about what type of deficit. Speaking generally, you actually have to eat closer to maintenance calorie levels (instead of far below) and expend more Calories through exercise.
Even then, things don’t always happen as quickly as you want.
You see, once you’ve hit a fat loss plateau—or when you’re trying to lose the last few pounds, like I was when I was dieting for the beach house—fat loss becomes a bit less about energy balance a lot more about hormones.
Some hormones, such as leptin, actually control the majority of your general fat loss efforts and all the factors thereof: appetite, satiety, “starvation mode.” However, assuming you’re eating enough and trying to create an energy deficit through training, leptin isn’t the issue.
In Final Phase Fat Loss, you’re never on a severe diet, so you don’t have to worry about leptin.
There are other hormones which are a bit more insidious in their effects on your physique. They don’t just determine IF you gain fat—they determine where you gain it, and whether you’re able to lose it from those areas.
Those “problem” areas on your body are there for a reason.
“Problem areas” are created by your hormonal environment, and it’s your hormones that force your body to have particular fat storage patterns.
In this article, we’re going to talk about the three most common types of regional fat storage, and the hormones that cause them.
Back Got Back: Low Body Fat Storage
One of the most common types of fat storage that we see in women is the “pear shape” –fairly thin on top but heavy on the bottom (and IN the bottom, if you know what I mean).
This is so common that we often refer to a “pear shape” as a body type. This is true to an extent, but this type of fat storage is also heavily dependent on the female sex hormone estrogen. This is one reason why you see this type of fat storage primarily in women.
High levels of estrogen are awesome for enjoying Grey’s Anatomy and makin’ babies, but terrible for fat loss, which makes it obvious that women usually have more trouble losing fat than men.
However, anyone—male or female—with high estrogen levels will have trouble losing fat, especially from the lower body. In essence, the higher your estrogen levels, the greater the likelihood you’ll store fat in your lower body; mainly in the hips and thighs.
And yes, it IS possible for men to have high estrogen levels. Unfortunately, outside of having to deal with a declined rate of fat loss and lower body fat, these guys ALSO have to deal with the ignominy of man-boobs.
On the whole, estrogen related fat storage is a pain in the ass (get it!?) but it is not completely unmanageable. You see, you can offset this phenomenon with certain types of training.
In addition to helping you lose fat stored in the lower body, these specifically designed workouts will also be great for fat loss in general. Essentially, they’re great for burning calories and for shedding lower body fat through estrogen management—combine the two and the result is rapid fat loss, with a heavy concentration on lower body fat stores.
No worries, ladies (and gents!), I’m here to help.
Muffin Tops: No Love for the Love Handles
Probably my least favorite incarnation of regional fat storage is love handle and lower back fat. This is, of course, because I personally suffer from such.
Even when I am in lean condition—I’m talking shredded pretty much everywhere else—
I store some fat in my love handles and lower back. It used to take me an extra 3 weeks to get rid of it.
The reason I tend to store fat this way is because of how my body reacts to certain hormones, and because of the effect those hormones have on fat storage.
When I was a fat kid and ate lots and lots of goodies, I screwed by my endocrine system a wee bit. Nothing too serious, but a decade of eating rapidly digesting carbs followed by…well, followed by more rapidly digesting carbs made my insulin spike and crash and spike and crash all over the place.
On top of making me fat in that immediacy, it also completely had a pretty negative effect on the way my body processes and handles insulin period.
The degree to which you are able to process and respond to glucose (sugar) in your body is called insulin sensitivity. The higher this is, the easier and more efficiently your body utilizes carbohydrates for energy, and the less like you are to store carbs as fat.
On the other hand, insulin resistance is the opposite: you don’t deal well with carbs, and anything other than a low carb diet pretty much means you’re gonna hang on to some fat.
And, to make matters worse, as I mentioned previously, there are regional effects. It’s been shown that people who store fat in the love handles are generally very insulin resistant—and therefore it can be reasoned that insulin resistance leads to love handle and lower back fat storage.
Which means, of course, that insulin resistance makes it very hard to lose fat from that area as well.
I’m sure many of you out there who have been heavy before are experiencing much the same problems that I used to have.
The good news is that insulin resistance (and the resulting regional fatness) can be mitigated with certain types of training. For example, with careful planning and selection of exercises, you can start to whittle away at love handle and lower back fat while you increase insulin sensitivity.
