Q&A with Eric Falstrault Part 2

Get ready for part 2 of Sean's interview with one of his mentors, Eric Falstrault from Bodhifit. Last week he spoke about discipline and finding balance, this week we look at the long-term affect of cardio and working with high profile athletes.

We see so many people using treadmills and cross-trainers and they all are still looking the same they did six months ago. We have seen some literature come out about the effects of long term use. What is your advice with using treadmills or even long term aerobic work?

I rarely use treadmills or any type of indoor boring cardio equipment. Like you mentioned previously, I hate wasting time and I have much better things to do than look at a treadmill console while walking at a pace that the treadmill dictates. You said it perfectly; everyone that uses these machines looks the same if not worse as when they started.

Maybe my reputation precedes me but I don’t get clients who are looking for boring stuff, so long cardio sessions are out of the equation. If I get the occasional cardio and heart health question, I go into details on what makes their heart work. Incorporating circuit training with most bang-for-your-buck exercises will always bring more results in the fastest times. I may use the treadmills for some intervals, if I have to or the weather does not permit, but I rather use my prowler.

On the subject of long term aerobics, I will use it on two occasions; because the client has never been active before and needs to build up his cardio vascular capacity, or I will use it for sport specific reasons such as marathons or ironman trainings.

From your blogs and other articles, we see you are dealing with some national and international athletes. What are a few important lessons that you have learnt from those athletes and how could you transfer them to the everyday normal gym goer?

1. Work hard, love what you do and repeat. Those who achieve greatness are always those who live and breathe their sports. Have you ever seen a successful athlete who does not like what he does? If you translate this into your everyday life, hating your job won’t make it easier. Either you love what you do and do extremely well at it, or you hate it and dread every single day of the rest of your life.

2. Follow your instinct. My client, who is one of the most successful NHL goalkeepers of all time with numerous records under his wings, was given a choice to either be a goalkeeper or a forward, which was the deciding career move prior to being recognized by the NHL scouts. Imagine if he would have chosen the other path...

3. A healthy and balanced lifestyle is the answer to longevity. Having a lifestyle that is reminiscent of Paris Hilton’s won’t help you achieve greatness in the sport you love. You have to be prepared to sacrifice a lot of things to achieve your goals, which will never come over night. The same goes for the regular Joe who wants to see his abs but can’t because he would rather go out with his friends 4 nights in a row to prove he’s the man! Sure you can take it easy once in a while and have fun, but getting there will just take a little bit longer.

Healthy food, heathy mind

This morning Deakin University released the results of a new study which found that people with healthy diets are less likely to have depression and anxiety – not only in Australia but around the world.

In the study, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers from Deakin University and the University of Bergen analysed data collected from over 5700 middle-aged and older adults from western Norway.

“We found that the higher the dietary quality of these men and women, the less likely they were to be depressed,” said Dr Felice Jacka from Deakin University’s Barwon Psychiatric Research Unit, who led the study.

“Increased dietary quality was also associated with less anxiety in women, while those people eating more junk and processed foods were more likely to be anxious. Even after taking into account other demographic and lifestyle factors, these findings persisted.”

Dr Jacka said that similar associations have been shown in Australian women, but not before in Norwegians. “We are starting to see a very consistent pattern here,” she said.

“We have now assessed dietary quality in a number of different ways, in different countries, with different measures of mental health. In each of these studies, the results look very similar. This lends weight to the contention that diet plays a role in depression and anxiety.”

Q&A with Eric Falstrault

Today on our blog Atlas Performance head coach Sean Connolly asks one his mentors, Eric Falstrault from Bodhifit, some pressing fitness questions.

The good news is this is just part one of the Q&A so make sure you like our Facebook page so you see when new instalments appear on this blog. In this first instalment Eric talks about discipline, healthy breakfasts and how to find a healthy balance.

Many of your blog posts follow a stream of being disciplined and smart in your training. You don't hold a lot of room for 'fluff'. Who gave you that advice and why was it so profound? 

I don’t get too many regular Joe’s that come to see me, as most of my clients are business professionals. Getting the job done fast and being able to get out of the gym with more energy than they came in with is what’s important for them. If they give me 45 minutes to train them, I use it as best I can with the most bang-for-your-buck exercises. Being efficient is always a priority for me and that is what I teach all of my clients; not only with their training and nutrition protocols but also how to incorporate it all into their everyday lives as well.

I’ve always believed that what we are is all a matter of balance. Too much of one thing suppresses another. Weight lifting is good for the body, but too much will deplete your energy. Seeking homeostasis should be our main goal, and then everything will fall into place, hopefully. However, complete balance is almost unachievable year round due to uncontrollable external stressors; this is where I come in. I came across those principles while doing an internship with Charles Poliquin in Arizona. He talked about his theory of the five elements and how we can relate to it with our training and nutrition. It was a big eye opener for me at that time and I am still using it today.

I like your comment about homeostasis. A lot of people are not centred, balanced or have some middle point that seems to keep them in check. What one of the biggest tell tale signs that someone is out of balance or homeostasis Eric and what can they do about it? 

There are a lot of signs and symptoms but the most common ones such as the inability to finish workouts or a big drop in strength from one set to the next, disturbed sleep patterns and reduced immunity. When under a lot of stress, the body will turn on its emergency system and put all of its focus on the vitals preserving as much energy as possible, therefore putting less effort into digestion and regeneration which are very important if you want to see progress. The problem nowadays is that stress response is exaggerated and is spread over long periods of time. Adrenals have no time to rebuild and most of us will run on empty which leads to reduced immune response. If some sickness is looming around the corner, you can be sure that you will run right into it.

You can’t obviously can’t tell someone to stay off of work or to reduce their stress levels just like that. Some of them don’t even know that they are putting their system into emergency mode since their stress has accumulated over years and years of repeated pounding and/or unbalanced lifestyle. Lifestyle management, whether they like it or not, is the only solution and this is where balance gets the job done. No matter how good results you can get by training four times a week, some people just can’t take it. Changing habits gradually will make those habits last, especially with stressed individuals.

In order of importance, I would make sure that they eat meat and nuts first thing in the morning, and then I would suggest supplements like fish oils and lastly, maybe try to fit in 2 or 3 workouts in a week. Most of them don’t eat in the morning, so starting with a great breakfast will bring up their energy and fish oil will take care of their serotonin levels (the feel good hormone). Once this is taken care of, including 2 or 3 workouts a week seems more logical to them since their energy level has increased. Improve how they feel and everything is possible.