Flu Vaccines: Worth Our While?

Flu Season is fast approaching and, if major news networks are to be believed, an unstoppable flu pandemic is following fast on it's heels. As such, the big question becomes - will the media push be enough to scare enough of the populous into vaccinating so that the pharmaceutical companies funding it turn a profit?

Don't get me wrong. I believe that CERTAIN vaccines have a place within our society. However, for something as trivial as the flu (given you're not an elderly individual, with compromised health) why subject yourself to all of the nasty additives and preservatives commonly found in vaccines.

Sounds like propaganda doesn't it? It's not! By the Centre for Disease Control's (CDC) own admission, the most common additions to vaccinations are -

• Aluminum, which is added as an adjuvant to help the vaccine stimulate a better response.
• Antibiotics, to prevent the growth of germs during production and storage of the vaccine.
• Egg protein.
• Formaldehyde, used to inactivate bacterial products of toxoid vaccines (and to preserve dead bodies).
• MSG, which is added as a stabilizer.
• Thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative added to vaccines that contain more than one dose to prevent contamination.

Before anybody jumps to explain the difference between ethyl and methyl mercury, I'd like to point out that "it's all mercury" to me. Claims to the contrary would be the equivalent of suggesting that magnesium 'theonate' is not magnesium because it isn't in the 'citrate' form. 

In addition,it is important to note that the flu virus evolves yearly. As such, the current vaccine will immunise you from the former strain, rather than it's current form. It will take some months before an up-to-date vaccine is ready to ship and, by that time, Flu Season will be in recession. 

Naturally the choice to vaccinate is yours. But as for me, I'll be looking to natural ways of boosting my immune system in order to prevent the onset of flu symptoms rather than adding the above list to my innards.

Merry Christmas, To Me ...

I must've been a good boy this year, because Santa brought me all the things I asked for! This and an inordinate collection of classical literature made up my presents this year ... Looks like I've got my reading cut out for me!

My Own Diet

What is ‘healthy’ when it comes to food? Unfortunately, like beauty; health seems to be in the eye of the beholder. However, if you’re actively trying to reduce your bodyfat in a constructive way, then ‘healthy’ needs to conform to a much tighter definition. 3 Meals of Bagels, Cereals and pastas, garnished with sides of dessert (e.g. ‘fat-free’ or sugar-loaded, fruit yoghurt) and bolus doses of fruit will simply not get you the results you want. Especially if these results are to be TRULY lean. If you want to look like a fitness model, then you have to eat and train like one regardless of gender. By the same token, it seems there is a large portion of the ‘dieting’ populace that seems to be taking their energy intake to dangerously low levels because they’ve been brainwashed by the message of ‘low calories & low fat = weight loss’. However, neither of these approaches seem ideal in my opinion. But, there’s so much processed junk out there - it’s impossible to eat healthy (you might say). Baloney!

The above image shows my diet as it stood before my European vacation. By eating natural, unrefined & unprocessed whole foods and regularly training with intensity I dropped to 10% bodyfat without this being my aim (see display picture).

Why am I posting such ‘useless’ information? Well, number 1 - it seems half of Tumblr is doing it, so why can’t I? But more importantly, I wanted to demonstrate that it is possible (even in today’s society) to eat a diet which is free from refined and processed foods and that starvation is not they key to your weight loss. By the same token, I wanted people to understand that while a moderate amount of carbohydrates are healthy, even these should be as close to unrefined and ‘WHOLE GRAIN’ as possible for maximum results. In fact, if you’re not performing exercise which depletes your glycogen stores then I would go so far as to suggest that your carbohydrate intake should come solely from vegetables and low-GI (low fructose) fruit and the bulk of your diet should come from proteins and healthy fats.

Feedback and thoughts are definitely welcome!

Medicine: A History

Training Tools: The Training Log

Bought a new training log for 2013! One of my goals for a long time has been to keep a track of my progress. As life pressures mount, and you’re forced to retain more information, something’s gotta give! Usually it’s information like your P.B’s at the gym and how many reps of various exercises you performed last week, at what weight.

This will be a way to take my training to the next level and, hopefully, push me to greater heights!

My Four Week Blitz: Time For Your Feedback

With my European vacation fast approaching, I decided it was time to once again pull out all the stops with a four week training program designed to put my mettle to the test! Each week consists of a minimum of 10 training sessions, followed by a rest day after which the pain begins anew. Below you’ll find what a sample week looks like for me. Note that the program stipulates that I train back twice on Monday’s … As I’m implementing this plan over four weeks, each Monday I rotate the major body part to be worked twice (i.e Wk1 – Back, Wk2 – Chest, Wk3 – Legs, Wk4 – Shoulders)

Monday:

A.M – Back

P.M – Back / Hamstrings

Tuesday:

A.M – Chest

P.M – Martial Arts Training (2 hours)

Wednesday:

A.M – Shoulders

P.M – Core / Calves

Thursday:

A.M – Arms

P.M – Martial Arts Training (2 hours)

Friday:

A.M – Legs (Quad Focus)

Saturday:

A.M – Martial Arts (2 hours)

Sunday:

Off

Also note that I only train once on Friday’s. I prefer a slow ‘taper’ towards the end of the week to ensure that I’m not experiencing symptoms of overtraining such as decreased motivation the following Monday. Today, I felt like swapping things around and getting YOUR opinions on my no-holds-barred 4 week program. Do you think it’s too much (or too little)? Would you do something differently? Or maybe you have always wanted to bump up your training to two-a-days and have some questions about the practicalities of implementing them?

A Little 'Me' Time ...

Here at Genki-do, we’re advocates of balance. There can certainly be ‘too much’ of a good thing. So, I’ve decided to take a temporary step away from the heavy science of my last article on the dangers and benefits of soy to write a quick personal post.

The last time I had taken any type of body measurements (other than weight) was just over a year ago, when I was recieving a body-fat assessment at the mid-point of my 2 years on the ‘Metabolic Diet’. While we all like to know how we’re progressing, there’s nothing as de-motivating as finding you’ve been training hard and eating right with very little physical progress, either in the form of fat loss or muscle gain. However, after weeks of procrastination; I finally decided to bite the bullet before work and took a couple of quick measurements with my trusty bodybuilding.com body tape measure!

I was definitely surprised that since my last measurements I had added just over an inch to my arms and 5 inches (13cm) to my chest, with no addition to my waistline circumference which sits as a moderate 32.5 inches (82.5cm). What a motivating and energising start to my work day!

I’m glad to know that my hard work has not been for nothing