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mikegranich87 · 4 years ago

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Pixel 5a review: The 4a 5G wasn't broken, so Google didn't fix it

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The Pixel 6 is just around the corner. But before Google brings it and its Tensor mobile chip to market, the company is updating its entry level offering with the $449 Pixel 5a. The whole point of the “a” family is to offer the basics at a reasonable price without sacrificing too much of the Pixel experience in the process. That means a relatively clean version of Android with a bunch of AI tricks and a heavy focus on photography.

But apparently Google feels like it more or less nailed that formula with the Pixel 4a 5G because the 5a is basically the same phone. (Note: The Pixel 5a is not a direct successor to the 4a, which was a much smaller device.) There are some differences — notably the addition of IP67 waterproofing — but most of the tweaks are extremely minor. Even the processor and RAM haven’t changed. So, if we said you could do better way back in October of 2020, what does that mean for the 5a in the fall of 2021?

Well, it makes the Pixel 5a about as unexciting as a phone can be, for one. But look, boring isn’t necessarily bad. Especially when you’re talking about the mid and lower tiers of the smartphone market. For one, keeping things staid allows Google to focus its efforts on battery life and performance optimization. And just like the last generation of Pixels, the 5a feels pretty responsive despite the aging Snapdragon 765G inside. That said, the 765G wasn’t exactly top of the line last year, and it’s starting to show its limits. While scrolling through the UI and doing simple things like reading email and sending text messages, the 5a is indistinguishable from any flagship device. It even handles most mobile games without a hiccup. I spent some time playing The Elder Scrolls: Blades and Wild Castle and the phone barely broke a sweat.

But, I did notice it stutter a few times while navigating YouTube, editing photos and jotting down my thoughts for this review in Evernote. The latter I could easily chalk up to Evernote’s questionable development over the last few years, but the pauses while switching to fullscreen in YouTube and swapping filters in Google Photos are a bit more concerning.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The plus side of going with something a bit older and lower-powered (not to mention with an integrated 5G modem) is power efficiency. The 4a 5G was already something of a beast, lasting over 17 hours in our battery drain test before our reviews editor Cherlynn Low simply gave up and moved on with her life. That device had a 3,885mAh battery. The 5a has a 4,680mAh cell. It took 22 hours and 56 of playing a video on loop at 50-brightness before it finally powered down.

After 24 hour of heavy usage — playing games, repeatedly running 5G speed tests, installing apps, watching videos on YouTube and even letting it play sleep sounds overnight — the battery was still at 40 percent. It didn’t finally crap out until almost 2AM on day two. And if you turn on Extreme Battery Saver, things could get even more absurd. I’m fairly confident that under normal use you could get a full 48 hours out of the Pixel 5a before needing to find an outlet.

Battery life isn’t the only difference between the 5a and 4a 5G: The new phone is also IP67 rated for water and dust resistance. At a time when many smartphones have at least some form of water resistance the Pixel 4a 5G was sort of a disappointment. In fact, the lack of waterproofing was one of the big cons called out in our review. But the Pixel 5a should easily survive getting caught in the rain or if you drop it in a toilet. It can withstand being submerged in water up to one meter deep for 30 minutes, but I wouldn’t push this to its limits. Definitely don’t go swimming with it in your pocket.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

The last difference between the Pixel 5a and the 4a 5G is in the size and construction, but it’s subtle. The 5a has a metal unibody as opposed to a polycarbonate one. The texture is still matte and similar to the softtouch of the previous models, though, and the upgrade to Gorilla Glass 6 from Gorilla Glass 3 is notable, but you’ll never notice the difference in daily use. The 5a comes in one finish: Mostly Black. Some might find the look a little dull, and it’s certainly on the utilitarian side, but I quite liked the feel of the phone. The finish is a nice contrast to the seemingly endless sea of smooth glassy surfaces and the heft is just right, too.

The 5a is ever so slightly larger and heavier, but you’re talking about a few millimeters and grams. Even if you had a Pixel 4a 5G in one hand and a Pixel 5a in the other you’d be hard pressed to figure out which is which.

The change in size mostly comes down to the slightly larger screen. The OLED panel on the 5a is 6.34 inches, versus 6.2 inches on the 4a 5G. Otherwise, though, the screens are basically the same. The increased resolution of 2,400 x 1,080 makes up for the size difference so they both have a density of 413 ppi. Both also sport a contrast ratio of 100,000:1 and support HDR and are stuck at now outdated 60Hz. And both are just bright enough to use in direct sunlight, though high brightness mode is definitely a necessity if you’re watching a video outdoors.

Even the holepunch for the front-facing camera is in the same place. That said, I appreciated Google’s “for fun” wallpapers that camouflage the hole by incorporating it into the design. My favorite is the record player where the camera becomes the hole at the center of an LP.

That 8-megapixel front-facing camera, by the way, is one of the weak points of the 5a. It does the job in perfect lighting and for video calls. But details can be a bit soft, in low light it gets noisy and portrait mode is hit or miss. Overall, I found Google’s portrait feature to be a bit too aggressive even on the main camera. You can easily adjust the blur and depth after the fact, but the default settings could stand to be more subtle.

The selfie cam, though, is the same one found on the Pixel 4a 5G, so none of this is a surprise. In fact, all of the cameras are the same. The two sensors around the rear, however, are much better than the one on the front. There’s a 12.2-megapixel main shooter with optical image stabilization and a 16-megapixel ultra-wide-angle lens. They have a somewhat “moody” vibe when compared to shots from an iPhone or a Galaxy device, but they’re not obviously inferior. And even though images taken with the wide-angle lens can get a little fuzzy if you start zooming in on details, Google’s processing does an admirable job of minimizing barrel distortion. Google isn’t at the top of the smartphone camera heap anymore, but it’s not far off and photography is still an undeniable strong suit of the Pixel family.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

There’s nothing new to report, though. It’s the same set of excellent photography features that you got last year: Portrait lighting can help clean up and add some contrast to photos of people (but sadly not pets — the option only appears if a human face is detected). Night Sight turns on automatically in dim lighting and at times produces mind-blowing results. And the video stabilization modes are excellent. Cinematic Pan, which combines slow motion with super smooth movement, is especially fun.

