Podcast Episode #65: Research, Q&A and How To Fix Injuries With Tape

In this podcast episode, understanding your fat burning zone, how to break sugar addictions, what number of weightlifting repetitions gets you the best results, a new women's multivitamin mercury in fish and how tape can fix injuries.

Welcome to the Ben Greenfield Fitness.com podcast. We provide you with free exercise, nutrition, weight loss, triathlon and wellness advice from the top fitness experts in the nation. So whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to shed a few pounds, get ready for non run of the mill cutting edge content from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield, your friendly host. And don't worry, today is not actually a 90 minute or two hour marathon podcast. We actually may even come in under an hour in today's podcast. So that ought to allow you to plan your listening session accordingly. We'll have a few short special announcements, a couple new videos I've posted up on the website, a few new resources for you. We have a pretty good listener Q and A and a glance into this month's Draw Journal of Strength and conditioning research, and then a very interesting interview with a gentleman named Greg from a company called Rock Tape. And especially for any of you out there who are weekend warriors, who are triathletes or playing in a basketball league or a soccer league and have some nagging injury that's been bothering you, Greg has some answers, so you're going to want to listen to that. And we're going to go straight into this Week's podcast from BenGreenfieldFitness.com. Special Announcements in this week's special Announcements, I want to go over five things, exactly five things as a matter of fact. So everything that I talk about, I'm going to have a link in the show Notes for you to read, but I'm going to mention it here and then you can go over to BenGreenfieldFitness.com and click on some of the links that I have over there. That's one of the things that I really spend a lot of time on is making sure I get detailed show notes out to you, the listener, so that you don't have to go and do a bunch of googling and searching. When you hear me talk about things on this podcast, you can just go click on them over in the show notes@BenGreenfieldFitness.com all you do is click on the podcast. For example, today would be podcast number 65 and everything is right there, conveniently. So the first thing is that I have a new survey on the site under special announcements that you can click on. And this survey is on water. I want to know if you guys are paying attention to the type of water that you're drinking, if that's something that concerns you in the slightest, if you know much about water and the fact that sometimes water that comes out of one tap is not the same as water that comes out of another tap. It's a pretty quick survey. I've put together about nine questions and you can go check that out in the special announcement section. Just click on the link that I have there to fill out the new survey on water. Just a few minutes of your time and it will be helpful to me because I'm really interested in how people are actually hydrating their bodies and what they are using to do so. Because I would really like to cover water in more detail in future podcasts. After all, most of us are consuming quite a bit of it now. The second special announcement regards a video that I just posted in the special announcements that you can watch. We've mentioned something called the HCG diet a few times on this show, and that's a special supplementation, nutrition and exercise protocol that's really designed for men and women who have tried just about everything for weight loss. It's really not designed for everyone. I do have to tell you, it does involve injections or nasal sprays of something called HCG or human chorionic gonadotropin, and that's something that you take for about 42 days or so. Well, you follow a fairly special nutrition protocol. I'm not big into diets. I'm not big into plans that you wouldn't necessarily be able to follow for your entire life. But I have had a couple of clients who have asked me to oversee their progress through the HCG diet. I have seen pretty good results with it, primarily in individuals who have tried just about everything to overcome a weight loss plateau and simply cannot do it. There's quite a bit of information out there on