Home Posts tagged "Precision Nutrition"

CSP Elite Baseball Development Podcast: High Performance Nutrition Principles with Brian St. Pierre

We're excited to welcome Precision Nutrition's Brian St. Pierre to the latest podcast for a discussion of the essentials of high performance nutrition programs. Brian discusses the perks and drawbacks of several current nutrition trends, and highlights strategies one can employ to "tune out the noise" and get down to key foundational principles.

A special thanks to this show's sponsor, Athletic Greens. Head to http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey and you'll receive a free 10-pack of Athletic Greens travel packets with your first order.

Sponsor Reminder

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s an all-in-one superfood supplement with 75 whole-food sourced ingredients designed to support your body’s nutrition needs across 5 critical areas of health: 1) energy, 2) immunity, 3) gut health, 4) hormonal support, and 5) healthy aging. Head to www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey and claim my special offer today - 10 FREE travel packs - with your first purchase. I use this product daily myself and highly recommend it to our athletes as well. I'd encourage you to give it a shot, too - especially with this great offer.

Podcast Feedback

If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.

And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued support!

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 1/26/20

Here's a little recommended reading and listening from around the 'Net:

How to Talk to Your Clients About the Latest Netflix Nutrition Documentary - Julia Malacoff wrote up this excellent article for Precision Nutrition. It's a topic that has come up quite a bit around our facility of late, so I was glad to see PN cover it in great detail.

3 Reasons Why I Choose to Treat PT Clients in the Midst of a Busy Gym - This was a guest post from Andrew Millett, who works as a physical therapist at our Massachusetts facility.

Physical Preparation Podcast with Radley Haddad - Radley Haddad is the Major League Coaching Assistant and Bullpen Catcher for the New York Yankees, and a retired CSP athlete who also trained with Mike at IFAST. I especially liked his insights on the transition from playing to coaching, and the importance of using data not just to help athletes learn how they can better, but verify why they performed successfully.

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Now that it’s official, let me start by saying that I’m really excited for this opportunity with the Yankees as part of their sports medicine/performance team. It’s an honor to work for such a storied franchise. I should note: I’ll remain heavily involved at @cresseysportsperformance. This role does not limit me or CSP in our work with professional players. I’m especially grateful to my wife, @annacressey, for her patience with me taking on new challenges with a young family at home. I’m also thankful for my CSP business partners and our great staff, as their hard work has been integral to me receiving opportunities like this. And, I’m ecstatic to work with the excellent professionals also listed in this announcement. We are already hard at work in chasing championship #28 for Yankees fans. Thanks to everyone for the kind words, emails, posts, and texts over the past few weeks.

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Elite Baseball Development Podcast: Making Nutritional Changes Stick with Dr. John Berardi

We're excited to welcome the co-founder of Precision Nutrition, Dr. John Berardi to this week's podcast. In lieu of a sponsor this week, we've just got a reminder about this year's fall seminar and business building mentorship at CSP-MA. They'll take place September 21-23; you can learn more HERE.

Show Outline

  • How Berardi became the fitness influencer and successful businessman he is today
  • Where Precision Nutrition began, and how John has grown a massively successful company in the health industry
  • What the core values and mission of Precision Nutrition are
  • How John differentiates Precision Nutrition through the creation of digestible, interactive content and what John’s model is for mastering marketing and creating influential content consistently
  • How understanding the basics of nutrition and executing the simple things at the table are the common problems of all populations John works with
  • What John’s first step is when working with a new client looking to change their eating habits
  • How John works to define his client’s health goals and identify their dietary limiting factors in order to drive behavioral changes that will yield results
  • Why John strives to inspire autonomy in his clients by creating a simple nutritional plan built on small changes rather than creating a complicated, restrictive eating experience with rules and regulations
  • How parents can learn to speak more effectively with their children about food and what strategies they can implement to create an atmosphere of happy, healthy eating
  • How John approaches educating his athletic populations about nutrition
  • How John deals with athletes who want to make drastic changes to their eating habits and experiment with a new type of eating (i.e. keto, gluten-free, vegan, etc.)
  • How John would update his “7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutrition Programs” if he were to rewrite them today
  • How individuals can fine tune their eating environment and become more attuned with their hunger and appetite
  • How John’s new book, can help health and fitness industry professionals learn more about business, building a reputation, and orienting a career
     
  • Here's where you can find John and Precision Nutrition on the web:

    Precision Nutrition (Facebook)
    Precision Nutrition (Instagram)
    JohnBerardi.com
    PrecisionNutrition.com
    ChangeMakerAcademy.com

    And, to pre-order his new book, head to the following link: Change Maker: Turn Your Passion for Health and Fitness into a Powerful Purpose and Wildly Successful Career

Podcast Feedback

If you like what you hear, we'd be thrilled if you'd consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so HERE.

