Tag improvement

Oil and Water: Is Crossfit Detrimental For Developing Aesthetic Muscle?

drstaceynaito 1 Comment

Original post can be found at: http://sportsnutritionsupplementguide.com/training/crossfit/item/1389-oil-and-water-is-crossfit-detrimental-for-developing-aesthetic-muscle#.VGqav_nF-K0

Crossfit-equipment

I will boldly state right now that I’m not a fan of Crossfit, and will be delighted when its novelty wears off. I’ve dedicated my life to supporting, empowering, inspiring, guiding, coaching and otherwise promoting any activity that gets people moving. This is one reason I waited to publicly write about my arguments against the principles of Crossfit. The other more specific reason is that it’s become more common to hear NPC and IFBB competitors ask if Crossfit will enhance their efforts to get into contest shape. If the latter is you, let me cut to the chase. Not only will Crossfit widen your waistline as a result of the constant heavy “functional” lifting, it will also cause cortisol spikes, which make your body hold onto belly fat for dear life.

Before I get into why Crossfit is counterproductive to developing aesthetic muscle, a word to those who have found Crossfit gets them active, and has not caused them injury. Keep it up. If it’s Crossfit you need to keep you moving and motivated to be fit, don’t stop on my account. If however, Crossfit just doesn’t feel right, or your goal is to create your best body, and give you the best chance to stay injury free, read on. You’ll find that you don’t have to become part of the latest fitness craze to reach all of your fitness goals and then some.

CrossFit’s Unnecessary Nine
We begin our class with a review of the nine fundamental exercises that CrossFit is built upon:

Air Squat
Front Squat
Overhead Squat
Shoulder Press
Push Press
Push Jerk
Deadlift Sumo
Deadlift High Pull
Medicine Ball Clean
Oh boy, I can only imagine how many lumbar disc herniations have occurred in weekend athletes as a result of performing most of these movements, not to mention the rotator cuff strains and tears from the stress on the shoulders. First off, it just annoys me to know CrossFit renamed the free squat or bodyweight squat to Air Squat in an effort to be catchy and original. Then again, I see no point in getting a client to perform 200 or 300 “air” squats in a row, not unless your objective is to drive your client to complete exhaustion and overtraining. Based on what I have witnessed with the design of CrossFit regimens, exhaustion and overtraining is the inevitable outcome.

CrossFit routines also incorporate other exercises such as pull-ups and pushups. What bothers me here is that these movements are performed in a high rep range, to the tune of 100 or more. Then the client may be pushed to do tire flips or one of the Olympic lifts that CrossFit has managed to make faddish, even though they were developed over 100 years ago.

One of the calling cards to CrossFit workouts is training at “super high intensity”, which taken in correct doses are fundamental to conditioning. As it is used in CrossFit programming, the benefits are far outweighed by the negatives they incur. In CrossFit context, they tax the central nervous system to an excessive degree. Crossfit fanatics may love the feeling of being pushed to the limit, but this borders on being DANGEROUS. When the body is fatigued to the extent that it is in a Crossfit routine, the risk for muscle breakdown and frank rhabdomyolysis is considerable. No physical discipline is worth the risk of landing in the hospital.

I understand that Crossfit offers a great social environment and a feeling of camaraderie, but at what price? Every single person I know who is a fan of Crossfit has been injured while doing it. The suggested Crossfit regimen of 3 days on, 1 day off is too rigorous when you consider the fact that Olympic lifts are part of the core of Crossfit training. The body simply cannot repair itself in enough time. To fatigue a Crossfit client by having him/her do a WOD (workout of the day for those of you not familiar with Crossfit) and then stack on deadlifts for reps or 5 foot high box jumps is insane.

Benefits drop dramatically when the body is completely depleted like that. The Crossfit ideology of deplete and endure is BS. In contrast, bodybuilders and physique enthusiasts, train hard and heavy, and yes, they often train to depletion or failure, but they certainly aren’t going to attempt 100 pull-ups after destroying a traditional back workout. They understand the law of diminishing returns all too well.

Proponents of Crossfit often state that the training is functional and enhances the day to day activities which people perform. When was the last time you had to do a clean and jerk while on the job? Unless you work as a firefighter, stock room clerk or some other physically demanding work role, I seriously doubt that you are performing movements which mimic what happens while in a Crossfit box. Besides, if you’re injured as a result of Crossfit (or should I say WHEN), you can’t possibly perform any challenging physical movement which strains your injured body part.

For those of you who compete in the NPC or IFBB (or INBA, WBFF, etc.), don’t expect to be able to incorporate Crossfit into your contest prep training and sculpt your physique in the manner required for bodybuilding. I actually had a client who begged me repeatedly to let her do Crossfit two days a week despite my recommendation that she abandon it and focus on traditional weight lifting. I finally acquiesced, and allowed her to incorporate Crossfit as part of her training.

As I had predicted, she sustained an injury, her waist widened from all the heavy complex movements which made her midsection boxy, and she became soft as a result of the cortisol spikes which the high intensity Crossfit training created. After 3 weeks of seeing all her efforts from pre-Crossfit training unravel, I asked her to reconsider her decision to engage in Crossfit. As soon as she stopped doing Crossfit, her waist began to nip in, and her body began to tighten up again. Amen for old school weightlifting!

If it sounds like I am saying you will have to decide between doing Crossfit and competing in any of the bodybuilding divisions, I am. You simply cannot create the nipped in waist and beautiful taper that defines every single bodybuilding division. If you do Crossfit, you will create a strong body (plus some injuries), but you will also widen your silhouette and carry a layer of fat as a result of all that cortisol you will release from constant high intensity training. Look at a typical Crossfit athlete. Shoulders are broad, quads and hams are thick, and the abdominal region is thick and boxy. That is what happens when compound Olympic lifts are performed on a regular basis. If that is your aesthetic ideal, by all means knock yourself out with Crossfit, but you will be destroyed on a bodybuilding stage. On the subject of Olympic lifts, even power lifters have the sense not to rep out on these movements. Yet Crossfitters, blinded by the so-called warrior mentality that leads them to do stupid things that invite injury, will rep out on movements which recruit a tremendous amount of muscle fibers and hence tax the central nervous system. I am willing to bet that the Crossfit nation contends with adrenal burnout, permanent muscle damage, and repetitive tendon and ligament ruptures on a relatively consistent basis, and that such negative aspects will eventually cause the demise of this fad sport.

I will always staunchly defend the focus and the principles behind bodybuilding. I know that NPC and IFBB competitors are true warriors and know how to push through grueling training. I also strongly believe that for the most part, most competitors are smart enough not to over train or invite injury by performing movements which are biomechanically unsound. The world of bodybuilding not only rewards strength, but it also recognizes the aesthetic ideal which all bodybuilders aspire to achieve, regardless of division. Bodybuilding is not about flipping a massive tire across a gym, it’s about sculpting and defining muscle.

Are You A Sponsored Athlete Or An Unpaid Salesperson?

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Original post can be found here:

http://www.rxmuscle.com/blogs/the-business-fitness-modeling-and-showbiz/11790-are-you-a-sponsored-athlete-or-an-unpaid-salesperson.html

Are you an athlete
Most sports supplement companies and other fitness related companies aggressively promote their products through athletes who can sing the praises of their benefits. Who could be better at describing the efficacy of a product and how it enhances training or recovery than an athlete who not only already uses those types of products, but someone who has a following and who can convince new customers to purchase from the company which they represent?

Here’s where things get problematic. The pool of bodybuilding and fitness athletes is pretty massive, and the waters are teeming with athletes who are anxious to get their so-called “big break”. As a result of this, savvy marketing teams from fitness related companies often sweep up these individuals because they are enthusiastic and can propel a brand’s exposure. All the company needs to do is to offer some free product to the athlete and provide instructions on how to use social media to get the word out that these products exist. Then the athletes post images of themselves holding or using products, and add affiliate codes so that any orders which are generated through that athlete’s post are credited to the athlete. This can be a great way for an athlete to make some extra money while competing or chasing down fitness related gigs and projects.

It is important to bear in mind that such athletes really aren’t sponsored, but are instead unpaid salespeople who provide free advertising and generate sales via social media posts which direct followers to product websites. Yes, they get commissions if they have affiliate codes, but such commissions are nothing to write home about unless someone is really blowing the roof off in sales. This is in stark contrast to a true athlete sponsorship, in which an athlete is paid to represent the brand as a brand ambassador. The sponsored athlete is chosen for his or her physique, performance history and awards, facial good looks, charisma, enthusiasm, and often the size of his or her social media following. Usually a sponsored athlete signs a contract which stipulates that he or she will receive a certain amount of free product, and in most cases will also receive financial compensation which is either paid via a monthly salary or via a contest stipend. Though the athlete usually agrees to a set requirement or recommendation to provide social media posts for the company at regular intervals, the company pays the athlete for his or her trouble. Personal appearances and events are also part of the sponsored athlete agreement and clearly described in the written contract. The sponsored athlete is compensated for use of his or her likeness on advertising materials as well.

Obviously it is a far better deal to become an official sponsored athlete for a company. Otherwise, you are just providing free advertising and cheap labor in exchange for products which are sold at a significant markup from what they are manufactured at. If you post a selfie with product that somehow goes viral, the company will certainly love the boost, but I doubt you will ever see any type of compensation if you aren’t a sponsored athlete, which means you provided your likeness for free. The truth of the matter is that there are only a handful of athlete sponsorships to go around, with a massive surplus of athletes vying for those spots. The athletes who end up getting sponsorships stand out from the crowd in some way, or fit a brand’s look and philosophy so well that it makes sense to bring them on board to represent a brand. The rest of the athletes must navigate through all the companies out there to try to find an arrangement which benefits them in some way. Sometimes it is easy to sell a product, usually because the athlete enjoys using it so much that he or she doesn’t mind providing free advertising or labor.

Sometimes a supplement company will launch a contest which is based on social media posts. One company, which shall remain unnamed, launched a huge campaign this year that was patterned on this idea, and decided to award 5 of the entrants $10,000. Sure, that sounds like a good chunk of change, but if there were 8,000 entrants, then 7,995 walked away with nothing. At the end of the campaign, the company got tons of free advertising and all those hashtags they requested for “tracking” purposes also propelled their brand in a huge way. To be honest, this is a brilliant marketing tactic, but not the best move for the majority of athletes who participated. I have also seen companies launch contests in which entrants must purchase a product, then post on social media with hashtags to enter the contest. This is another form of free advertising for the company, a great way to generate sales, a brilliant means for them to boost exposure, and yet another way for athletes to be suckered into doing free advertising. I don’t see much harm in taking part in such a contest if you truly love a product and want to proclaim it, but just remember that it works wonders as an advertising tool for the company without any benefit for you.

One thing I will never advocate is purchasing products, even at a steep discount, while also representing a brand as one of its “sponsored” athletes. If you are asked to pay for a product while also providing free advertising on social media channels, run quickly in the other direction! Basically you are dealing with a company which doesn’t value you enough as an athlete to provide compensation for your advertising efforts. This isn’t the same as purchasing a product, finding out you like it, THEN posting something on social media which lets people know how much you like it. I know of several athletes who had done this, which sparked the attention of the company which manufactured the product, eventually leading to a sponsorship deal. But do not, I repeat, DO NOT PAY for products as a way to get false sponsorship for a company.

It isn’t a bad thing to work as an unpaid salesperson in the fitness industry as long as you know your place and value. Once your following builds, the smart thing to do is to leverage your visibility into getting an athlete sponsorship. The main thing is to make sure that you don’t get taken advantage of in the process.

Hand X Band For A Stronger Grip And Great Rehab For Tennis Elbow

drstaceynaito 1 Comment

handxband_diagram
If you think about all the grasping and gripping you do in your daily life, such as opening doors, driving, working out with weights, etc., it’s pretty obvious that you use the muscles which flex your fingers far more often than the ones which extend (or straighten out) the fingers. Over time, this results in overdevelopment of the finger flexors relative to the extensors. A new product called the Hand X Band enables you to selectively exercise the finger extensors, establishing muscular balance and increasing strength. These clever bands are inexpensive, durable, and effective.

The Hand X Band is great for athletes who want to balance their strength and muscular development, but it is also excellent for upper extremity rehab.

You can order direct from the site: http://handxband.com

Corsets And Waist Training

drstaceynaito 2 Comments

https://www.yahoo.com/style/whats-the-deal-with-the-corset-training-101355906803.html

I am posting an article which I found the other day on Yahoo! Style which made me chuckle. Here is the original link as well. I will reserve comments until the end of the article.
X-Rays-Show-that-Women-Would-Destroy-their-Rib-Cages-due-to-Corsets-2
To the ways you can attempt to whittle your waist — Slim-Fast, side planks — add one more: Corset training.

The method, which requires you to cinch yourself into a corset for four to six hours a day, is popular with celebrities and has been intriguing many other women seeking hourglass shapes.

Both Kim and Khole Kardashian have tried it. Kim posted a picture of herself yesterday in her mom’s foyer wearing a corset — hers is from a company called “What A Waist” — with the caption “I’m really obsessed with waist training!”

Jessica Alba is a fan, too. She actually wore two at the same time to help her lose weight after both of her pregnancies. “It was brutal; it’s not for everyone,” she told Net-A-Porter. “I wore a double corset day and night for three months. It was sweaty, but worth it.”

Self-described “corset fetishist” Kelly Lee Dekay, 27, has been doing corset training for seven years, and claims she has a 16-inch waist because of it. “I loved how Batman’s outfit let him channel a different side of himself,” she told the Sun. “That’s what the corset does.”

Women have worn corsets for ages. In the 1500s, they smashed down their entire torso. Later, in the late 1800s or Victorian era, they were used to help define the waist. It’s thought that the reason ladies back then were always fainting was because their corsets were squeezing their internal organs and restricting their breathing.

In these modern times, however, women now think that wearing a corset can actually help you lose weight. The Cincher by AMIA claims, “[It can] sculpt inches from your midsection and enhance your curves while increasing thermal activity in your core.”

According to TheCorsetDiet.com, you can shed up to six pounds a week by wearing one of their custom-made waist shapers. The UK-based company describes the pressure from its corsets as “gentle hugging feeling.”

But when writer Rebecca Harrington tried wearing one, albeit from a different brand, she wrote on NYMag.com, “My breathing is slightly impaired, but I can still breathe; I just have to take short, staccato breaths. I try to drink coffee, and it’s very difficult. After four hours, I whip off the corset and throw it across the room. My waist has red welts on it.”

In reality, doctors say that the corset is not — I repeat not — helping you reshape your body with simple pressure. It’s simply so tight around your stomach that you won’t — or can’t — eat too much, and doctors roundly decry any kind of corset diet or waist training as a viable long-term weight loss method.

“It’s outrageous, and it just absolutely makes no medical sense whatsoever,” Keri Peterson, M.D., a physician at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York told Women’s Health.

It also could be dangerous. Wearing one could actually shift or compress your internal organs and fracture your ribs, Dr. Jyotindra Shah said. “People might put it so tight that the liver, spleen and kidneys could get bruised,” she told The Huffington Post.

Even “corset fetish” Dekay knows she has to remove hers sometimes. “It can be restrictive when climbing stairs,” she told the Sun. “You can’t carry heavy things as you could hurt yourself. I don’t go to the gym in it. That would be very dangerous as I lift weights.”

squeem-26r

Okay, here goes my commentary. I jumped on the corset bandwagon back in 2011 when I was informed that it was a very effective way to whittle the waist. During the time in which I diligently wore a corset (or two) several hours a day, every day, I noticed my waistline whittle down from 24 inches to 22-1/2 inches. So do I think it works? I KNOW it works.

I have to say I disagree with so-called doctors’comments that the corset prevents consumption of large amounts of food, thus resulting in weight loss. This just sounds like something one of my male colleagues would mutter. If caloric consumption is kept constant, women and men who engage in corset training WILL have a reduction in inches no matter what. This sounds like the typical uber conservative medical snobbery which makes other doctors the types of people I will NEVER choose to spend extensive periods of time with. I do agree that the practice of wearing a corset is outrageous, painful, and could be dangerous. But it DOES work. What price beauty?

Over the centuries, women have compressed their waistlines effectively with corsets, so it blows my mind that these narrow minded physicians have decided to toot their horns and express skepticism. As a physician who competes, I chose to give corsets a chance and had great results. I am glad that I didn’t allow the part of my brain which is trained in traditional Western medicine talk the competitor in me out of doing all that I could to make my waist smaller.

I would usually wear a neoprene wrap underneath my corset (or Squeem as it is somewhat affectionately called in the bodybuilding world due to one manufacturer brand), or one corset over a second. I would do this for at least 6 hours, sometimes as long as 14 hours. Was I uncomfortable? Yes. Did I sweat like a pig? You bet. Was it worth it? I think so.

I have dealt with the metal boning poking out as the corsets would wear out, and would glue them back into their channels, so I know all too well the sensation of metal poking into my underboob, my ribcage or my hip bone when the corsets began wearing out. I would have digestive upset, abdominal pain, and at times had difficulty breathing. During one stretch of time when I was wearing latex corsets, I developed painful lesions all over my back from the yeast overgrowth which resulted from the long hours of wear and the constant sweating. It took me over a year for my skin to heal from all those lesions, and I have a couple of permanent scars to mark my determination to sculpt a waistline that would win a Pro Card. Thankfully, I won that Pro Card in 2013 and almost immediately tossed the corsets aside.

Now I wear corsets from time to time if I feel the need to squeeze out extra water from my midsection, but I will probably never return to the days of wearing corsets for many hours, driving to work in pain because a metal boning was jabbing me in the rib, sweating profusely under nice clothing, and dealing with skin around my midsection which was constantly macerated, lighter in pigment, and showing signs of skin breakdown.

I know you ladies want to slim down the midsection, but please be careful when you wear corsets! It isn’t worth ruining your skin and compressing organs to wear these torture devices for extended periods of time. Give your skin and your torso a rest in between the sessions during which you are training your waist. I recommend wearing corsets for a 4 hour stretch.

Check Out The Six Pack Fitness Bag Collection!

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6 Pack LogoThis collection is growing next year too, with a whole line of luggage! Please make sure to enter my discount code DRNAITO1014 If you order within the next day, and code DRNAITO1114 if ordering after that. You will receive 15% off your order.

I have used other brands of meal bags, and I honestly love Six Pack bags the best. This company has come a long way, and now they not only have Meal Management Bags, they also have Backpacks, Duffels, Briefcases, Women’s Bags and Accessories to help you keep everything in perfect order. They are top quality, fuctional and stylish. Get one!

http://www.sixpackbags.com

6 pack Elite
6 pack Expert

What a great meal bag option for the fashionable gal!

What a great meal bag option for the fashionable gal!

The Protein Bar Battle

drstaceynaito 1 Comment

I am VERY picky about the protein bars I eat or recommend to others, so when I say that I dig Quest Bars AND B-Up Bars, that is saying a lot. Both brands are gluten free, soy free, very low in carbs, high in fiber, and offer 20 grams of protein per bar. I still remember when Quest had just started out, and had two flavors: Vanilla Almond Crunch and Peanut Butter Supreme, or as I had remembered them, the blue wrapper and the green wrapper. I loved the enthusiasm which Shannon Yorton Penna had in creating the bars and had a hunch the company would grow fast. Quest now has 16 flavors and has expanded to pasta, chips and clothing. Way to go Quest!

It was inevitable that a company would eventually throw down the gauntlet with a distinctive bar of their own. B-Up Bar is a new company with three awesome flavors and is taking off like a rocket, not only because they have great products, but also because the people in the company are friendly, professional and driven just like Shannon and the incredible team at Quest. I truly love both companies and eat both brands of bars, so I thought it would be interesting to look at the features of each brand of bar and also offer my feedback on them.

With Quest, there are TONS of flavors now (16) to satisfy all kinds of palates. They are free of sugar, gluten, and soy, and offer 20 grams of prebiotic fiber, so net carbs are very low. Quest Bars have 20 grams of protein and are sweetened either with sucralose OR stevia and erythritol. Here is the current list of flavors which are available:
Quest Bars flavors
Vanilla Almond Crunch
Peanut Butter Supreme
Chocolate Peanut Butter
Apple Pie
Cinnamon Roll
Chocolate Brownie
Strawberry Cheesecake
Mixed Berry
Coconut Cashew
Lemon Cream Pie
Peanut Butter & Jelly
Banana Nut Muffin
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Double Chocolate Chunk
White Chocolate Raspberry
Cookies & Cream

Me with BUp Bars
Like Quest, B-Up Bars are free of sugar, gluten, and soy, and offer 20 grams of prebiotic fiber, so net carbs are very low. B-Up Bars also offer 20 grams of protein, but they are sweetened with stevia, xylitol and monk fruit extract, all of which are natural sweeteners. B-Up Bars currently come in three flavors, but there will be more delicious flavors added to the group very soon. Here are the flavors:

Chocolate Mint
Sugar Cookie
Cinnamon Roll

I absolutely love the flavor of the majority of Quest Bars (the only one I am not crazy about is the Mixed Berry), and I definitely have my favorites (Peanut Butter & Jelly, Banana Nut Muffin, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough). My favorite flavors remind me so much of the food items they are named for that I am always tricked into believing that I am indulging in the actual food item. One thing I have noticed, though, is that over the span of a couple of months, these bars tend to harden up a lot, to the point where you can’t even bite into them without risk of chipping a tooth. This can be remedied by zapping the bar (WITHOUT the foil wrapper) in the microwave for a few seconds.