The better news is that I’ve figured out a specific series of training sessions that will do just that.
The One, The Only: Belly Fat
Without question, the most common type of regional fat storage is belly fat. If this isn’t you, it’s someone you know.
Abdominal fat storage obviously has a lot to do with your diet and overall body fat level; that should be obvious but it never hurts to touch on it.
Outside of that, it’s hormones baby, hormones.
The one we’re talking about here is cortisol. This hormone has been in the media a lot the past few years, and I’ve talked about it a bit, so by now you know that cortisol is sometimes called a “stress” hormone.
That moniker is more appropriate than you know.
Basically, that means your body will produce cortisol (and encourage belly fat storage) under conditions of nearly any type of stress—both emotional and physical. So to combat cortisol, it’s not enough to just get more sleep or stop drunk dialing your ex-girlfriend. (Although that helps, I’ve heard.)
Instead, it is of far greater effect to combat cortisol through resistance training.
Now, if you’re observant, you may have noticed what seems to be a contradiction.
As I said, cortisol is also produced through physical stress. In fact, training is actually one of the primary means through which your body will produce this sneaky little hormone. Additionally, because cortisol has been linked to overtraining and has a catabolic (muscle wasting) effect, producing too much of it through training is certainly counterproductive.
It’s important to note, however, that long duration cardio and extended lifting sessions are what produce the most cortisol, and I always recommend against those.
Instead, short, intense training sessions using a particular type of training modality will help to counteract the effects of cortisol; both the muscle-wasting effect, and the cortisol related belly fat storage.
So if you want more of this information go to Final Phase Fat Loss for your copy that is on sale only through 2/18/10 at 52% off!!!
I’ve got a very important question for you…
Before you buy Final Phase Fat Loss today and claim
your 1 Day, Fast-action bonus (yes, one day it’s worth $397),
I want to make sure you’re the right person for this program…
(oh, and no, I’m not going to tell you what the bonus is,
but I WILL remind you that it’s a real-world value of $397
and you’re going to want to find out what it is)
Roman’s put together a program that regularly helps people
go from teen-digit body-fat percentage to single-digit, and it works
every time. That said, his workouts are intense, and they mean business.
If you’re new to working out, this probably isn’t a great idea. You could die.
Seriously, this guy is intense in every respect of the word. His workouts are great,
but they’re meant for people who are just as crazy as he is. They’re meant for people
who want to step up to the plate and decide on redefining their fitness level,
people who strive for better and better, all the time…
Final Phase Fat Loss is NOT for people who are comfortably at their fat loss goal.
Final Phase Fat Loss is NOT for people who are satisfied with their results.
Final Phase Fat Loss is NOT about socialization in the gym.
It’s about hard work, it’s about extreme fat loss, and it’s about hormonal modification
to enhance fat loss effect in ‘trouble spots.’
You’ve been warned 
have a great day!
Lynk
PS – you may see that others have prepared bonuses for you so that you can buy
through their links.I just want to recommend that you buy this program. It’s well worth its cost at full price and much more.
However, it’s 52% off through this link for the next 3 days… http://budurl.com/LoseTheLast10
I don’t care who you buy this from, just buy it. It’s worth it.
PPS – Prograde Protein is $15 off for President’s Day – this is a GREAT addition to
Final Phase Fat Loss, b/c it will help you build muscle faster, ultimately leading to a
faster metabolism, and more fat loss. Here is my store link, where you can get the
discount + a great recipe to use once you order:
Hey Everyone,
I have personally seen the evolution and development of this program and I have to say its the best fat loss program I have seen.
Dr. Kareem Samhouri has created a program called Double Edged Fat Loss that is possibly one of the best programs ever created for losing fat and its only 30 DAYS!!! This scientifically based program is a culmination of Dr. Samhouri’s great experience within the fitness industry in combination with a Doctorate in Physical Therapy, being a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist with NSCA, and an ACSM Health Fitness Instructor. The program not only provides amazing workouts, but incredible resources for fitness and truly transforming your life.