Also, just like every other “a” model Pixel, this one has a headphone jack. All I can say is: That’s great, now please bring the headphone jack back to flagship phones. I know I’m not the only person clamoring for it. And it drives me nuts that the only way to get an old-school 3.5mm jack on my phone is to go down market.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

One last thing to mention: The actual full name of the phone is the Pixel 5a with 5G. So, guess what, it supports 5G connectivity. That’s not really surprising since the Snapdragon 765G has an integrated 5G modem. Unlike the Pixel 4a 5G, however, there is no mmWave variant of the 5a. And, although technically it’s capable of C-Band support, it’s currently not enabled and Google wouldn’t commit to adding support in the future. That’s not a huge deal at the moment since there are no active C-Band networks in the US yet. But it might irk some when AT&T and Verizon start flipping the switch, likely sometime later this year. That said, full C-Band rollout isn’t expected to happen until at least late 2023.

Those caveats out of the way, 5G still seems stuck in a state of arrested development. I tested the Pixel 5a using Google Fi, which essentially means I was on T-Mobile’s network and speeds were all over the place. In my home, it was often slower than Verizon’s LTE network, averaging around 35mbps down. (Note: Verizon is Engadget’s parent company… for now.) But two and half miles up the road at a local Subaru dealership I was routinely getting over 300mbps down, topping out at 370mbps.

Terrence O'Brien / Engadget

Of course, 5G and excellent cameras aren’t a rarity at this price any more. Mid-tier phones have come a long way over the last few years. The problem for Google is, it no longer clearly “owns the midrange.” Part of that is down to price. While the 5a is $50 cheaper than the 4a 5G, it’s not the obvious bargain that the 4a was at $350. If it was even just $50 cheaper still, the 5a would be a much easier sell at $399.

The Samsung A52 5G is slightly more expensive at $500 (though regularly on sale for less) and has a slower Snapdragon 750G SoC. But, its Super AMOLED screen clearly outclasses the Pixel’s and has a 120Hz refresh rate. Plus, its camera system is much sharper and feature-packed (but that doesn’t necessarily mean “better”). In addition to a primary camera and ultra-wide shooter, there’s a macro lens and a depth sensor that helps with portrait mode. While both the A52 and 5a ship with 128GB of storage, the Samsung has an advantage in that it has a microSD card slot.

Then there’s the OnePlus Nord N2 5G. It has a trio of cameras around the back, including a 50-megapixel primary sensor, an AMOLED screen with a 90Hz refresh rate, and up to 12GB of RAM. Then again, it has a MediaTek processor, which you rarely see in phones in the US and with good reason: They’re not exactly known for their high-end performance. But perhaps more importantly, you’re highly unlikely to be making a choice between the Nord N2 and the Pixel 5a since the former isn’t available in the US, and the later is only available in the US and Japan.

Of course, if you’re more of an iOS fan, the obvious comparison would seem to be the iPhone SE. It’s the same price as the Pixel 5a for a 128GB model, but it does feel quite a bit dated. It still uses the old iPhone 8 form factor with a Touch ID home button instead of Face ID, it's positively miniscule at 4.7 inches and doesn’t support 5G. Frankly, if you’re dead set on iOS, I might suggest saving your pennies and springing for the $699 iPhone 12 mini.

So, no, Google doesn’t “own the midrange” any more. The Pixel 5a is almost aggressively boring, but it’s not bad. If you want the Pixel experience and don’t want to break the bank, this is the way to go. But if you’re just looking for the best bang for your buck, the choice is far less clear.

from Mike Granich https://www.engadget.com/google-pixel-5-a-review-android-midrange-5g-smartphone-160051630.html?src=rss

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rdclsuperfoods · 4 years ago

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I’ve had a trip to climb Denali on the horizon for two winters now, which means I’ve had more than enough time to prep. Planning the food you’re going to eat is one of the most tedious and critical tasks on a long expedition—and probably one of the most important when nearly every day of that month will be spent exerting massive amounts of energy. Even something as seemingly small as snack choice can take, in my case, almost two years to perfect. It all started with an experiment in the fall of 2019: How many different adventure fuel options could I try before heading to Alaska? That experiment necessitated some organization, so I began logging every snack I’d taken hiking, climbing, skiing, backpacking, and more into a massive spreadsheet I called the Snack Tracker 1000. Along with the name and flavor of the product and a rating based on how much I enjoyed eating it, I would input details from the wrapper: a pile of nutrition facts and the weight of the product. And then I let Google Sheets do its best Jonah-Hill-in-Moneyball impression to spit out a final Snack Value Rating. Here’s what I learned.

The Starting Point: Breakfast and Dinner

For most trips, including my Denali expedition, breakfast and dinner are fairly predictable. Ideally we’re eating each at camp, which means these meals can be a little more traditional. Our meals—custom designed and dehydrated by Nutrition By Julie—are set up to have everything we need. But throughout the day, while we’re moving and don’t have access to a stove or kitchen, it’s more efficient to throw out the idea of “lunch” in favor of taking in smaller numbers of calories consistently interspersed between our two big meals. That’s where snacks come in.

What Is the Ideal Snack?

Calories are the obvious place to start when it comes to planning your food for a big mission. Everyone has different caloric needs (one way to calculate yours is by using the MET method)—we decided to shoot for approximately 3,000 calories per day. Our breakfasts and dinners took care of between 1,000 and 1,200 calories each, which meant we had roughly an additional 1,000 calories to slowly take in throughout the day.

Rebecca Dent, a dietitian for the mountain athlete training program company Uphill Athlete, recommends refueling every 60 to 90 minutes throughout an active day, which is somewhere in the ballpark of 200 to 300 calories at a time—much more than that, and your body will have a hard time processing while you keep moving.

In terms of the breakdown of those calories, Dent recommends a good mix of both carbohydrates and proteins throughout the day: roughly in a four-to-one ratio. While you’re active, your body will need carbohydrates (and burn them more quickly), but introducing proteins throughout the day, rather than simply resupplying them at the end of the day, will help keep your longer-term energy stores up.

On an expedition, of course, another critical factor in snacking is how much of these things—calories, carbs, and proteins��you get for the weight you need to carry. For obvious reasons, the more nutrients packed into a set weight, the less you’re going to need to carry, and the more bang you’ll get for your backpack’s buck.

But at the end of the day, according to Dent, “The most important thing is that when you get out there, you have foods that you’re going to want to eat.” Mixed with vigorous exercise, cold, and elevation, not everything is going to be palatable. “At home, everything tastes good,” Dent said, so she recommends trying all your options out in the field before a big trip.

How to Calculate It

Step one in using the Snack Tracker 1000 involves trying the food and rating its favorability: How much do I like eating it? Then I input the nutrition facts into their own columns (per package, rather than per serving, to make the math easier), as well as the product’s weight. Here’s where the math starts: dividing the number of calories by the weight gives a relatively simple calories per ounce—the snack’s weight efficiency. The higher the number, the more energy you get for what you have to carry. (For fun, you can do the same math with carbs and proteins to see which items are better at packing each of those nutrients into their size.)

From here, my goal was to see which options best accomplished two things—got as close as possible to that four-to-one ratio, and packed them as efficiently as possible—with the hope that by focusing on those that did the best of each, I could optimize both my nutrition intake and pack weight. I used three formulas to do this:

Nutrient Score=ABS((4/(Carbs/Protein))-1)*100

This spits out a score for each snack that rates it on how close it is to that ideal carbs to protein ratio. A score of zero is a perfect four-to-one. (I used an absolute value fuction here to make sure the value is always positive, to make for easier ranking.)

Caloric Efficiency=(Weight/Calories)*5000

This formula is the same as the calorie efficiency I already calculated, but scaled to roughly match the carb to protein score, and it flips it. The lower the number, the more calorie-dense it is.

Snack Value Rating=Nutrient Score+Calorie Efficiency

Finally, this Mystery Formula combines the two scores to make the ultimate Snack Value Rating, evaluating how well the foods do both things.

The Results

Out of the almost 70 snacks I tried, the top choices according to the Mystery Formula are a mix of classic standbys and surprising winners. At the very top of the list are products like Clif’s Nut Butter Bars and Cubes, thanks to a particularly impressive Nutrient Score: both have between 3.7 and 4.6 carbs for every gram of protein. But they’re equally efficient packers.

Also high on the list are various different chocolate and candy bars like Snickers and Twix, with a grocery store brand 70 percent cacao bar taking the cake. Chocolate like that is particularly calorie-dense and has enough protein (from dairy, and nuts in the case of a Snickers bar) to score well on its Nutrient Score. While you wouldn’t want your snack budget to consist solely of these sweets (they’re loaded with fast-acting sugars and don’t have a lot of the antioxidants and fibers you also need), Dent says you definitely shouldn’t count them out. “Ultimately, it comes back to do you like it and will you eat it,” she said. And in the case of candy bars, the answer is more often yes, making them a great option, especially for high altitude or during high exertion when other snacks might not go down.

At the bottom of the list are protein-heavy products like jerkys and meat sticks, which score so poorly largely because their overzealous protein content throws their Nutrient Score to the moon. Dent says there’s still a place for them, though. Not only do they add some variety in flavor and texture (making them easier to eat alongside other more homogeneous-textured options), but they can help make up for protein lost in your candy bar selections. Dent suggests pairing them with your carb-heavy snacks: the protein they provide is necessary, but is slower acting and won’t benefit you very quickly.

In the end, the Snack Tracker 1000 will never be the end-all-be-all solution for adventure snacks. Variety—in flavor, texture, and type—is critical to your nutrition over a long endurance activity. But by training an eye toward the right balance of carbs and proteins as well as the weight of each snack, you’re more likely to get everything your body needs, without breaking under your pack weight.

via Outside Magazine: Nutrition

#IFTTT #Outside Magazine: Nutrition

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atr-programming · 8 years ago

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Somatotypes

I was involved in a discussion on Reddit a couple of days ago regarding my reference to Somatotypes in my post titled “The Big Guy… How to Train?”. I was told that the theory had been debunked as junk science years ago and had no relevance to training or diet. This is a long one folks, but bear with me as it turns out this is a topic with some passion behind it.

At ATR, we definitely consider the body type when it comes to training. When the body type gets discussed, it’s easy to throw around the somatotypes and label athletes as being either mesomorphic, ectomorphic, or endomorphic.

There is a large amount of discussion regarding whether or not they have any place in the fitness world. Some say that there are hard and fast relationships between different somatotypes and the way they should be exercising and dieting. Others say that it is junk science that needs to be discarded in its entirety.

Let’s start at the beginning.

Psychological History

Back in the 1940s a guy by the name of William Herbert Sheldon thought that just by looking at a person, he could determine how smart, nice, and aggressive a person was. He said there were three human physiques, while one person might have influences from all three, these body types formed an all-inclusive taxonomy.

1. Endomorphy was referenced to describe the fatness or the roundness of a person’s physique.

2. Mesomorphy was referenced to describe how muscular a body was.

3. Ectomorphy was referenced to describe how lean and slender the person was.

In Mr. Sheldon’s research, he actually believed that these body types were directly linked to three specific personality types. Those were:

1. Viscerotonia, or a social, complacent, and food loving individual.

2. Somatotonia, or a physical, aggressive, and tough individual.

3. Cerebrotonia, or a sensitive, introverted, and intellectual individual.

He basically tried to prove the stereotypes about the jolly fat man, the meat-headed brute, and the lean wise-man. Now I’m sure that we all know that you don’t have to be fat to be social, muscular to be tough, or slender to have an intellect. His own research was considered to be illegitimate, and the idea that body types and psychological temperaments were somehow linked was thrown out.

From Psychology to Athletics

While the physical structure of a person doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about their mind, it can certainly tell you about other parts of their body and how they interact with the world. This led to the development of the Heath-Carter formula and its use in anthropological studies by researchers. The Heath-Carter formula actually took measurements of a person’s body and plugged it into various equations that allowed a researcher to actually assess a person’s endomorphy, mesomorphy, or ectomorphy all on a 7-point scale.

Eventually, professionals in the field of physical education got ahold of the formula and started using it their studies. Most of the studies that were popularized were used to show that athletes built in certain ways were going to be more successful at certain sports. For example, a study performed to see what commonalities were there in the body types of successful tennis players or rowers.

Where It Is Today

What this has turned into in our fitness world is a dispute that is filled with emotion and potentially misunderstanding. While the original theories of Sheldon were debunked, and ridiculous, the images of the endomorph, the mesomorph, and the ectomorph are still in our heads today. Everyone in the industry knows what they are, but there is a wide spectrum of opinion on whether or not anything can be applied from the original taxonomy.

The question is: Which side is correct? Does it belong, or is it all a hoax?

Today if you go to look for research that will definitively tell you the answer to that question, you will find that none exists. There is a lot of research still being done today that analyzes the individual somatotype of elite athletes, likely to be used to seek out potential recruits who bear the physical qualities necessary to be successful at their given sport.

It is difficult to find any information that directly pertains to somatotypes and nutrition, or somatotypes and fitness. Seems strange, especially considering the way that it is either touted as gospel or considered damnable witchcraft by the fitness community.

The Assumptions - Diet

First let’s discuss nutrition. The basic stereotypes surrounding nutrition for the three somatotypes are as follows:

1. Endomorph – The endomorph has a low carbohydrate tolerance, and as such should be eating more fat, and less carbohydrates in their diet.

2. Mesomorph – Mesomorphs typically have a reasonable tolerance for both carbohydrates and fats, and should consume a fairly level mix, perhaps slightly weighted towards carbohydrates.

3. Ectomorph – The ectomorph has a high carbohydrate tolerance, and as such should be eating more carbohydrates and less fats.

The old rule of thumb regarding protein is 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of your goal weight. While this exact figure is often debated amongst professionals, this figure is one that has been utilized in the bodybuilding and elite athletics domains and is the one that ATR has seen the most success with.

There is a debate regarding the amount of carbohydrates and fats that a person should have in their diet. Some would say that a calorie is a calorie, and that as long as you are maintaining a deficit you will lose weight. Others would say that limiting one of either fats or carbohydrates will help you to shed pounds. While both of these are likely correct in their own way, at ATR we are trying to optimize the results of our athletes, not just see weight loss.

If we look to the Bodybuilding world, preserving muscle and losing fat is the ultimate goal for a large portion of the year. These athletes utilize carbohydrate manipulation to drive their weight loss. Frank Zane would bob in and out of a ketogenic state to cut down his weight. In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, he describes that an athlete should eat as little carbohydrates as possible without going into a ketogenic state. Literally eating as little carbohydrates as possible without becoming carbohydrate deprived. To cut weight down, they cut carbohydrates down.

According to the most recent data from the US Dept. of Agriculture, the average carbohydrate intake for grown men is ~46-53%, and the average carbohydrate intake for grown women is ~49-53%. The average daily caloric intake is ~2400-2700 for men and ~1850-2000 for grown women. If the average American diet is half full of carbs, when I see a classic endomorph, I think that he’s not efficiently handling that carb-load. When I see a classic ectomorph, I think that he’s handling that carb-load very efficiently. These are generalizations that should not be used in a vacuum to prescribe an exact diet, but they do help to point the athlete in a new direction.

Keep in mind that the evaluation of athletes utilizing somatotypes as a tool is an exercise in futility when that athlete is at an extreme end of the spectrum. When you have someone that is excessively overweight, cutting back on food in general is likely the best advice to be given regardless of whether it’s carbohydrates, protein, or fats. It the athlete looks to be skin covered bones that spent the last 30 days in a desert, any food is likely to improve their overall situation.

The somatotypes give us a general idea of what is going on, not a diagnosis. They should be used as a tool to give preliminary understanding, and to guide follow up questions into a person’s health. To throw them out completely is to ignore common sense and

The Assumption - Training

When evaluating the somatotypes with the Heath-Carter formula, the width of the elbow and knee joints are compared to the girth of the arm and calf. In addition, the mass of the athlete is compared to the height of the athlete. There is no actual analysis of limb lengths, or their relationship to other parts of the body. Despite this, when we think of Endomorphs, we think of wide hips and wide shoulders relative to the height. This is likely because for the height to mass relationship to indicate endomorphy, the person simply has to be wider and shorter than a person to which the relationship would indicate ectomorphy.

As such, when we think endomorph, we think short, stocky, like carrying fat over the top of larger muscle bellies. With these wider bone and joint structures, they have a larger capacity to carry weight in general, both fat and muscle. Larger joints displace more weight, offering them more capacity to handle a load. When you look at a traditional powerlifting physique or a large lineman in football, often times it is very similar to that of the endomorph. Their limbs that form the lever when moving weights are shorter relative to the joints that form the fulcrum. Endomorphs have a leverage advantage when performing many exercises.

When we think ectomorph, we think long, lean, slender, and very little mass at all. The smaller bone structures of these people do not have the capacity to carry as much mass, neither muscle nor fat. With smaller joints, they do not displace weight as well, and as such tend to have less capacity to lift large weights. With long limbs and small joints, where the endomorph would see a leverage advantage, the ectomorph tends to be at a large disadvantage. However, with less mass to deal with, their physiology is not strained as hard when performing aerobic activity as the endomorph’s.

When it comes to athletics, the mesomorph is the golden boy of sorts. Their musculature is built on a bone structure somewhere in between the perfect stereotypical endomorph and the perfect stereotypical ectomorph. These physiques tend to be what you see amongst successful bodybuilders, a lot of wrestlers, and linebackers or full-backs in football.

Can We Use It?

Now back to the debate at hand: should this taxonomy have anything to do with the programming of an athlete?

At ATR, we believe it should to some degree. With leverage being a tool that the classic endomorph has at his disposal, manipulating heavier weights will be less of a problem than that of the classic ectomorph. Hitting a squat with short femurs, short tibias, wide hips, and wide knees, is much more mechanically advantageous than hitting a squat with a lack of those traits. The classic ectomorph is forced to move a load that is heavier relative to his or her lever and typically move that load farther because the lever is longer. If we define work as being force times displacement, the ectomorph is doing more work than the endomorph at the same weight.

Combine that line of thinking with the goals of the average endomorph and the average ectomorph. The endomorph typically wants to lose weight, while the ectomorph usually wants to gain. If the endomorph wants to lose weight, then he must increase his relative workload. The quickest way to do so would be to incorporate more of those levers at the same time using compound exercises. These exercises need to be performed to take advantage of their bone structure’s capacity for muscle, while increasing the density of the work through the simultaneous increase of repetitions and decrease of rest times. The ectomorph however would want to preserve any energy that they have to ensure that it goes towards growth instead of output. They need to perform larger movements similar to the endomorph, however they need to perform their sets with ample rest time and less reps.

The mesomorph has the ability to gain muscle easily while maintaining less fat. The Heath-Carter formula literally defines a mesomorph by analyzing the amount of muscle the individual carries relative to the results of their skin fold measurements. This is the athlete that may want to spend some time on isolated movements in an attempt to round out the overall physique. The endomorphs and ectomorphs that have found a caloric balance at a body mass makeup they are happy with can and should also begin the sculpting process, using isolation movements to bring out what they might deem to be lagging body parts.

Regardless of whether or not you believe that a person can be classified as one of the three somatotypes or not, ignoring the attributes of individuals when programming will limit their potential progress. They may see gains, but they will come more slowly than they could be if you optimized their program based on their unique physical characteristics. Even if you don’t believe someone can be an endomorph, if you try to train an overweight individual with a long drawn out series of isolation movements, they will not see the same progress as the overweight individual who trains in a manner conducive to a classic stereotypical endomorph. The same statement applies for the ectomorph.

Productive Application

In the actual instruction manual produced written by Dr. Lindsay Carter for the application of the Heath-Carter formula, the image used to display the somatotype profile was on a coordinate grid of sorts. There were three points that each individually represented a degree of their respective somatotype. Incorporating the three directions, there were countless possibilities of physiques within the triangle that represented all variants. The point is that there are any number of combinations of the three somatotypes in any given individual. Think of the individual who has a lean and slender figure from the waist up, but carries a lot of fat on thick joints from the waist down. There’s also a classic physique known to all best described as a large belly on pair of stilts.

To find a physique that falls perfectly into any of the three somatotypes is rare, and may even be non-existent, however you can use the principles to guide your programming. Look to the athlete’s body to ask follow-up questions about their diet. Use their structure to determine what exercises will be best for them. To throw out all of these completely and just say training is training and a calorie is a calorie may lead to some results with beginners, but it will not give the intermediate or the advanced optimal results.

#somatotype #endomorph #mesomorph #ectomorph #atr #training #program #nutrition #workout #routine #programs #leverage #biomechanics #mechanics #heavy

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howtoloseweightfastsafely · 6 years ago

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Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

1. Spend the first 30 days grain/wheat-free, dairy-free, and gluten-free.

a. That means no bread, no pasta, no milk, and obviously no cookies you Cookie Monster, you. And, of course, no added sugar (2 pieces of fruit is OK).

b. Restrictive? Yes.

c. Effective? Absolutely

2. Eat the following:

a. Meats/fish (fattier, grass-fed/wild-caught versions to nourish the body with clean, healthy fats and quality proteins)

b. Veggies (excluding starchy ones like corn, peas, and carrots)

c. Olive oil (for dressings, or to add post-cooking) (don't use for most cooking, since it goes bad under high heat)

d. Extra-virgin coconut oil (for medium/high heat cooking)

e. Eat until you are satisfied. Don't worry about eating too much - trust me, it's hard to overeat when you're chewing on nutrient-dense protein for example, as opposed to inhaling a red velvet cupcake

3. BIG ONE for pain relief: Avoid nightshades.

a. These include some fairly well-known veggies and spices that come from the Solanaceae family, such as:

i. Potatoes, eggplant, tomatoes, peppers, paprika, Tabasco sauce, and more (sweet potatoes and black pepper are not nightshades)

b. The steroid alkaloids (one of 4 alkaloids) in nightshades, which include solanine, are the main offenders.

c. They are naturally-produced toxic substances that help the plants defend against insects, diseases and other predators.

i. These are very similar to lectins binding to glucosamine and penetrating our cell walls, as discussed in Chapter 11.

d. These alkaloids are thought to cause calcium loss in the bones, and excess calcium deposits in soft tissue.

i. As a result, there may be a significant pro-inflammatory response in the body

e. To avoid this pro-inflammatory response, if you have osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, gout, or any form of joint pain, it is wise to cut these foods OUT for 30 days.

i. See how the body responds. Assess the damage (or lack thereof) and continue forward.

4. During the 30 days of this eating plan, you will be removing most food-based chemicals and allergens from your diet.

a. Many annoying health issues, including muscle and joint pain, aches, and stiffness, will seriously reduce significantly.

b. I'm not kidding, it's that simple. Food has a profound effect on pain, much more so than is commonly understood.

5. After the first 30 days, you can slowly experiment with adding foods back into your diet, and seeing how your body, skin, pain conditions, and mind react.

a. This process has been ESSENTIAL in helping me determine what I can and cannot eat for optimal health.

b. Only add in ONE FOOD per week. If you add more than 1 food and notice adverse reactions, you won't know which food is the troublesome one.

6. If you just can't fathom giving up regular milk, try Coconut and/or Almond Milk as an alternative (but no soy milk!).

a. Dairy is pro-inflammatory for many people but not so much for others. So, experiment with adding back it back into your diet after 30 days.

7. As for carbs: In the first 30 days, avoid them altogether (except for those from veggies and about 2 pieces of fruit).

a. After the 30 days, you can start experimenting with rice to see how joint pain and other health indicators (body fat, skin quality, etc.) respond.

b. Week by week, slowly add in other gluten-free, wheat-free carbs. Try sweet potatoes, quinoa, buckwheat, and millet.

c. You can try oatmeal and beans too, but they tend to be problematic unless properly soaked, sprouted and fermented.

d. Only if you are somewhat lean (under 20% body fat for men, 25% or so for women) AND training intensely, include white rice, sweet potatoes and/or yams during your post-workout meal. (For maximal pain reduction, though, I would still eliminate them for 30 days unless you absolutely cannot function without, due to your training load.)

Sound good?

Good.

Oh yeah, there's one more HUGE thing.

The Last and Most Important Points:

Adopting patience and acceptance

1. The lifestyle habits you've developed over the years got you to where you are right now.

True, we've been lied to by mass media and big corporations, but we've also played a part in our condition. It is what it is. Accept this and move on.

2. You now have a solution. It is up to you to implement it into your life. During this process, it will be difficult, but absolutely crucial to have dedication, discipline, and most importantly, patience.

To be completely honest, I spent 22 years eating junk, not exercising correctly, and not nourishing my body well. It would be ridiculous of me to simply expect the effects of this to all disappear overnight.

And you shouldn't either.

But, you are guaranteed to have lots of quick, early success including significant pain relief and much more.

These results will happen as long as the plan is followed correctly, at least 90% of the time (for example, no more than 2 cheat meals or 'screw-ups' at most per week, out of 21 total meals).

FYI, in regards to pain conditions, you will feel it after a cheat meal.

The rush of refined grains, unhealthy oils, and more take an immediate toll on promoting inflammation and joint pain. So, I would definitely try my best to eat as 'clean' as possible, even for cheats. Try some home cooked rice, butter, and chicken with some paleo brownies, as opposed to ordering a deep dish, Meat Lover's pizza.

With all this being said:

Beyond the early successes, for most people, there is more work to be done in pursuit of the body, mind, and life you want. Practice acceptance, have dedication, and give it time.

And moving on, read the '6 Weeks to Lean' Exercise Guide, which includes a quite detailed section of reducing pain through foam rolling (self-myofascial release) and stretching.

So if you're not quite in workout-ready shape yet, you can at least get a jumpstart on relieving pain and feeling better!

Interested in losing weight? Then click below to see the exact steps I took to lose weight and keep it off for good...

Read the previous article about "How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain"

Read the next article about "How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)"

Moving forward, there are several other articles/topics I'll share so you can lose weight even faster, and feel great doing it.

Below is a list of these topics and you can use this Table of Contents to jump to the part that interests you the most.

Topic 1: How I Lost 30 Pounds In 90 Days - And How You Can Too

Topic 2: How I Lost Weight By Not Following The Mainstream Media And Health Guru's Advice - Why The Health Industry Is Broken And How We Can Fix It

Topic 3: The #1 Ridiculous Diet Myth Pushed By 95% Of Doctors And "experts" That Is Keeping You From The Body Of Your Dreams

Topic 4: The Dangers of Low-Carb and Other "No Calorie Counting" Diets

Topic 5: Why Red Meat May Be Good For You And Eggs Won't Kill You

Topic 6: Two Critical Hormones That Are Quietly Making Americans Sicker and Heavier Than Ever Before

Topic 7: Everything Popular Is Wrong: The Real Key To Long-Term Weight Loss

Topic 8: Why That New Miracle Diet Isn't So Much of a Miracle After All (And Why You're Guaranteed To Hate Yourself On It Sooner or Later)

Topic 9: A Nutrition Crash Course To Build A Healthy Body and Happy Mind

Topic 10: How Much You Really Need To Eat For Steady Fat Loss (The Truth About Calories and Macronutrients)

Topic 11: The Easy Way To Determining Your Calorie Intake

Topic 12: Calculating A Weight Loss Deficit

Topic 13: How To Determine Your Optimal "Macros" (And How The Skinny On The 3-Phase Extreme Fat Loss Formula)

Topic 14: Two Dangerous "Invisible Thorn" Foods Masquerading as "Heart Healthy Super Nutrients"

Topic 15: The Truth About Whole Grains And Beans: What Traditional Cultures Know About These So-called "Healthy Foods" That Most Americans Don't

Topic 16: The Inflammation-Reducing, Immune-Fortifying Secret of All Long-Living Cultures (This 3-Step Process Can Reduce Chronic Pain and Heal Your Gut in Less Than 24 Hours)

Topic 17: The Foolproof Immune-enhancing Plan That Cleanses And Purifies Your Body, While "patching Up" Holes, Gaps, And Inefficiencies In Your Digestive System (And How To Do It Without Wasting $10+ Per "meal" On Ridiculous Juice Cleanses)

Topic 18: The Great Soy Myth (and The Truth About Soy in Eastern Asia)

Topic 19: How Chemicals In Food Make Us Fat (Plus 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply)

Topic 20: 10 Banned Chemicals Still in the U.S. Food Supply

Topic 21: How To Protect Yourself Against Chronic Inflammation (What Time Magazine Calls A "Secret Killer")

Topic 22: The Truth About Buying Organic: Secrets The Health Food Industry Doesn't Want You To Know

Topic 23: Choosing High Quality Foods

Topic 24: A Recipe For Rapid Aging: The "Hidden" Compounds Stealing Your Youth, Minute by Minute

Topic 25: 7 Steps To Reduce AGEs and Slow Aging

Topic 26: The 10-second Trick That Can Slash Your Risk Of Cardiovascular Mortality By 37% (Most Traditional Cultures Have Done This For Centuries, But The Pharmaceutical Industry Would Be Up In Arms If More Modern-day Americans Knew About It)

Topic 27: How To Clean Up Your Liver and Vital Organs

Topic 28: The Simple Detox 'Cheat Sheet': How To Easily and Properly Cleanse, Nourish, and Rid Your Body of Dangerous Toxins (and Build a Lean Well-Oiled "Machine" in the Process)

Topic 29: How To Deal With the "Stress Hormone" Before It Deals With You

Topic 30: 7 Common Sense Ways to Have Uncommon Peace of Mind (or How To Stop Your "Stress Hormone" In Its Tracks)

Topic 31: How To Sleep Like A Baby (And Wake Up Feeling Like A Boss)

Topic 32: The 8-step Formula That Finally "fixes" Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested (If You Ever Find Yourself Hitting The Snooze Every Morning Or Dozing Off At Work, These Steps Will Change Your Life Forever)

Topic 33: For Even Better Leg Up And/or See Faster Results In Fixing Years Of Poor Sleep, Including Trouble Falling Asleep, Staying Asleep, And Waking Up Rested, Do The Following:

Topic 34: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 35: Part 1 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 36: Part 2 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 37: Part 3 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 38: Part 4 of 4: Solution To Overcoming Your Mental Barriers and Cultivating A Winner's Mentality

Topic 39: How To Beat Your Mental Roadblocks And Why It Can Be The Difference Between A Happy, Satisfying Life And A Sad, Fearful Existence (These Strategies Will Reduce Stress, Increase Productivity And Show You How To Fulfill All Your Dreams)

Topic 40: Maximum Fat Loss in Minimum Time: The Body Type Solution To Quick, Lasting Results

Topic 41: If You Want Maximum Results In Minimum Time You're Going To Have To Work Out (And Workout Hard, At That)

Topic 42: Food Planning For Maximum Fat Loss In Minimum Time

Topic 43: How To Lose Weight Fast If You're in Chronic Pain

Topic 44: Nutrition Basics for Fast Pain Relief (and Weight Loss)

Topic 45: How To Track Results (And Not Fall Into the Trap That Ruins 95% of Well-Thought Out Diets)

Topic 46: Advanced Fat Loss - Calorie Cycling, Carb Cycling and Intermittent Fasting

Topic 47: Advanced Fat Loss - Part I: Calorie Cycling

Topic 48: Advanced Fat Loss - Part II: Carb Cycling

Topic 49: Advanced Fat Loss - Part III: Intermittent Fasting

Topic 50: Putting It All Together

Learn more by visiting our website here: invigoratenow.com

#weightloss #diet

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restatebrk24219 · 7 years ago

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Keyword Research: What Do I Do with It Now?!

Picture this.

You’ve just hired an SEO agency, and to kick things off they’ve just delivered a massive Excel file titled “Keyword Research”. They’re clearly excited about all of the insights that lay within, and how fundamental this is to their work with you. But you’re relatively new to SEO, and when you open the file yourself it looks like a bottomless morass of terms, a bunch of tabs with weird, seemingly similar titles, and a ton of color coding.

Meanwhile your agency (or in-house SEO) likely just spent thirty, forty, maybe even more hours, learning everything they could about the keywords, phrases, and questions people are asking about your business in search engines. They’ve filtered through thousands upon thousands of spreadsheet rows until eyes bled, and the memory of a non-pivot-table-based universe started to fade slowly away…

My hope for this article is to breathe some life, extra utility, and maybe even a little excitement into what can otherwise be a pretty dense and technical report. Sure, this baby gets referenced in lots of subsequent work where individual insights and easily-shared narrative are the norm, but there’s so much good here that it’s absolutely worth taking the time to understand the big kahuna.

And if you’re in a rush and just looking for what the heck to do next without the primer, I’d suggest skipping to the oh-so-conveniently identified Action Items under each section.

What is the point of keyword research?

Starting simple: keyword research is a process that uses a combination of tools to understand what words, phrases, questions, and topics people are searching for, around a product or service, and its related topics. This research allows us to better understand how we’ll improve organic rankings and identify opportunities for new content.

As one of the original SEO tactics, keyword research has been spammed, abused, and just about buzz-worded to death. It’s even been threatened more recently by machine learning and AI, but as an audience and marketing alignment tool it’s here to stay.

In the era of semantic search, RankBrain, and dynamic SERPs, this research can be the key to a truly successful SEO + content program or campaign.

Example: selling digital marketing agency services?? Write about “keyword research” and “SEO” if you find that people are looking for that topic with any consistency or volume. Eureka!

Any keyword research analysis worth its salt will clearly identify opportunities to optimize current pages within the site to improve search visibility. Quick wins!

After pointing out those existing opportunities, the research should uncover new keywords, topics, and questions for which your site does not currently rank. You can’t afford stop with just your own analytics data. These findings represent gaps that you can fill with evergreen pages, blog posts, or other pieces of owned content.

What is the keyword research process?

At Portent, the keyword research process to identify high-volume or high-value niche keywords for our Content and SEO strategies breaks down into four phases:

Find keyword opportunities by identifying current ranking phrases and pages for related terms. (“Where do you show up, and which page is getting the job done?”)

Research new, high-volume or high-value phrases for which the site is not currently ranking. (“Where do we have important gaps in our content?”).

Find questions people ask around the central terms and key ideas of your site, so you can answer the right search queries. (“What topics could we directly address with our site to increase visibility?”)

Find core entities, or topics, to tie opportunity phrases and new keywords into content and build authority. (“How do we make sure search engines and humans see our answers as actually relevant to the question?”)

Again, at Portent we use a handful of tools like SEMrush, Moz Keyword Explorer, and Answer the Public to generate loads of data and throw all of it into a spreadsheet. Then, through the black-magic of pivots, vlookup, conditional formulas, and formatting, we end with something that’s easier to look at, and more importantly, easier to act on by product marketing managers, web copywriters, social media teams, and so on.

Bottom line: keyword research ideally needs to be understood by everyone who’s communicating with your current and prospective customers, so that you can marshal resources for content, promote, and generally talk about your products the same way that your future customers are searching for them.

To that end, let’s move on to the specific sections of a Keyword Research Report from Portent, and what you can pull from each section in both insight and action items.

Part 1 – Keyword Opportunities

When an SEO reviews your site, they’ll invariably find search queries or phrases for which you’re already ranking. And that’s great, but what do we do with that insight?

We use this part of the analysis to find and highlight phrases for which your site could fairly easily make it to the first page of search results. Or better yet, make a jump above the fold on page one. Think of this as phrases within striking distance, which is exactly how we describe this to clients.

While a lot of the research process is defined by the digital marketing agency you choose, for my money using SEMrush to find the raw keyword opportunities, and marrying that with some good ol’ Google Analytics data for page performance is what it’s all about. (No sense in sending people to a page where visitors never take the next step. Amiright?)

The main things that we look for to identify or evaluate a potential keyword opportunity are:

The site currently ranks between #2 and #20* for the keyword or phrase

There are 1000 or more searches/month* for the keyword

*Note: These qualifications can and should be expanded to show a wider selection of phrases and pages if the site you’re working with doesn’t necessarily generate a lot of search volume yet.

After the broad strokes analysis, you’ll want to go through the data and make exceptions to add other phrases if:

The site is already moving up for the keyword (capitalizing on momentum)

Overall search volume is high enough to warrant extra effort for a term that’s below page two

The target page has extra potential because you could link to it from other related site pages and/or can otherwise easily optimize it. More on content or topic hubs in another post.

Action items: On-page Optimization Around Keyword Opportunities

Title: Do you have a fully descriptive Title that passes the Blank Sheet of Paper Test? It should be about 65 characters long, and prominently feature the targeted keyword.