In contrast to the Quest Bars, B-Up Bars are chewier. I love the texture of the Sugar Cookie flavor because it seems softer and fluffier than the other two flavors. My favorite B-Up Bar flavor is Chocolate Mint because the mint flavor is pleasant but not overpowering, and the chocolate chunks break up the soft texture of the bar nicely. It seems that I digest B-Up Bars slightly better than the Quest Bars, but this isn’t enough for me to stop eating Quest Bars!

I noticed one other odd thing after spending a few weeks eating mostly B-Up Bars. When I went back to the sucralose-sweetened Quest Bars, I detected an aftertaste which I didn’t really like, so I guess my palate had adjusted to the natural sweeteners found in B-Up Bars. To be honest, I prefer the sweeteners found in B-Up Bars slightly more because they are more palatable. When I tried a stevia and erythritol sweetened Quest Bar after this discovery, I didn’t pick up any aftertaste.

In conclusion, I love both brands of bars and would recommend them both to friends, family, fans, clients and patients.

http://www.questnutrition.com/protein-bars/

http://www.bupbar.com/

Lululemon Love

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I think that if there was a sudden requirement for me to wear fitness apparel all the time that I would be the happiest woman in the world, because I automatically gravitate towards fitness apparel on a daily basis. I am not a business casual person, nor am I into wearing jeans and a t-shirt look when I need to run to the grocery store for something, I have a tendency to throw on capris or booty shorts (if I am not already wearing them) and a sporty tank. Of course I live in Los Angeles which is blessed with glorious weather the majority of the time, plus I tend to run hot.IMAG1292<a
Over the years I have remained loyal to certain brands which seem to fit my body well. In sports bras, I prefer Champion and Under Armour, I love the fit and wear of Nike, Under Armour, Champion and Dcore capris, my favorite booty shorts are made by New Balance, and I love Dcore tank tops. When I began working in the fitness industry back in 2009, I was surprised to hear fitness folks sing the praises of Lululemon apparel like it was the best stuff ever. After I heard how expensive their items were, I shied away from them.

I finally went to a Lululemon store last week for the very first time, and now can honestly say I understand what the hype is all about. The quality of Lululemon garments is exceptional, from the fabric to the stitching, fit, and little details which set them apart from other fitness clothing companies. I am not a fan of the sport bras and find that I am between sizes in this brand, a fact which I find quite odd. Everything else fits like a dream though! As a result of my shopping trip, I am now addicted to Lululemon and have been living in Lululemon garments for the past week.

I honestly love Lululemon!

http://shop.lululemon.com

Packing Fit Foods For Travel

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It can be extremely challenging to maintain healthy eating habits while traveling abroad, especially in countries which have not embraced the concept of clean eating. An additional challenge which I encounter when I travel abroad is that it can be extremely difficult to consume the quantity of protein which I am accustomed to on a daily basis (150 to 200 grams per day). If I didn’t have access to wonderful products like P28 Bread, B-Up Bars, Quest Bars, Training Table Sports Meals and Kris Gethin’s Nutrition By Design Meal Cups to pack, I wouldn’t meet my macronutrient needs solely by eating at restaurants. I will continue to pack these convenient meal options when I go to Germany and England next year.

Both the Training Table Sports Meals and the Kris Gethin Meal Cups are whole food sources and pack a ton of protein (27 to 34 grams). The only drawback is that Training Table meals should be heated up in a microwave, and the Gethin meals require boiling hot water to rehydrate the ingredients. For this reason, I always make sure to pack P28 Bread and bars, since they don’t require any preparation. I can easily pack a box or two of bars (and yes, I ONLY eat B-Up and Quest) in my checked bag and also add a bag of P28 Flatbread. I pack the Gethin meals inside a rigid box so that the containers don’t get crushed, but everything else travels well without additional padding.

The only issue I ever run into is when I return to the States and have to go through customs. If I have any food left, the customs officials treat me like I am a drug lord or criminal! The food items which raised the most suspicious eye were the Gethin meals, which surprised me since they are dry. However, I will not allow the U.S. Customs officials to rain on my parade. I will continue to pack Gethin meals because they are so convenient and lightweight. Another great thing about Gethin meals, Training Table and B-Up Bars is that they won’t spoil during my travels.

Here are images of the products I have mentioned here. The only company I have not worked with is Kris Gethin Nutrition By Design, but my opinions of these products are completely honest and unbiased. All of these products are fantastic!

flatbreadbanner_copy

B UP bar collage

Quest Bars

Training Table

Kris Gethin meal