Come Join Timothy Carter at Arena Fitness for a series of seminars to be given on Oct 24, 2009. The Day will consist of three different classes offered to the public. The Junior’s seminar (ages 10 thru 17) will begin at 9:30 am and go for an hour and a half. Women’s self defense class will begin at 11:30 pm and proceed until 1:30. Finally, Men’s combat theory will begin at 2pm and last until 4. Take advantage of this opportunity to get a great work out and gain knowledge at the same time. Techniques will be broken down and adapted to format any individual obstacles. Mr. Carter believes in safety and a safe environment. No martial arts experience is necessary. Come in have fun and feel leaving confident and aware.

Arena Fitness
17200 VENTURA BLVD SUITE# 210 ENCINO, CA 91316 (818) 906-3030

Property characteristics

• Juniors Class: $10, wear loose fitting clothes, preferably workout pants.
• Women’s Class: $20, Wear loose fitting clothes. Workout pants are a must (as we’ll be participating in some ground technique). Women also receive a free Kubaton for participation.
• Men’s Combat Theory: $20, Loose fitting clothes.
*Pick up class outlines at Arena fitness or call and reserve you spot today.

Come Join Timothy Carter at Arena Fitness for a series of seminars to be given on Oct 10, 2009. The Day will consist of three different classes offered to the public. The Junior’s seminar (ages 10 thru 17) will begin at 9:30 am and go for an hour and a half. Women’s self defense class will begin at 11:30 pm and proceed until 1:30. Finally, Men’s combat theory will begin at 2pm and last until 4. Take advantage of this opportunity to get a great work out and gain knowledge at the same time. Techniques will be broken down and adapted to format any individual obstacles. Mr. Carter believes in safety and a safe environment. No martial arts experience is necessary. Come in have fun and feel leaving confident and aware.

Arena Fitness
17200 VENTURA BLVD SUITE# 210 ENCINO, CA 91316 (818) 906-3030

Property characteristics

• Juniors Class: $10, wear loose fitting clothes, preferably workout pants.
• Women’s Class: $20, Wear loose fitting clothes. Workout pants are a must (as we’ll be participating in some ground technique). Women also receive a free Kubaton for participation.
• Men’s Combat Theory: $20, Loose fitting clothes.
*Pick up class outlines at Arena fitness or call and reserve you spot today.

…and, chances are, his farm is coming to a neighborhood near you!  Look, if you want to know a simple step that you can take toward living a healthy lifestyle, here it is:

Visit your local Farmer’s Market.

My wife and I recently began shopping at the local Farmer’s Market on Sundays in our neighborhood, and I have become a true believer.  Farmer’s Markets are fantastic.

• We’ve been getting unbelievably delicious, pesticide-free fruits and vegetables.  They may not be certified “organic,” but that’s mostly because there’s a cost involved in having them labeled as such.  The important things are that they’re pesticide-free and grown using sustainable farming practices that are earth friendly.  But, trust me, the key issue here is that this stuff is delicious.
• Everything is locally grown, which supports local economies and reduces pollution that results from long-distance shipping.
• We’ve also gotten eggs from grass-fed chickens and responsibly harvested wild fish, both of which were really good.  Also available: nuts, meats, breads, clothing and lots more.
• On the downside, the produce is more expensive than the grocery, but you get what you pay for.

If you decide you want to try out your local Farmer’s Markets, here are a few suggestions:

• Bring a rolling cart or at least some re-usable shopping bags so that you don’t break your back trying to haul around your bounty.
• Bring cash; small bills work well.
• Come early to get the best stuff.
• Make a loop around the entire place and size each booth up before buying anything.  Get a feel for the inventory and vendors on the first round and then buy on the second when you’re informed.
• Bring the kids.  There are usually carnival-like snacks to be had and they might even enjoy getting to pick out some of the food.
• Don’t go crazy!  The temptation is to buy some of everything that looks good.  The problem is that it will end up fermenting on the counter if you’re not careful.  Just buy small amounts at first and get a feel for what you like and how quickly you can consume it before it goes bad.