the Internet, but I decided to take some video footage of one of my clients who's been going through the program and I posted it up there on the website in the show notes to today's podcast. So you can check that out and then if you have questions about it, concerns about it, comments about it, I'd like to hear your thoughts so you can just email me now. The next special announcement is that I have added a couple of women's specific multivitamins to what I guess you could call my approved supplements list. You know That I take a multivitamin in the morning called Ener Prime. The company that makes that multi or that supplement also puts out a women's specific supplement. So for you women out there, there's actually two of them. One is called Ener Essence 1 and that's designed for pre menopausal women. And then one is called Ener Essence 2 and that one is for postmenopausal women. So the ingredients in those are a pretty long list of herbal blends, one of which is designed to support women in their premenopausal hormonal years and one for the post menopausal hormonal years. And, and both have special ingredients in them. They're not the same multivitamin, but essentially it's your vitamin, your B, your C, your D, your E, your A, your full vitamin, both your water soluble and fat soluble vitamins, along with a blend of herbal derivatives. So I actually have quite a few clients using those now and liking them quite a bit. I have a hard time finding dependable labs that are putting out multivitamins that I actually feel safe. Safe. What's the word I'm looking for recommending to my clients? I was going to say prescribing, but that would definitely be the wrong word to choose. I am not a physician, I am a nutritionist. But recommending those to my clients and they've been liking them quite a bit. So I'm going to put a link to those in the show notes where you can actually go look at the nutritional labels and read more and see what's in them. But again, if you're a woman and you have questions about those multivitamins, just email me. And I do have a few on hand. And what I'm doing this week is anybody who's ordering Shape 21 this week, I'm actually including a free sample of those multivitamins. So if you go to shape21.com and you order the Shape21 Lean Body Manual, I am actually including a free bottle of the women's specific multivitamin. And in the comments section, when you order shape 21, if you let me know whether you're premenopausal or post menopausal, I will give you the proper multivitamin. Okay, so announcements number four and five you are probably already familiar with. The first is that we're in the off season of triathlon right now and you should be preparing whatever plan you're going to be putting together. If you are a triathlete getting ready for next season so for especially you half Ironman and Ironman triathletes out there, the Triathlon Dominator package is live, is available over@triathlon dominator.com and that is the full nutrition, training and support package that I've put together for half Ironman and Ironman triathletes who are preparing for an Ironman and want to do one without neglecting family, career, hobbies, social life and everything else that kind of gets in the way when you're trying to train for an Ironman triathlon. The next thing is that the triathlon camp for you triathletes out there is going to be taking place in Austin, Texas. That's coming up in January and you need to get on the bandwagon if that's something that you want to come down to. It's going to be an awesome all inclusive week down in Austin, Texas, right smack dab in the middle of January. We're going to go train in some beautiful weather. It'll probably be about 55 to 65 degrees down there, so just about perfect for doing some great bike rides, some runs. We're going to have about three different swim venues, some open water swims, some pool swims. I've put together the entire itinerary and there's a link to it in the show notes to this podcast, podcast number 65. So I would definitely go check that out and simply email me if you want your name added to a list. If you want to at least try and reserve your spot. You don't have to necessarily put money down and register for the camp right now, but you need to at least get your name to me so that I can get you more information. So make sure that you do that. And we are going to move on to this week's Listener Q and A.

Listener Q and A.

So the first question for this week comes from listener Todd. And Todd says, my question this week is around nutrition and curbing sugar craving, especially at night. I'm working hard to control my insulin levels during the day and for the most part am doing well. However, after a modest dinner, I find myself having the strongest cravings for sweet. I'm using whole fruits and nuts during the day and complex carbs before and after workouts. Is my body trying to tell me something with these cravings, for example, something I'm not getting during the day? Or is this just part of breaking the sugar addiction? Is anyone else having this challenge at night? I'm going to raise my hand on that one, Todd, and say that I have struggled with that challenge before at night. And there are a couple potential reasons for that and a couple potential fixes. The first is that I know that because you had emailed me in a separate email, that you are in the process right now of changing your diet and you're switching to some of the more holistic meal plans that I've recommended on this podcast. Now, one of the consequences of that is that you are consuming more lean proteins, more healthy fats, more nuts and seeds, as you say. However, you're also curbing your sugar intake, especially from starches and from processed or what would be called higher glycerolinosis, glycemic index sugars, or sweeter sugars. Now, when that happens, your body is going to have a little bit lower blood sugar levels at certain points throughout the day. And your body is also not going to be experiencing the dopamine release that occurs when you do consume a carbohydrate. The dopamine release that occurs is different than that you get from, like, a protein or a fat. And so if you're used to. To that type of neurotransmitter release when you consume a carbohydrate, then your body is not going to be getting that fix, so to speak, that it's been used to for, whatever, a year, two years, three years. And yeah, that addiction cannot be broken overnight. I've had clients who go through about five to seven days of being extremely grumpy, being fatigued, having cravings like you speak, you know, their families don't want to be around them. They kind of go through that dark place for a little while. But when. When you come out the other side and you can look at a cookie sitting on a table and not even think twice about wanting to eat it, and you can see a bowl of M&MS. And not feel like you have to reach for it, and that stuff doesn't actually appeal to you. It's a pretty cool feeling, and it's a powerful feeling. And so when you make it through those first few days, and usually it is anywhere from about five days to a little over a week, then those cravings do subside. But you have to retrain your body. It's just like Pavlov's dog. When it hears the bell, it drools for your body. When you finish dinner, your body says, okay, where's the sweet thing that I'm used to getting for the past few years? When you take that away, it takes some getting used to. So if you have gone through that place where you've broken the sugar addiction where you've broken the carbohydrate cravings, where you've been eating healthy for 15 days or 30 days or a year and you're experiencing carbohydrate cravings at night. And these are the ones that I'll sometimes experience. Typically the number one reason for that, and this is something that I'll see in my clients diet logs that they send me, is inadequate post workout carbohydrate intake. Meaning that you finish a workout and you don't eat within that 20 minute window. And not only do you not eat within that 20 minute window, but when you do eat, you don't put sufficient carbohydrates into your body. So you have like a protein bar or a protein shake or a handful of nuts and you're not giving your body all that glycogen that it's craving to to suck up and put into the muscle. So once you adjust that post workout meal by adding more carbohydrates than what you were doing, you'll find that later on in the day your body is not craving those carbohydrates like you kind of suggested in your question. So step one is to make sure that you have already gone through that basically kind of week long period where you're breaking that sugar addiction. Step two is if you've already broken it, take your post workout meal, make sure that A It's within 20 minutes after your workout and then B that you're including adequate post workout carbohydrate intake. And typically that's going to mean that depending on the length of the workout, you're taking in anywhere from 200 up to 400 calories of a carbohydrate and you're going to still be combining that with a protein. But really one of the more carbohydrate dense meals of your day should be that post workout meal. So good question Todd. Listener Ace asks. I am an avid triathlete and watch my nutrition very carefully. However, I am a tuna fish freak. Full protein packed food source, affordable and very tasty. However, I had read tons of articles about the potential hazard mercury and maybe other toxin via canned tuna consumption. Any thoughts or solid research studies on this? How can one substitute? Also, do you think that even with six cans of tuna per week during lunch, the potential harm of mercury can be hindered if the diet consists of tons of raw fruits and veggies, mainly greens. Finally, are there any tuna species that are less prone to toxins than others? Great question Scott. So first of all, let's take a look at the six cans of tuna that you are consuming. There is actually a chart put out by the Environmental Protection Agency that talks about how much tuna you should eat based off your weight. And if you look at the chart, let's assume, let's say, ace, for example, you're about 150 pounds, man. Now, the recommendations on the Environmental Protection Agency's chart based off mercury contamination in fish for tuna is that you not eat more than one can of white albacore tuna every nine days if you're 150 pounds or more. Okay. And that you not eat more than one can of chunky light tuna, which is more often the canned version, every three days, which would mean you'd be down to two cans a week if you're following the EPA's recommendations on tuna fish consumption. So the whole idea behind this is that in our industrial society, we've got coal burning plants, we've got municipal waste combustors, we've got medical waste incinerators, there's hazardous waste combustors, there's all sorts of mercury going up into the air, typically traveling through smokestacks and tiny particles and then falling down onto the ground, onto soil, or specifically onto water. And that mercury accumulates very easily in fish and in wildlife. In the case of tuna, what happens is smaller fish are eaten by bigger fish and tuna are a little bit on the. Are on the bigger side. And the big fish or the fish eating birds, they'll have higher levels of mercury contamination. And you're also going to get a lot of mercury just basically going into industrial wastewater. So tuna is definitely one of the fish that's higher in mercury. Now, regarding your question on research studies, I'm aware of one research study that was done up in Canada where they purchased tuna. The researchers purchased cans of white tuna at nine different grocery stores across Vancouver, Vancouver, Winnipeg and Toronto. And 13% of that tuna exceeded Canada's health guidelines for the amount of mercury in tuna. Now, based off that, I would say that if you were a pregnant woman, ace, definitely no tuna at all where you're at right now. Let's say that you are right around 150 pound male, 150 plus pound male. I would try and limit it to about two cans of the tuna per week. And yes, there are higher levels of mercury in some forms of tuna. You're going to find the lowest levels in albacore or in yellowfin tuna. And that would be like us or Canadian Atlantic albacore or yellowfin, the canned light tuna, the Canned white albacore, meaning the non fresh, the non steak versions that you're going to get in the fresh seafood aisle, that's a little bit higher. That'd be considered medium level intensity for mercury levels. And then the really high levels would be bluefin tuna or imported internationally caught big eye or yellowfin tuna. So you're kind of at the mid level with the canned stuff now as far as alternatives to tuna. For fish based alternatives, there are some things out there. Salmon you can get now canned, you can get that also in those bags. They're a little bit easier to travel with. That's going to be a little bit lower in mercury levels. There are two types of fish, one called haddock and one called Pollack, that you can also get as kind of more like a flaky version that you could put on like a salad or have with a lunch. Again, not in that convenient canned version, but they're available sardines as a matter of fact, which you can get in more of a canned transportable version. Those as well as mackerel are still going to be pretty good for you in terms of the healthy fat food that are in them. And they aren't going to have the same amount of mercury in them as tuna will. And then finally there are some non fish alternatives to tuna. You can look at the seeds, at the nuts, for example. A lot of times with the salad, I'll have pumpkin seeds, I'll have sunflower seeds. Almonds are another popular one. Brazil nuts, any number of beans, lentils and legumes are also going to have a good amount of protein in them that will replace what you're missing if you skip out on one of those cans of tuna you're having during the week. There are actual vegetarian tuna alternatives. Now, I'm not completely sure of what the ingredients are in some of the vegetarian alternatives, but I'm going to hazard a guess that soy is one of the primary ingredients. But there's one made by a company called Dixie Diner that's a vegan tuna alternative. There's another one called Mae Woise vegetarian tuna and vegetarian tuna steak. There's one put out by a company called Scott Adams Foods called Veggie Tuna. And there's also one called Tuno, a little bit more fringe. You'd probably find these at your local health food store, Whole foods type of store, but there are some alternatives out there. What it comes down to though is that take me for example. I used to eat a lot of peanut butter. I was the college student eating four tablespoons of that when I'd get home after class in the afternoon. And when I finally did some research and realized how many potential toxins and molds are present in commercial peanut butter, along with the sugars, the added starches, and the added oils that are in peanut butter, I switched to almond butter, cashew butter, and completely natural organic peanut butter. And because I use it as a staple, I'm not getting those levels accumulating in my body based on that daily volume of nut butter. Same goes for you with tuna. I'd step back and say, gosh, close your eyes, look at that giant mountain of tuna that you're probably consuming in one year and think about what you might be doing to your body in terms of the amount of heavy metal that you're taking on the amount of mercury that you're accumulating in your body. So that's a really good question, Ace. And I appreciate the intelligent questions this week. Good job, you guys. I also had a call in comment from listener Eric who heard podcasts number 52 and 63 and decided to go do the Bioletics testing protocol.

Hey, Ben, this is Eric Peterson over in Coeur d'. Alene. Hey, I got your Ironman Dominator program and the timing was perfect because I also got my bioetics results back and incorporated the results food list with your diet recommendations. Your food list recommendations and plans. And five to, let's see. No, I'm sorry. It's seven days now and I wanted to let you know that just the fueling aspect of it is making a huge difference in the way I feel. I feel much lighter, I guess, stronger in my workouts and just feeling, all in all, very, very good. A lot better than I had been feeling in a long, long time and looking forward to getting even healthier. So thank you very much for the nutrition plan and then recommending Bioletics to have a closer look at my how I work, so to speak. And looking forward to continuing on with this training plan. It's fantastic so far and thanks a lot for all the, all the advice. Looking forward to the next podcast. Take care. Bye.

Well, Eric, thanks for the feedback. So if you're a listener and you have feedback or you have a question, you have a comment, you could do what Eric did and actually call in and leave it. There's a toll free number, believe it or not, that is 877-209-9439. Don't worry, you don't have to memorize that. It's in the podcast show notes. You could also email ben@BenGreenfieldFitness.com now, there was one other thing that I wanted to mention before we move on to this week's Rock Tape interview, and that is that for all of my current clients out there, the triathletes who I coach or the individuals who I'm doing online personal training and nutrition consulting with, you can now log into your online training program right there@BenGreenfieldFitness.com you just scroll down the right hand side of the page. It's kind of near the top, but there's a little place to type in your username and password to access your online training program. And if you yourself are a coach, your personal trainer, and you're listening into this podcast, if you want to see kind of how I manage my clients and the athletes that I coach, you can actually go to that same login box and there's a little place where you can click and see the software that I use to coach the people that I work with so that you can offer your clients a little bit more. So let's go ahead and move on to this week's interview.

Featured topic.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and I am here today with a gentleman on the other line who is the founder of a company called Rock Tape. And I'm going to let him tell you what Rock Tape is all about. But it's something that in the past I understand that Lance Armstrong has used something similar to this and a lot of professional athletes are using this brand new stuff. So rather than have me try to explain to you exactly what it is, I'm going to talk to Greg Vanderest today and he's going to really explain everything about Rock Tape. So Greg, thanks for coming on.

Oh, my pleasure, Ben. Thank you for having me. I'll be happy to. Oh, go ahead real quick.

If people are sitting in front of their computers, rocktape.com is where you'd want to go to actually look at this stuff as Greg talks about it. But Greg, where do you want to start?

Well, why don't we just start with a little overview of what Rock Tape is. So Rock Tape is a new type of high tech athletic tape that's used to treat common sports injuries as well as to promote performance. So a lot of people know of this type of tape as kinesiology tape, which has been around for about, I don't know, 12, 13 years. So it's well proven in the medical world. What we've done is we've taken that basic concept and we've re engineered it for the endurance athletes of the world. So what we did was we took kinesiology tape and made it withstand competition settings. So we've made it stickier so it's not going to fall off during your race. We've made it stretchier so it doesn't reduce your range of motion and we've made it a little bit tighter in its weave so it just feels much, much more comfortable.

Exactly. To interrupt you for just a second, what, what exactly is kinesiology tape?

Right. Kinesiology tape is a medical grade tape that's used to treat common sports injuries and post operative surgeries. So it's designed to promote blood flow and drain limb fluid. That's really great for sports injuries because typically what you want to do is accelerate the body's natural recovery capabilities by getting extra blood into that damaged area. And if there's any edema or swelling, you want to drain that lymph fluid out, which is causing the congestion. When you get congestion in a joint or muscle, that typically pinches the nerves and is the catalyst for the pain.

Gotcha. So the Kinesio tape is something that's been used in the past to assist with injury management and you guys have improved on that concept.

Exactly. And if you think about it, the same science that that helps alleviate common sports injuries like increasing blood flow and draining limb fluid, can also be used for performance advantages. So we all know that getting more blood to a muscle is always a good thing. Why is that a good thing? Well, it helps reduce fatigue. And if you're not as fatigued, then you can obviously go harder and stronger or longer, as we say in the rock tape biz. Additionally, this type of tape reduces muscle vibration, which is also a leading cause of muscle fatigue. So just as you might wear a compression garment to reduce muscle vibration, you can also wear cape. And in fact, I'm not sure if you're aware of this or listeners are, but the wtc, the World Triathlon Corporation, recently banned compression socks at Kona this year. Ironman Kona Competition. Subsequently they reversed the ban because I think all the sock guys complained. But what we did was we jumped on that. Right. Because compression garments are great and rock tape works great with compression garments. But a sleeve that fits me may not fit you and vice versa. But with rock tape, you can build a compression ring around your calf that is totally dialed in to the exact right amount of compression that you want. So we kind of think of it as a high resolution compression garment and.

It'S something that you would do yourself at home, put this tape on?

Absolutely. We've sold thousands and thousands and thousands of rolls of this already, and we sell it primarily to the elite athletes and the weekend warriors. And they're taking it, and they're following the video instructions that we have on our website that show you how to tape, and they're doing it in the field before races at home. It's really simple to do, really.

So you can go online, you can look at this video that shows you how to apply this tape. What about some kind of a manual? Do you get instructions with the tape as well?

Yes, you do. You get a small booklet that's contained in every box of rock tape that shows you about seven of the most common taping protocols. And then if you want to explore a couple of other protocols, there's 17 different videos that you can watch online. I'll also mention, kind of scooped for you, but next week, we're publishing a book on power taping. And what power taping is is a new type of protocol that we've developed that shows you how to tape for performance. So while rock tape is great for treating these naggling little injuries that we all suffer from time to time, whether it be it band, runner's knee, cyclist knee, Achilles tendon, various sprains, lower back, shoulder pain, that kind of thing, there's a whole new area that we're exploring called power taping, which is just putting tape on to promote for performance. The basic synopsis is that there's low muscle groups in your body that are sport specific. And by putting a tactical piece of sensation on the largest organ in the body, which is your skin, with tape, what we do is we increase proprioception. And that's a fancy way of saying your brain is better able to organize the firing and contractions of your muscles because it can feel this tape on your skin. And so if it's more organized, it operates more efficiently and economically. And of course, if you're more economic in your motions and your movements, they fatigue less.

Interesting. So can you give me an example of some of the type of injuries that you would actually use something like this for? Like, just walk me through the process of the athlete getting injured, how they would get the rock tape when it comes, how they would put it on, and what type of things it's really effective for?

Sure. The most popular taping that we do is, of course, the knee, because that is a joint that takes a lot of trauma during running and a little bit in cycling. The typical problem with Knees is they wear out as we age and you get this cartilage on cartilage problem which is very, very painful. And you get case of tendonitis in your knee and it becomes very painful run or cycle. So what we do is after you get your rock tape, you basically take three pieces of tape about 8 inches long and you anchor one above the patella or kneecap and run it right below and then do the same thing on the other side of the knee. And that covers up the it band and basically creates a basket of support for the knee. And then the last piece, the third piece you put right underneath the kneecap and that basically locks the kneecap in place so it doesn't float around and get that grinding that we all have sometimes. And that solves 99.9% of tendonitis in the knee. And what that enables an athlete to do is go out and perform like they want to without having this nagging pain issue that detracts from their performance.

Say I wanted to put this stuff on my shoulder and go for a swim. Is it waterproof? Does it hold up when you're swimming, say with a wetsuit on or in the open water or in the chlorine? How does it work with swimming?

It sure is. I mean, we've taped over, I think, 2,000 triathletes and we haven't had one tape failure. And you have to realize that it takes a bit of engineering to make a little piece of tape withstand that kind of torture. I mean, these guys are jumping in the Pacific, they're swimming for a half a mile, which isn't that hard on the tape. But when they get out and go through that transition and they're ripping that wetsuit off over a wet piece of tape, you really have to have the formula right for it to hang. And we do. Then they jump on the bike and ride for 40k, which isn't that difficult because that's pretty low impact sport. But then they go run 6 to 10 miles, right? And that's a high impact sport. And that's like, you know, each footfall is six GS worth of impact. So over six miles, that's like 30,000 G forces pulling on the tape trying to make it come off. So we really had to engineer it for the endurance athlete. And I'm proud to say that I think of the 2,000 odd athletes that we've taped, we've had one tape failure.

Wow, that's amazing. On your website right now, and I'm looking at the actual rolls and you got these in all sorts of different colors. It's kind of cool. Some different designs, but as far as one roll goes, would one roll be something that would get me through taping my knee for a single race? Or is that like a week's worth of training supplies? Or how do those rolls work in terms of how much tape you actually go through?

Yeah. So each roll has five meters of material in it, which is about 16 and a half feet and a rol for a typical athlete. Usage varies depending on how big you are and of course, how much you're using the tape and which body part you're taping. But typically it lasts anywhere from a month to two months.

Interesting.

The one thing I'll point out is the protocol for using this is a little bit different than your traditional athletic tape. Right. Your traditional athletic tape actually does not stretch. Our tape stretch is 190%, and that's why you have full range of motion. And if you're familiar with the old school athletic tape, when you got taped up by your coach or trainer, typically they would just bind you because it was all about stability. And basically those things act as a tourniquet. Whether it's a knee brace or old school athletic tape, you're actually cutting off the blood flow to that damaged area, which, if you think about it, is probably not the smartest thing that you want to do, which is why you always took it off about an hour after you put it on. Right. Rock tape is completely different. What you do is you put it on the day before you race, you leave it on during race day, you leave it on the day after the race to promote recovery, and then you take it off on your fourth day. So that's why we're able to get a month to two months usage out of five meters versus something much smaller right now.

What kind of people are using this? I don't know if you can do any name dropping, but do you have any? I mean, is this primarily triathletes? Do you have power athletes? Weightlifters? Team athletes? What kind of people?

Yeah, well, we're very, very proud of our athletes that you know and you don't know. We give a lot back to a lot of the fringe sports and specifically to the kids in the fringe sports. We're a big supporter of junior cycling. We participated in the US Junior National Cycling Competition this year up in bend and was U23 and juniors as well. And we probably taped 50 athletes, and I'd say over 12 were on the podium this year. So guys like Ian Moore, who just won the US Track national championship just a few days ago. He's one of our rock stars. Young kid, great kid. Down in Southern California, we've got Jackson Stewart, who rides for BMC. He's a pro. Daniel Holloway, Shelly Olds, who's 2008 national track champion. Kerry Higgins, five time national track champion. I mean, the list goes on and on and on and on. So we've got some world class athletes out there wearing the tape. We're really proud that we just announced Jenna Shoemaker, who's top rated triathlete. We're doing a custom breast cancer tape for her. So it's black with the pink ribbon and she's going to be wearing that out of her races. And of course, we're donating all the proceeds to the cancer society.

Wow. And rocktape.com, which is a website I'm actually looking at right now, has a lot of information, a lot of really cool pictures of how the tape is being applied. And I'm actually pretty excited to have found this just because, like you say, can be something a little bit more dynamic and customizable than say, like a compression sock or a compression type. Greg from Rocktape.com is that the best place for people to go to find out more resources or find out more information on taping like this?

Absolutely. You can go to rocktape.com you can learn about the whole taping protocol. You can, of course, purchase products there online at a variety of other online retailers as well. So it's a great resource to go and familiarize yourself with the concept behind taping. And then of course, we also do a ton of events. Ben, I mean, I can't tell you. I think we've done 60 events over the last 90 days. So we're at your local race, your local crit, your local tri. Just look for the rock tape signs and tent and come by and say hi.

Fantastic. I'll put a link in the show notes to rocktape.com you can go check it out. If you're somebody who's kind of struggling with an injury, you want to figure out if this type of taping is actually something that will work for you. Go check it out. So, Greg, thanks for coming on the show today.

Thank you, Ben.