And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email elitebaseballpodcast@gmail.com.

Thank you for your continued support!

Sign-up Today for our FREE Baseball Newsletter and Receive Instant Access to a 47-minute Presentation from Eric Cressey on Individualizing the Management of Overhead Athletes!

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 9/3/18

Happy Labor Day! I hope you're enjoying a long weekend with family and friends. In case you get a few quite minutes to catch up on some reading and listening, here are some good things to check out:

International Youth Conditioning Association High School Strength and Conditioning Certification - I was one of the contributors on this resource, and it's on sale for $100 off using the coupon code HSSCSFLASH through Tuesday at midnight.

9 Ways to Help People Change While Staying Within Your Scope - I thought Krista Scott-Dixon did an excellent job with this article for Precision Nutrition. As she notes, sometimes, the line between "coach" and "therapist" gets very blurred.

Stacey Hardin on Purposeful Collaboration in Pro Sports - I loved this podcast from Mike Robertson, who interviewed Stacey Hardin of the Minnesota United soccer club. There was some great information on how sports medicine teams should collaborate for the best care for the athletes they serve.

Forget About Squat Depth - This was an excellent JL Holdsworth article about why squat depth should be individualized to each lifter.

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The adductors (groin muscles) have a complex structure, but a solid knowledge of functional anatomy in two specific regards can help you to keep these tissues healthy. 👇 First, stretching into abduction alone isn't enough. You have adductors that flex the hip, and others that extend the hip - so you have to account for both in your mobility work. Second, they have a large cross sectional area that runs from just above the knee all the way up to the pelvis, so you need to use both broad and specific approaches to self myofascial release. Swipe left to check out some approaches you can implement to cover all your bases. 👍 1️⃣Adductor Rolling w/Med Ball on Table: Just don’t make eye contact with anyone while doing this one. 2️⃣Adductor/Ab Rolling on Lacrosse Ball: You’re working on the adductor tendons as they attach on the pubis (bottom of the pelvis). 3️⃣Split-Stance Kneeling Adductor Mobilizations: Stretch the hip into both flexion and extension without substituting low back motion. 4️⃣Half-Kneeling Adductor Dips: This “open” position can be more comfortable for those with limitations to hip internal rotation. This option also provides ankle mobility benefits. 5️⃣Split-Stance Hip Abduction End-Range Lift-offs: Here’s a good @functionalrangeconditioning inspired movement to build some motor control at end-range hip abduction to make ROM changes “stick.” Don’t let the hip “fall out.” 6️⃣Lateral Lunge w/Band Overhead Reach: Get the arms overhead without arching the lower back to integrate some core stability with your hip mobility changes. 💪 Give these a shot and let me know how they went in the comments below! #cspfamily

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 12/13/17

Happy Wednesday! Here are a few recommended reads to get you over Hump Day.

Get Up to Get Down: The Impact of Scapular Movement on Pitch Location - With tomorrow being the early bird registration discount deadlift on our January Elite Baseball Mentorship, I thought it'd be a good time to reincarnate this great guest post from Eric Schoenberg from the archives. You can learn more about the mentorship HERE.

9 Reasons Nutrition Can Feel So Confusing - This is a great video from Dr. John Berardi and his team at Precision Nutrition. They outline the problem, but just as importantly, get folks started on some strategies for improvement.

Gym Owner Musings - Installment 9 - My business partner, Pete Dupuis, always delivers some good thoughts in this random collection of reflections on what he's learned on the business side of fitness.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 8/7/17

It was an eventful weekend in the Cressey household, as we had our first trip to the emergency room with one of our daughters. Everything is fine, but it was another not-so-subtle reminder of how two-year-olds can change your plans on a moment's notice! Since I didn't do any writing myself this weekend, here's some good stuff from around the 'net:

Forget Career Hacks - Dr. John Berardi penned one of the more insightful articles on professional success that I've read in recent years. I love this equation because it demonstrates to folks that passion is necessary, but ineffective by itself:

Brandon Marcello on Life as a Performance Strategist and Consultant - This is some outstanding stuff from Brandon Marcello, one of the brightest guys in the field of performance enhancement. Mike Robertson interviews him for his podcast.

10 Important Notes on Assessments - I reincarnated this post from the archives yesterday, and though it warranted sharing here as well.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 6/27/17

I hope you all had a great weekend and are getting excited for the upcoming 4th of July holiday. I'm looking forward to my 93-year-old grandmother beating me in golf, which is a yearly occurrence in my world. Fortunately, I've had some good strength and conditioning reading to keep my mind off of how bad my golf game is.

The Truth About Sugar - The crew at Precision Nutrition never disappoints, and this article is an excellent example of why. One particular quote that really jumped out at me was, "...despite lowering sugar intake by nearly 20% over a 14 year period, obesity (and diabetes) rates have continued to climb."

How Sports Scientists are Trying to Change College Football - This ESPN article was actually surprisingly well done. In particular, I liked Fergus Connolly's quotes about the data only being useful for asking better questions, not guaranteeing solutions. Additionally, his comments on the importance of getting to know the person - not just the data point - is incredibly important.

5 Reasons to Use Speed Deadlifts in Your Strength Training Programs - I recently posted on Instagram about my favorite approach to incorporating speed deadlifts, and it reminded me to bump this older article of mine back up from the archives.

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Is a Calorie Really Just a Calorie?

About six months ago, I posted the following Tweet, and the response got a bit "interesting."

While most folks shared my sentiment, there were also a small number of followers who decided to hop on a soapbox and remind me that very few food are, in fact, evil, and that total calories are really what matters in the energy balance equation. Months later, Brian St. Pierre (Director of Performance Nutrition for Precision Nutrition) made the following observation during his seminar at Cressey Sports Performance:

It got me to thinking about how it'd be a good idea to bring Brian in for a guest blog on the topic, so here it is. It's especially timely, as Brian wrote the nutrition guide for The High Performance Handbook, which is on sale for $30 off this week.

I'll let Brian take it from here; enjoy! -EC

Energy balance determines body weight, not necessarily body composition.

There has been a lot of debate about the energy balance equation in the fitness industry. Perhaps, after all, calories-in vs. calories-out is not the ultimate determinant of long-term body weight. Lets put some of it to rest right now.

It is a fundamental law that you need a positive or negative energy (i.e. calorie) balance over time to gain or lose bodily tissues (e.g. muscle, fat).

It is possible to manipulate bodyweight through changes in the amount of extracellular fluid (i.e. water) one is carrying. But this does not reflect changes in mass that matters to most people – muscle or fat.

And to be clear, the energy balance equation is actually more complicated and intertwined than it appears. Energy-in and energy-out are not mutually exclusive – a change to one affects the other. Neither side is static.

Your energy in and energy out are both generally regulated by your brain, so when you purposefully and significantly alter one of those, the brain and body often tries to compensate.

Like so:

This is why calorie math can seem so flawed. You expect your daily 500kcal deficit to lead to a weekly 3500kcal deficit, which should theoretically lead to one pound of fat loss per week.

But this isn’t how the body works. Once you start lowering intake, output gets lowered to account for that. And as you start losing weight, output gets lowered more (because you are moving a smaller body, and due to adaptive thermogenesis).

Plus, if linear math worked for weight loss, you would lose one pound per week indefinitely with that 500kcal deficit, which clearly doesn’t work.

Ok, so we’ve established that energy balance ultimately dictates long-term bodyweight.

But, that doesn’t mean that all calories-in, or even all calories-out, are equal.

So, what determines body composition?

Actually, many things. Body composition is ultimately determined by:

• energy balance
• macronutrient intake (especially protein)
• age and sex hormone levels
• exercise style/frequency/intensity/duration (e.g. resistance training vs marathon training vs walking)
• medication use (e.g. birth control)
• genetic predisposition (as well as epigenetics, or even just gene expression)
• sleep quality and quantity
• stress
• and more

Ultimately, this brings me back to the question of: is a calorie a calorie?

On one hand, the answer is yes. A calorie is a unit of measure, so of course a calorie is a calorie.

On the other hand, not all calories consumed have equal absorption or digestion kinetics, cause the same hormonal response, or have the same effects on bodily tissues.

If one ate 3000kcal per day of highly processed foods vs 3000kcal per day of lean protein, fibrous veggies, and minimally processed carbs and fats, the two intakes wouldn’t necessarily have the same long-term outcome on body weight.

Because the composition of the calories-in would have differing impacts on calories-out (e.g. thermic effect of feeding would be higher with the minimally processed foods intake and higher protein), as well there would be fewer calories absorbed from the minimally processed foods. Thus, the minimally processed intake would result in more calories-out, and less calories-in overall.

And it especially wouldn’t have the same long-term outcome on one’s body composition. Particularly due to the very low protein intake from the highly processed diet, which would likely lead to lean mass loss over time. Not too mention the differences in micronutrient intake, likely impacting hormone status, energy levels, etc.

(And of course, these differing intakes certainly would not have the same outcome on long-term health. Nor does this take into account the drastically different effects on satiation and satiety these diets would create. Nor many other factors that influence eating. Which are nicely outlined here.)

Too often, I see fitness pros arguing that food quality doesn’t matter. That the only thing that matters is meeting your calorie and macro goals.

This is likely mostly true for body weight and body composition management, at least for the short term.

However, there are other elements at play here for long-term health, body composition, performance, and quality of life.

Fiber intake, phytonutrients, effects of food on gene expression, effects on satiety and satiation, enjoyment of intake for sustainability. And so much more.

The fact is most people aren’t going to count macros. Some might, and that’s awesome. Use that approach with those folks. However, most won’t.

So, by getting folks to focus on eating mostly minimally processed foods, as well as adequate protein, it can make it easier for them to control their energy balance and get in an appropriate intake of macronutrients.

Minimally processed foods help to accomplish this in many ways:
• generally less calorie-dense
• higher in water content
• higher in fiber content
• generally not hyper-rewarding
• generally not hyper-palatable
• cause faster satiation (satisfaction to end a meal)
• increase satiety levels (levels of satisfaction between meals)

Ultimately, pretty much all foods can fit into a healthy and sustainable intake. The amount to which they fit in will depend on the person and their goals.

As usual, most things fall onto a spectrum. Instead of preaching that people shouldn’t eat any white carbs, or gluten, or sugar, or whatever the demon of the day is, or that all that matters is IIFYM, the best bet for most people is to end up somewhere in the middle.

Both food quality and quantity matter. For most people, who aren’t going to weigh or measure every bit of food they eat, food quality will actually impact food quantity for the reasons outlined above.

This doesn’t mean folks need to eat “clean” - whatever that might mean. It simply means most folks would do best eating mostly minimally processed foods. Processed foods are okay, too, in reasonable amounts. They should just be eaten less often, or in smaller quantities. It’s the context of someone’s entire intake that determines their body weight and body composition, not any one food.

In the end, remember that while energy balance does determine your body weight, there are other important factors in addition to energy balance that determines your body composition.

Note: all the references to this article will be posted as the first comment below.

Looking for more great nutrition lessons, practical recommendations, and sample meal plans? Check out Brian's Nutrition Guide as part of The High Performance Handbook Gold Package.

About the Author

A Certified Sports Nutritionist as well as a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, Brian St. Pierre also holds a Master’s degree in human nutrition and dietetics. As a student, Brian’'s passion led him to Cressey Sports Performance, where he worked as the facility's first intern, and subsequently as a strength coach and the center’'s head nutritionist. Now he serves as Precision Nutrition's Director of Performance Nutrition. 

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Quick Takeaways from a Day with Brian St. Pierre

Yesterday, Brian St. Pierre of Precision Nutrition delivered an excellent seminar at Cressey Sports Performance - Florida. I live Tweeted the event, so I thought I'd share some of the big takeaways with some reposts here:

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You can learn more about Brian and the great work the folks at Precision Nutrition are doing HERE.

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Strength and Conditioning Stuff You Should Read: 3/23/17

Here's some recommended reading from around the strength and conditioning and nutrition worlds from the past week:

What to Do When You Don't Like Vegetables - I liked this article from Precision Nutrition because it touched on good long-term strategies more than just creative ways to "hide" veggies in what you normally eat. The infographic at the end is clutch.

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You Don't Need More Self Discipline. You Need Nuclear Mode - Have a bad habit you're trying to kick? Nate Green discusses nuclear mode, a strategy you might want to employ.

The 10 Dumbest Motivational Sayings - I contributed to this T-Nation roundtable discussion on hackneyed sayings that really need to go away.

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