If you live in the Los Angeles area, as I do, here’s a link to the market I go to:

http://pdmarkets.com/site/markets.html

If you live outside of this area, here’s another helpful link:

www.eatwellguide.com

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a personal training and fitness training facility in Encino, California.

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Eat food. Not too much.  Mostly plants.

READ THIS BOOK!

This is the core wisdom espoused by Michael Pollan, author of the book In Defense of Food. The book is an examination of how America eats, it’s relationship with modern disease and the roles that government and the food industry play in perpetuating and sustaining Western eating habits.

Here are the basic premises:

• Americans eat like crap, consuming massive amounts of processed foods which have been industrialized and rendered nearly devoid of nutritional value.
• Cultures that adopt the Western diet eventually inherit the heart disease, strokes, obsesity, diabetes and immunological disorders that accompany crappy eating.
• The food industry aggressively promotes crappy eating and shrouds it behind false labels that scream out things like “Heart Healthy!” and “Low Fat!” even though these labels mean nothing.  They do this because there are billions of dollars at stake.
• The federal government allows the food industry to get away with promoting crappy eating, to the detriment of the health of the public.

Okay, I know, BIG SURPRISE!!!!  What a revelation!  Americans eat like crap, get sicker and sicker, the food companies continue to push it and the government lets them!  That this is happening is no surprise.  The book however, is brilliant.

If you’re into reading and have even a passing interest in nutrition, disease and the manner in which big business and government collude in ways that don’t serve us, you should read this book (I’m not anti-government or a conspiracy theorist; I’m a full-on capitalist, but this whole scheme is stomach-turning).  It does a great job of illustrating how myopic nutrition science has become and how and why the American diet has gone into the toilet.

This is "food!"

Further, it offers advice to those interested in swimming against this gastronomic nightmare, such as:

• Eat food. This may seem obvious, but I’m not so sure our current concept of food is accurate.  In this case “food” is basically natural stuff; unprocessed and devoid of polysyllabic chemical compounds.  Things like organic fruits, vegetables, grass fed meat, etc..
• Avoid food products containing more than five ingredients, ingredients that are unfamiliar or unpronounceable, or that contain high-fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims.  You can be assured it’s all marketing and, therefore, total crap.
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle.  Fresh food (dairy, produce, meat and fish) tend to line the walls and the processed crap is in the center.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible.  Try a farmer’s market (trust me, they’re great).
• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.  Why?  Because they’re healthy.  That doesn’t mean you can wrap orange chicken in iceberg lettuce and feel good about yourself, though.
• Eat meats that have been fed well, too.  If you eat chicken that was fed crap when it was living then you are, by default, eating crap.  Grass fed meats are a good choice.
• Eat well grown food from healthy soils.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be certified organic, but make sure you’re eating food that hasn’t been treated with pesticides and shipped to you from across the country.
• Be willing to pay more for higher quality food.  I know, that may be hard in these economic times, but you really do get what you pay for.

There are numerous other suggestions that I find to be very sensible, but if you even follow the ones listed above you will undoubtedly clean up your diet significantly.  After all, whether you believe that processed foods, chemicals, pollution, medications and such have overwhelmed our systems to the degree of creating chronic disease or not, it can’t hurt to simply EAT HEALTHIER FOODS!

For more information, visit http://www.michaelpollan.com/indefense.php

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a personal training and fitness center in Encino, California.

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Okay, don’t free yourself completely from machines, but making them the cornerstone of your training regimen might not be the best option. Recent studies show that people training with free-form strength equipment experienced a much greater strength and balance increase over the course of 16 weeks than those who used fixed-form strength equipment.  Let me break it down simply:

• Free-form strength equipment consists primarily of cable machines that enable your body to move in a natural path of motion instead of having to conform to the movement of the machine in a fixed motion.  Think Free Motion Fitness cable cross machines like those used at Arena Fitness as opposed to traditional selectorized equipment like a chest press or knee extension machine.
• Fixed-form strength equipment is the traditional line of machines you see at every big-box gym.  In short, they force your body to conform to the path of motion dictated by the machine instead of allowing the body to move naturally and freely as with cables, tubing, etc..
• Free-form strength participants in this study increased strength by 115% over 16 weeks compared to 57% increases by the fixed-form strength participants.
• Free-form participants also improved balance by 245% versus 49% improvements in fixed-form participants.

So, while there is still a place for fixed-form strength equipment, it appears that the free-form strength training approach is a better choice.  This is something we have been espousing for years, which is why our facility looks the way it does.  Now there is data to prove it!  If you want to see our free-form training environment click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Kks5D82bCo

Visit the articles below for more information:

http://www.nasmpro.com/nasmpro/library/showarticle.aspx?id=13260

http://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2008/01000/Strength_Outcomes_in_Fixed_Versus_Free_Form.12.aspx

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a personal training and fitness center in Encino, Ca.

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Just a short one today, folks, and not Earth-shattering.  Just wanted to quickly refer to a recent study that compared the long-term health of two rhesus monkeys; one who was fed a calorie restricted diet, and one who was allowed to eat like a human (i.e., no restrictions and absolutely no self-control).

The results, after 20 years?

The monkey on a calorie restricted diet, Canto, is a healthy stud and was recently rumored to be dating Megan Fox.

Canto: Lady Killer!

Owen: Beethoven's Brother?

The monkey who ate without restrictions, Owen, looks like Keith Richards would look right after eating Mick Jagger.  In short, he’s a train wreck.

Wow, another study showing that eating a healthy, low calorie diet promotes health.  I can hear the naysayers discrediting it because they were monkeys.  But these naysayers are most likely bellying up to the food line at Hometown Buffet with Owen.

Good Lord!  How many studies do we need to show us that if we eat healthy we’ll live better, longer lives?

Check the article out at http://tinyurl.com/kuhvjk

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness, a personal training and fitness center in Encino, California.

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The Los Angeles Unified School District sucks.  It just plain does.  The dropout rates are ridiculous,

Underfunded!!

the quality of education is minimal, the bureaucracy is corrupt and incompetent and, in short, our kids are not receiving a decent education.  I apologize to the teachers for voicing this out loud, I’m not saying that you suck and I’m certain many of you are terrific (although it’s unconscionable that you allow your union to protect inept teachers from being fired), but the statistics and results (or lack thereof) don’t lie; the Board of Education is failing!  To blame are our state and local legislators, unions, administrators and, ultimately, the public for allowing this unacceptable situation to exist.  Our schools, in addition to being mismanaged, don’t receive adequate funding to build a top-notch educational system.  Nor are our law enforcement agencies properly funded.  Nor are our public services properly funded.  NOTHING is properly funded.  We have a $28 billion dollar budget shortfall this year, which leads into my point for writing this.

I heard on the radio today that obesity is costing the state of California $41 billion per year!  That’s $41 BILLION!! This is enough money to cover this year’s budget shortfall and half of what will inevitably be next year’s!  These are our tax dollars being spent on what I hold to be an entirely preventable condition.

Obesity Tax?

I know that it is an unpopular position, probably not a politically correct one, but I believe obesity to be a man-made condition.  It is a behavioral issue resulting from lack of activity and overabundant and unhealthy eating.  When we label it a “disease” we remove human accountability from it and render it a condition forced upon people by nature, which simply isn’t the case.  I had a client who was a retired endocrinologist, a doctor who specialized in hormonal issues for 50 years.  The bulk of his time was spent dealing with overweight and obese people.  When I asked him what percentage of people had a legitimate hormonal condition which caused obesity his response was “None.”  His words, not mine, though I think in fairness frustration was causing him to overstate the issue.  He said in almost every case the condition resulted from too much food and too little activity, but that people were unwilling to accept that reality.  If we can re-context our position on obesity to place responsibility on the individual we give that person a chance to correct the issue!

Why am I paying an obesity tax?  Why are our kids and cops and street cleaners suffering from inefficient funding when the money is there?  This isn’t about beating up on obese people, this is my cry for us to do something about this issue!  Maybe we can:

1. Use that money to implement state funded programs to educate people properly about obesity prevention and set up programs in which people can receive nutritional guidance and exercise supervision.
2. Create tax write-offs for those people who spend money on exercise and/or nutrition programs so that they’re not footing the bill for those who aren’t.
3. Pressure health insurance companies to reward people who demonstrate actions that promote health and cut back on treatment for obesity related ailments.  Why don’t they subsidize exercise and nutrition programs?  It would SAVE them a ton of money.

I don’t know, I’m not a policy maker.  But the public needs help with obesity, not enabling.  By footing the bill for obesity we are continuing to promote the condition.

When we created public schooling we did so with the implicit promise to properly and adequately fund and support them.  When we suffer from crime we condemn the police but fail to provide them with resources necessary for them to assist in preventing the crime committed upon us in the first place.

It’s time for us to stop paying Obesity Tax and start providing a solution that will not only demonstrate our concern for the obese, but for the rest of us left out in the cold as a result of continuing to fund it.

For more info, check this out: http://tinyurl.com/myzh7x

Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness in Encino, California.

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Here’s a quick but hard workout for the treadmill that you can try over the next 3 weeks. This will work for you whether you’re a runner or a walker/hiker. Post your time and have a great workout.

Note- Runners should adjust speed and run on no more than a 3 degree incline.

Note- Hikers should adjust the incline only and hike at a maximum speed of 3.8.

Legend:

R- Speed on a treadmill

H-Incline on a treadmill

Begin with a 5 minute Warm-up

Interval 1

1 min- 70%-80% (R=3.5 to 5.0) (H=10% to 20%)

2 min-80%-90%  (R=5.0 to 6.5) (H=20% to 35%)

Interval 2
1 min- 70%-80% (R=3.5 to 5.0) (H=10% to 20%)

2 min-80%-90%  (R=5.0 to 6.5) (H=20% to 35%)
Interval 3

1 min- 70%-80% (R=3.5 to 5.0) (H=10% to 20%)

2 min-80%-90%  (R=6.0 to 7.5) (H=30% to 45%)
Interval 4

1 min- 70%-80% (R=3.5 to 5.0) (H=10% to 20%)

2 min-80%-90%  (R=6.0 to 7.5) (H=30% to 45%)

Interval 5

1 min- 70%-80% (R=3.5 to 5.0) (H=10% to 20%)

2 min-80%-90%  (R=6.0 to 7.5) (H=30% to 45%)

Have fun and let me know if you made it!!

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Joe Garcia is the owner of Arena Fitness in Encino

Today we are very pleased to present a guest post by Melissa Melcombe, founder of healthy lifestyle website Mel’s Life (www.melslife.com), and Arena Fitness member since 2004.

I absolutely love breakfast and since it’s the most important meal of the day, I really try to pay attention to what I eat.  I’d love to eat pancakes every day, but as an active person who would like to remain relatively slim, I know that eventually all of those sugars and refined white flours would catch up with me eventually; the results would not be pretty!  So, I opt for foods that still have a little sweetness (I prefer sweet in the morning), but that also are good to consume before or after a long workout and that will keep me full for a long time–at least until lunch.  One of my favorites is oatmeal.  While I was training for the LA marathon a few years ago, I ate it every day and it seemed to do the trick.  Oatmeal is also great because you can add so many things to it; I love adding soy milk, agave syrup (has a low glycemic index and is sweeter than regular sugar), dried cranberries, raisins, and blueberries.  Occasionally I cook banana with my oatmeal on the stove and add a little bit of maple syrup–it tastes like banana pancakes and it’s delicious.

Healthy Lifestyle Info!!

I remember hearing about “synergy” for the first time in ninth grade in a class called Public Health and Safety.  It was one of those cautionary classes; don’t drink, don’t smoke, drive safely and don’t get anyone pregnant, the sort of information our parents were supposed to pass on to us but were generally too embarrassed to do so.  When I first heard of “synergy” we were talking about Marilyn Monroe.

“Marilyn Monroe died of an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates,” the teacher, Mr. Cook, said.  “Combining alcohol and barbiturates significantly increases the potency of each substance.  That’s called “synergy.”  When synergy is present, 1 + 1 doesn’t equal 2, it equals 10.  Did you get that?  1 + 1 = 10.”

1 + 1 = 10.  I never forgot that equation, but I never had much cause to use it, not being a barbiturate user myself (what the hell is a barbiturate?  It must be an old-school intoxicant because it sure seemed to crash through Old Hollywood like a tornado, leaving bodies in it’s wake).

That old 1 + 1 = 10 equation came to mind recently when I came across some information about what some people are calling “food synergy.”  This concept theorizes that foods are much more potent nutritionally when combined than when they are eaten singularly.  To me, this makes sense.  After all, no single food item contains all the necessary nutrients for human survival.  We have been told for years to eat a variety of foods; fruits, vegetable, grains, proteins, etc., in order to amass a comprehensive intake of nutrients.  Recent studies show that there is a sound reason for this: The nutrients in certain foods, when combined, act synergistically and increase nutrient potency.

Although it’s difficult to determine whether synergy is a constant when combining foods, research has determined that combining the following foods has definitive synergistic advantages:

Tomatoes and Broccoli

• Slows prostate tumor growth.  A curious combination, but I’m sure someone with greater culinary skills than I have can make a tasty meal including these two super foods.

Apples with the peel on

• Not quite sure why a the pulp of a fruit combined with the peel equals synergy, but that’s what the articles said.  The peel of the apple seems to possess the mother-lode of anti-cancer properties.  The phytochemicals in the apple flesh appear to work best with the phytochemicals in the peel in a way that reduces the risk of cancer.  So, don’t peel your apples!

Cooked, UNPEELED Tomatoes combined with Olive Oil

• Again, don’t peel your fruits and veggies.  In the case of the tomato, almost 100% of the flavonols are found in the skin, along with two important caretonoids.  Absorption of these vital nutrients is enhanced greatly when the tomatoes are cooked and combined with a healthy fat, like olive oil.  I’m guessing this is a good pasta sauce combination.

Cruciferous Vegetables (kale, cabbage, Brussels sprout, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.)

• There’s a mind-numbing explanation as to the benefits of combining cruciferous veggies, but I’ll sum
  

  Nasty looking, but healthy!

  it up; doing so protects us against liver cancer and activates detoxification enzymes that rid us of carcinogenic substances.

Apples, Onions, and Berries + Green Tea, Purple Grapes and Grape Juice

• Or any combination of the first group of foods with the second, although onions seem to throw a bit of cold water on this collective, from a taste-perspective anyway (Grape/Onion Juice, anyone?).  Quercetin and catechin, important phytochemicals, work together to stop platelet clumping, a cause of heart attacks.

Peanut Butter Sandwich

• Pairing peanut butter with whole wheat bread enables the body to get the proper sequence of amino acids, which help in making protein.  Individually, each element is incomplete, but together they make a complete protein.  Not sure where jelly fits into the equation, but I’m just going to throw in some of my dad’s homemade Pomegranate Jelly and celebrate the addition of antioxidants!

Vitamin C and Iron

• Combining Vitamin C with plant-based iron sources renders the iron more readily absorb-able.  What the heck, I’m not much for chick peas and Brussels sprouts, but I’ll toss some Mandarin oranges onto my spinach salad.

These are only a few of the synergistic combinations recently discovered.  I’m sure that, as time passes, we’ll reveal more and more information about how foods work together to maximize health. Mother Nature is no fool.  If she was, she wouldn’t have made so many different foods so delicious.

For more in-depth information about food synergy, check out the articles below:

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/food-synergy-nutrients-that-work-better-together

http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/top-10-food-synergy-super-foods

http://www.realage.com/ct/eat-smart/food-and-nutrition/tip/8549

http://www.blisstree.com/articles/have-you-heard-of-food-synergy/

http://www.examiner.com/x-1787-Ohio-Natural-Health-Examiner~y2009m2d18-Synergistic-foods

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Jonathan Aluzas is the owner of Arena Fitness in Encino, California.