Now, after we finished that interview, Greg gave me some pretty cool news. What he wants to do is offer anybody that listens to this show 10% discount on rock tape. So it's already, what did you say, $20. So that would make it even less. It looks like $18 for some of this rock tape. For a month supply of rock tape, you have to use discount code Greenfield. So you go to rocktape.com you choose what you want, or you call them up on the phone and you use discount code Greenfield to get a 10% discount on rock tape. So thanks, Greg. That was really generous. Now, before we close out the show today, I know that I promised you that I was going to talk a little bit about fat burning zones and some of the research from the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. And I was also going to tell you about the hormonal response to resistance training. So these were probably the two studies in the recent journal that just came out this week that I really wanted to bring to your attention. Now, the first one that looked at the number of repetitions used during weightlifting was kind of looking at the response when people lifted at about 50% of their, what's called their one repetition max. People lifted at 75% of that and people who lifted at 90% of that. And what they were looking at was something called the creatine kinase response response, as well as the testosterone response after the workout and the cortisol response after the workout. And what they found was that the hormonal response to weightlifting or resistance training was most elevated in the group that used about 75% of a one repetition maximum. So the way that you can think about it is not a really light load and not a really heavy load, but basically kind of a medium load, the type of load that you would use with right around 10 to 12 repetitions. And so what that means is that if all you're going after is getting yourself kind of tired out, really working the muscle and getting the maximum hormonal adaptation to strength training or to weightlifting or to lean muscle toning in the weight room, that 10 to 12 rep range is probably going to be a pretty good range for you. If you really, truly are using about 75% of your one repetition maximum. That doesn't mean that you have to go do a one repetition maximum test. You can actually approximate about what 75% intensity feels like for you. And then the other study that I wanted to talk to you about was one that looked at the difference in the fat burning zone in what's called the aerobic zone. And there have been many studies that have come out over the years that have literally hooked people up to masks, measured the amount of carbon dioxide they produce and the amount of oxygen that they consume, and determined which heart rate elicited the greatest burn of fat. And this study wanted to see whether the fat burning zone in most people was actually high enough to actually get those people aerobically fit at the same time. And so what they did was they tested people on a treadmill, they measured the amount of fat that they were oxidizing. And it turned out that most people do reach their maximum fat burning zone at an intensity that's high enough to actually give them some cardiovascular training adaptations. Now, the flip side of the to that is that this zone varied a lot from individual to individual. It turned out to be between 60 and 80% of your maximum heart rate. That was where the maximum fat burning zone was. And so for somebody like, okay, let's just say me, if my max heart rate is 190, 60% of that is about 112, 80% of that is about 100, that's a pretty big range to kind of guess whether my fat burning heart rate zone is closer to 112 or closer to 152. You can get your fat burning zone tested using the identical protocol that they used in this study. And that's where you go into an exercise physiology lab or you go to a metabolic laboratory and you tell them that you want an exercise metabolic test, or it's also known as the VO2 test test. And that way you can find out the exact heart rate at which you peak in your fat oxidizing. That would be kind of the gold standard way to make sure that you're not just doing guesswork. Otherwise, 60% to 80% is a pretty big range. One of the things that you can do is just monitor your body. If you get to the point where your muscles are burning and you're breathing hard, then you're past your maximum fat burning zone. And when I it put together the programs for the clients that I work with, we will use a combination of the fat burning zone, of what I call the fitness zone, of some high intensity intervals, some low intensity aerobic work. So it's not like the fat burning zone is all that you'll ever want to work in if you want to burn fat. But do understand that it's highly variable from individual to individual. And that's this week's news from the German Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research. All right, folks, Well, I think that just about wraps it up for this week. Remember, in itunes, you can go and leave us a review. You can leave the Ben Greenfield Fitness podcast a ranking. It really helps to get the word out about our show and what I think would be really cool is if we can kind of rise through the ranks in itunes and be kind of towards the top of the health and fitness podcast, I think that'd be really cool. And you are actually in charge of making that happen. And that's all based off of if you rank the show, if you give it a star rating. I know there's a lot of people that listen to this show, but I went and looked at the reviews and there's only 18 reviews on there and there are over 3,000 people that listen to this show on a weekly basis. So I know there's some people out there that could be leaving reviews. Do it. Do me a favor and do it. That'd be really cool. Anyways, if you have any other questions, then email me ben greenfieldfitness.com make sure you go to the show notes for this podcast, podcast number 65, and check out some of the links to things like the triathlon dominator plan, the triathlon training camp, the HCG diet, the survey on water. Just spend about five minutes over here there, surfing around. So until next time, where we're going to do an interview on motivation and psychology of working out, this is Ben Greenfield signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.