Dr. Samhouri has already been featured with CBS and NBC and is currently being supported by some of the biggest names in the fitness industry including Mike Geary (author of “Truth About Abs”), Joel Marion (author of the incredible nutritional program “Cheat To Lose”), Vince Del Monte (creator of “No Nonsense Muscle Building” and “Your Six Pack Quest”), Todd Scott (national competitive body builder), Arnel Ricafranka (creator of “I Want Six Pack Abs”), Tom Terwilliger (life transformation coach, former Mr. America, 16 year host of Muscle Sport USA), Scott Colby (“The Abs Expert” and creator of AbsUncrunched.com), Rocco (Creator of “Lose 30 in Thirty Fitness Program” and featured trainer on MTV’s show “Made”), Paul Reddick (Director of Yogi Berra Baseball School and coached in MLB). The program is also being endorsed by Pat Rigsby (co-owner of Fitness Consulting Group and the International Youth Conditioning Association), BJ Gaddour (founder of Get Sexy Boot Camps and featured author in Bride magazine), and Jim Labadie (co-founder of the National Personal Training Association).
Please go to http://budurl.com/TheFatLossSolution to learn more about this phenomenal life changing program. I urge you not to miss out on this incredible opportunity to get in the best shape of your life!
Best Regards,
Lynk
I got this through a list serve that I am on and thought that I would share this that was written by Cathy Covell, PT www.motionforlife.net
One Percent
What if each day you could grow
just 1%?
Today I would like to be 1%:
closer to god,
I would like to love myself 1% more,
I would like to be 1% easier on myself,
I want to connect with my coworker, parent, spouse
1%more,
I will eat 1% healthier,
I will exercise 1% more,
I will forgive myself for 1% of the things I
seem to think I have done “wrong”
It seems like such small steps,
small steps that seem to easy to lead to big change
But those small steps can lead all the way
to the top of what seems to be an
insurmountable mountain.
So, start today with 1% and enjoy your journey!
I have a great article for you today from one of my trusted colleagues, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Mike Geary. It’s about a specific spice that could help you to burn body fat and get leaner, in an indirect way…
Enjoy!
1 Unique Spice That Beats Abdominal Fat:
Ok, this spice that I’m going to mention is one of the most overlooked, but healthiest spices in the world…
You might even call it a “fat burning spice”… in a roundabout way.
And yes, it can actually help you win the battle against abdominal fat if you use it daily…I’ll explain why.
Here are some other benefits of this miracle spice:
*controls blood sugar levels
*helps maintain insulin sensitivity
*a very powerful antioxidant
*may have antibacterial and antifungal properties
*and dozens of other benefits
So what is this miracle spice?
Well… it’s good old tasty Cinnamon!
Although cinnamon does not directly increase fat burning (such as by increasing metabolic rate, etc), it CAN actually help you to burn off abdominal fat and get leaner through an indirect link.
Here’s how…
Although cinnamon has dozens of health benefits, the main benefit that will help you to get leaner is through it’s strong effect on controlling blood sugar levels in your body.
In a study published in 2003 in the medical journal Diabetes Care, groups were split into people taking 1, 3, or 6 grams of cinnamon per day in capsule form (the equivalent of approx 1/4th to 1 teaspoon of cinnamon).
The results of the study showed that all 3 amounts of cinnamon reduced fasting blood glucose levels by 18-29% after 40 days.
Cinnamon can also increase insulin sensitivity, which essentially means that it is helping your body to control blood sugar while simultaneously allowing your body to produce less insulin.
As you know, chronically high insulin levels can make your body pack on the blubber.
How to harness this to lose more fat…
One possible way to benefit from cinnamon to lose more fat is to use cinnamon daily in your meals when you can, such as in yogurt or cottage cheese, in smoothies, oatmeal, or anything else you can think of where it would go well.
Also, you could use a cinnamon capsule before each of your meals.
This could help to control blood sugar and insulin response from your meals and thereby control your appetite and cravings throughout the day… hence, helping you to lose body fat more effectively over time.
So now you can see that not only is cinnamon a powerful antioxidant that can help you stay youthful longer, it can also help you to control blood sugar and get a leaner body!
Note: please make sure to consult your doctor before adding any new foods or spices to your nutrition plan if you are taking any medications or have food allergies.
Go to the link below to discover over a dozen more unique foods, spices, and weird styles of workouts that help to burn your abdominal fat faster:
