So what in the world is Reflexive Performance Reset?

Some day you might walk in my gym, and see me standing in front of a small group of athletes, and you see them scratching themselves silly like they just walked through a bush of poison ivy.

Or you might see them rapidly rubbing the back of their heads with their thumbs, looking like they were born and raised in a jungle.

In reality though, what they are doing are activating their muscles through Special Reset Points throughout the body, which is the cornerstone of the RPR science.

The science is amazing, but yes does look like voodoo.

I found out about RPR through another well known trainer and got curious to find out more about how it works. As I read on, I found that it is at the bleeding edge performance of immediately unlocking athlete and client movement potential.

If you take another look at the picture in this article, with the young lady doing a leg raise, notice how much increased range of motion she was able to achieve in the connected photo.

This was literally done in seconds after resetting her hamstring through her body’s reflexive points.

As a performance coach, I hear so much from athletes and parents alike about having “tight” hamstrings, or strained backs and shoulders.

The immediate solution: Just stretch them and make them more flexible.

However, the majority of the time, soft tissue injuries can be attributed to poor compensation patterns that have affected the body’s nervous system’s ability to “wake up” the muscles.

RPR is a tool to better enervate the muscles, and immediately get them to work.

Not only have I been able to witness an immediate difference in an athletes active flexibility from pre and post tests, but also have seen IMMEDIATE increases in power and strength using technology to measure power output in the gym.

On the other end of the spectrum, RPR has had the ability to help adults who may suffer from everyday back pain, headaches, and maximize their time in the gym. Give them energy between sets (sometimes not even realizing it has), and experience the best workouts they have ever had.

I have received text messages from people, after having done an RPR session excitedly saying how it is the best they have felt in months, whether because of neck pain, back pain, or headaches.

Athletes across the board have text me from their schools saying that they performed their reset drills during games, practices, track meets, and have hit new personal bests.

Simply put, I wanted a way to help reduce injury, and find a way that could help my athletes and clients alike immediately restore function, improve performance, and reduce injury.

Reflexive Performance Reset has been an integral piece to achieving this goal for both coach and client. More to come on this.

Kim has had a monster last 3 months in our adult group fitness program! She comes 3 days a week at 6am, and literally is one of the hardest workers in the gym. She sets the standard!

She recently had to some Spring cleaning, and was trying on clothes and found out she is going to have to sell a lot of her clothes because she has dropped too many inches to be able to fit in them any more!

Check out what she had to say about her training experience:

With plenty of dieting plan options to choose from, it can without a doubt make it more difficult to choose the most effective “meal plan”.

Should you do Paleo?

Should you do low Carb?

Should you go vegan?

Should you go non fat?

Regardless of WHAT nutrition plan that you end up selecting, note that people have had success doing multiple plans, for similar reasons.

Even though each of these different type of dieting strategies have a different philosophy base, they actually have more in common than they differ, which make them each effective in their own respect.

Here are 3 things that effective dieting plans have in common:

1.)    Each effective diet requires you to be more mindful of what and how you eat.

Simply being aware of what you are eating causes you to be more conscious of what you are putting into your body. This doesn’t require some special type of diet.

You will be amazed at how much subconscious eating that the majority of people do on a daily basis. Whether eating while you are at your computer, eating and driving, or snacking on some ships while your favorite show is on Netflix, your body is on autopilot. Because of this, awareness is inhibited.

Great diets help you to practice eating intentionally and promote awareness.

2.)     Have you ever heard of a diet that tells you to eat more processed foods?

I didn’t think so.

Almost all diets encourage you to minimize processed food. This is a basic necessity if you are trying to just feel better overall, outside of the scope of just losing weight.

While I don’t need to go into too much detail about the effect processed foods can have on your health physiologically, it is worth noting in the long-term the effects can be detrimental.

All good diets encourage you to eat more, less-processed foods and more whole foods and a diet rich in vitamins and minerals, and to drink plenty of water.

While macronutrient portions might vary per diet in terms of protein, carbohydrate, and fats to take in, effective diets never instruct you to intentionally increase processed foods.

3.)    Lifestyle Change Happens

As you start to make the dieting adjustments and see the results from good eating, you naturally tend to expand your focus to other lifestyle changes such as exercise.

As you start to pay more attention to your eating, you become more aware of your physical activity and start to find ways to incorporate more into your life.

Whether following the low carb, fasting, low fat, the best results happen when done in conjunction with proper exercise and or training.

No matter the diet, effective dieting plans encourage that you exercise at the same time as eating well.

Notice that these 3 things do not fall into a certain dieting “philosophy” so to speak. They are simple practice that anyone who is looking to improve their eating can do on a normal basis.

So whether or not you are looking to start a new diet plan, understand that these 3 practices are things you can do before committing to any dieting plan to live a better, healthier life.

PS Whenever you are ready, here are a few ways we can help with your fitness and performance needs..

1.) Let us work with you 1 on 1 to help get you on the better track with your nutrition.

No we are not talking about handing you meal plans and telling you to have at it. We are talking about assessing, educating, and guiding you to better choices conducive to your goals. Just fill out our Nutritional Assessment Form here and a coach will reach out to you.

2.) Join one of our Adult Fitness Development Programs and start getting actual results.

Our Small Group and Private Fitness development program has helped numerous people break barriers, transform their bodies, and instill confidence in fun environment with expert coaching.

If you would like to come in to our physical location and schedule an assessment, or even a simple phone call where we answer your questions, fill our short form here.

3.) Become a member of our Virtual Fitness Development Coaching Community

Some of you may be out of our immediate area, and not able to come in to physically train with us. You might even have a smaller budget, but still want quality coaching, direction, and results.

Our Virtual Fitness Development program is a great fit for you if you are committed, want one on one coaching from an expert, you want more guidance when you go to your gym, and you appreciate feedback, and like the thought of having a customized program available at the tips of your fingers through a mobile app.

If this sounds like you, fill out online coaching form here, and visit our coaching page here

Is there a difference between eating during the day verses the night?

There is a saying that you should not eat right before going to bed because it will just sit in your stomach and the weight will take longer to burn off.

The science proves that there could be truth to this…but not quite for this reason.

It has more to do with the body’s natural hormonal cycles throughout the day more than food just sitting in your stomach overnight and making you “fat”. By the way, your digestive system is still pretty active overnight.

We as humans actually have circadian rhythms that have evolved overtime that trigger certain hormones like insulin and ghrelin to be more available at certain times of the day.

It is believed that since food was relatively scarce during Paleolithic times, we became more alert during the day, when it was easier to hunt for food, and then satiate our hunger at night.

Insulin and Nighttime Eating

What we have found through research is that insulin sensitivity is higher during the night time than it is in the morning time, meaning your blood sugar level rises more rapidly in response to foods in the night time. This in turn cause mores glucose to be stored away rather than used immediately for energy, and can build up over time and increase your fat reserves.

A 2013 study of two groups of women that were both directed to consume only 1400 calories per day, highlights this. One group had their largest meal during breakfast time, and the other group was instructed to have their largest meal at dinner.

Who do you think lost more weight?

The breakfast group.

Despite eating he exact same amount of “calories” every day, the dinner group it turns out had a larger overall rise of insulin.

Weight gain is facilitated by insulin, so the higher insulin response in the evening was translating to more weight gain. This highlights how obesity is just as much a hormonal dilemma rather than just calories in and calories out.

The Hunger Hormone: Ghrelin

Hunger itself also has a predictable cyclical rhythm, not necessarily caused only from alack of food.

A good amount of “busy-working” people skip breakfast in the morning, thus assuming they had dinner at 7pm the night before, and did not eat lunch until 12 pm. If they went to bed at 10pm, that means they went 14 hours without eating, technically a short fast, and still did not wake up hungry.

This goes to show its more than about going without food for a while.

Ghrelin, the hormone your body secretes when you are hungry to let you know its time to eat, is lowest in the morning, and peaks in the evening.

Ghrelin rises and falls with a natural circadian rhythm, lowest around 8am and highest at 8pm.

This cycle is inherent in our DNA and demonstrates the vital role hormonal regulation plays in hunger.

Depending on your desired weight and body composition goals, if you are an elite athlete or regular person, activity levels during the day, going against the grain and eating too much in spite of what your body needs at the time can work for or against you.

It’s all about timing.

The Takeaways

Seeing how these 2 hormones play a role in your hunger and blood sugar cycles affect how your body accepts and uses the foods you consume highlight the importance of not just WHAT you eat, but WHEN you eat.

Your lifestyle, food choices, activity levels, sleep hygiene, stress levels also all play pivotal roles in the release of these hormones and how your body accepts your dieting lifestyle.

So does your culture.

It’s pretty evident that North America has an abundance of foods readily available at literally anytime. And most families are eating dinner later in the evening when ghrelin and insulin sensitivity are at their peak.

Other countries typically have the largest meals of the day earlier, with big lunches, avoiding the highest insulin sensitivity cycle.

The best strategy for someone trying to lose weight or trim body fat would be to time your meals accordingly while also being mindful of portion size.

Add this in the mix with exercise, quality sleep, and creating low stress environment, you are on the right track to a better you.

Why Meal Plans Fail

It is not really possible for 2 days to go by without someone asking me WHAT should I be eating, or Do you make meal plans?”

After “internally” rolling my eyes, and a few moments of silence, my typical answer is

“It’s good that you want to improve HOW you eat. I have found that before giving meal plans, it’s best for me to see how you have been eating, and determine what are the best steps to take in conjunction with your lifestyle and goals.”

The questioner’s face…blank.

Unless you are extremely disciplined, or an elite level athlete training for a specific event, meal plans typically don’t work.

Here’s why.

Chances are that your current eating patterns are a result of a few bad habits built up overtime that you have not been aware of.

Assigning a meal plan might work in the extreme short term, but will fail quick.

Will power will not defeat lifelong habits.

So rather than do a sudden overhaul of your lifestyle, the focus should be on assessing what you do now, getting educated on nutrition as a whole, and progressively introduce and eliminate habits for the long term.

Start asking yourself what you can do to improve your current eating patterns.

Add 2 more cups of water per day?

Eat one less bag of chips everyday?

Switch from Coke to Coke 0 (not that flattering)?

Start there, and create the momentum from the small victories.

No this is not the most magical, drop 10 pounds in a week method, but a guaranteed life long accomplishment.

In a time where there is an eternal waterfall of information on dieting, losing weight, and muscle gain, most advice is based on trends with shaky research, and lack of a long term agenda for change.

Yes, there are some meal plans that will absolutely work and knock off those inches and pounds you want..but think about this:

Is your ultimate heath journey supposed to be filled with following a meal plan for the rest of your life?

I don’t think so.

In the words of Dr. John Berardi, the purpose of a meal plan is to get you off of meal plans (Let that sink for a second).

The key is to be educated on the good and bad, stay persistent through the good and bad, and maintain your focus through the good and bad.

Meal plans are ok for a select few.

But for the majority of people who live regular lifestyles, the effect of meal plans are fleeting.

Perform a nutritional self assessment, find the not so good, ponder changes, and take consistent action.