Meta Description: Do you have an enticing description of the page’s content that incorporates the targeted keyword phrase, encourages click-through, and is 300 characters or less? With all the recent changes to Google’s new SERP snippet and Meta Description length this may be an area you’ll want to brush up.

Heading Tags: The H1 heading should also include the targeted keyword, or highly relative phrase, and should act as the bridge between the Title and the page’s content.

Body Copy: Use the targeted keyword and related phrases where it makes sense. As always, don’t force it.

Image Alt: ALT attributes describe an image to visiting browsers and assistive devices. The image alts are required for accessibility guidelines and are even a minor ranking factor. Take the opportunity to fully describe the images using your targeted keyword in ways that a human could understand. (Think stock photo descriptions.)

Part 2 – New phrases and content gaps

For context, in this portion of the research your SEO is looking for phrases that make sense for your business, for which your site doesn’t currently rank. And because there are effectively no constraints here (we could rank for anything!) this phase of research is often the most complex and potentially time-consuming. So many rabbit holes to explore and threads to pull!

Your SEO will build out and expand this litany of new opportunities through several tactics that can (and really should) include:

Thoroughly reading through your site and competing sites for context

Using third-party tools like the Moz Keyword Explorer to look at competitor keywords and rankings

Good old-fashioned brainstorming about what drives your customers

Action items: Content Creation

Armed with this list of brand new keywords, it’s time to figure out which parts of your site are best suited to address the topics and then get to writing.

Remember, this part of the report is about zeroing in on:

Moderate to high-relevance phrases with high search volume

Lots of phrases that are lexically similar to what you’re already doing (going back to the strategy of creating “topic hubs”)

Highly relevant long tail searches that you’ve not yet addressed

Use these phrases for ideation on blog posts with your content team, creating or organizing pages into content hubs around a central topic, or any other new content pieces for the site.

Part 3 – Find the questions

Answering specific, direct questions and by extension proving that your site is useful, are some of the best ways to earn and sustain higher rankings and better search visibility. Done right, this can even include the coveted Featured Snippet or voice search answer for a given question or search phrase.

Those Featured Snippets are designed to surface the best answer to a question above all other organic results and are taken directly from a web page, along with a link to the referring page, the original page title, and the URL. They are a monster for driving traffic and building trust and authority.

The “Questions” section of a good Keyword Research analysis contains questions that are being asked by users across the web and scraped together using tools like Answer the Public.

Action Items: Content Creation and On-page Optimization

Use the Questions surfaced in your Keyword Research report for ideation on blog posts or any other new content pieces on the site. Ideally these questions should align and complement the topics surfaced in “New Phrases” or “Keyword Opportunities”.

You can use the H1 to pose the question you’re answering on the page. Then, for example, use H2s for potential People Also Ask questions throughout the page. What better way to show your relevance for a query than to answer more related questions?

An extended example: If you’re trying to rank for topics around bicycle repair and parts, you can see how this might play out.

If we currently have decent authority and relevance for the topic “bike tires” but not “bicycle tubes” we’ll likely want content and smart interlinking around the tubes themselves. Let’s get some content up on a new or relevant page that talks about “tubeless tires”, “airless alternatives to pneumatic tires”, etc.

And for questions, we’d certainly want to include “How to replace a bicycle tube?” Or perhaps looking for long-tail opportunities, “Do tubeless tires go flat?”

Part 4 – Entities and related topicality

Entities are proper nouns or things that have risen to the level of proper nouns. Entities matter in SEO because they’re understood pretty darn well by search engines, to the point that Google and others could easily spit out a list of highly related topics.

Want to rank for searches related to a particular entity? Time to provide content around those highly related topics. Again, think “bike tires” and “bike tubes.”

Entities relevant to Portent might be Portent, Google, AdWords, PPC, and SEO. And yes, although those last two aren’t really proper nouns, humans tend to treat them that way which is a good way to think about this if you’re on the fence.

For context some of the ways that you can build and add to an entity list:

Dust off your thinking cap again or gather some co-workers and brainstorm relevant terms that qualify as entities

Look at schema.org: this page has a dizzying list of stuff for which Google supports schema markup. If Google has a way to declare that “this is a particular thing” that thing is clearly understood as an entity.

Let’s get seriously nerdy: build or download your own word vector mapping tool and feed it scads of website copy from across the web to build your own entity library. Our founder Ian built his own word vector mapping tool, but this is not for the faint of heart.

Bottom line, as your SEO goes through all of the manual research and filtering and sorting in those earlier efforts, they should notice patterns and trends emerging, and be putting these into a list. Ultimately, this targeted list of entities will make up the core of your swing-for-the-fences initiatives and campaigns. Things like trying to rank highly for the incredibly broad or “head” terms that have a mountain of traffic every month.

Action Items: Schema Markup, Internal Linking, and Content Creation

Armed with this research and your clear list of entities, you can now spot opportunities to add schema markup to your site.

Schema markup provides the kind of structured data Google and Bing love and improves chances of getting nice stuff like answer boxes, which are reserved for the absolute clearest and best answers to specific queries. Additionally, clearly identified entities receive different treatment in search results, like knowledge graph panels and the like.

Content or topic hubs are another great way to build up relevance and authority for highly competitive entities. (Anyone seeing a theme here that topic hubs are a good idea?!) The strategy is to create wonderful and useful content that addresses long-tail and less competitive phrases and then link them all together so that they’re incredibly valuable to searchers.

A great rule of thumb here from some recent announcements by Google: Click-depth matters more for SEO than URL structure. Meaning providing a useful, obvious next answer to customers matters more than any fancy site directory setup.

Don’t let keyword research die!

Even if you don’t have the bandwidth to tackle every single opportunity in a keyword research report, or every suggested action item here, the absolute worst thing you can do is to let it sit idle.

Use it for quick wins and on-page optimizations. Use it for blog post brainstorms.

Use it for filling content gaps in your product descriptions. Use it to find opportunities to revive old and useful content.

Use it to spot opportunities and need for great topic or content hubs. Use it to build relevance and authority with smarter internal linking.

And if you have let that keyword research gather a little dust, it’s okay. Today’s a great day to pick it up and start afresh.

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#Keyword Research: What Do I Do with It Now?!

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constructionsworkr3053 · 7 years ago

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Keyword Research: What Do I Do with It Now?!