Category Archives: People

Interview: Mike T Nelson

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Mike Nelson runs ExtremeHumanPerformance.com and has some great insights on metabolic flexibility and health in general. Here’s an interview I did with him:

Background

Mike is a PHD Candidate for Exercise Science and Kinesiology. His research topic is metabolic flexibility.

He was working for a BA of Natural Science and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. He only got the BA of Natural Science before moving on to Michigan Tech, where he did two years of post graduate work in Mechanical Engineering. He later went to graduate school there and received a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering after 8 years. Most of his classwork was in biomechanics engineering.

From college he went to work for a medical device company, which would pay for additional college courses after he was there a couple years. Mike took classes in exercise physiology because it was interesting to him (even his vacations). He ended up joining their PhD program about 6 years ago in bio-mechanical engineering.

Metabolic Flexibility

Your metabolism should be flexible. Certain people may be flexible or inflexible to certain nutrients like carbohydrates or fats.  When you’re flexible towards carbohydrates, you’re more likely to consume carbohydrates more easily as an energy source.  The same goes for fats. Outside of a lab, you can test your flexibility with carbohydrates by consuming large amounts of carbohydrates and seeing how you feel afterward.  You can do the same with fats.

Great Questions

Minimal Effective Amount: What is the minimal amount you can do to get the maximum effect?

If you’re really healthy, shouldn’t you be able to take more abuse in terms of foods, odors, and germs instead of the other way around?

Working with Pain

Make minor movements in the injured part of your body to where you feel resistance, but not pain.  Pay attention to your range of motion and gains over time. Your brain will learn again over time that moving in that way shouldn’t be painful, and it won’t be. When you start getting a larger range of motion back without pain, start adding speed and weight to the motion to increase the intensity of the movement.

Biofeedback

The most common way of biofeedback during exercise is the range of motion test where you reach for your knees and stop when you feel strain. I’ve done a post on that here. High quality movement will allow your body to move better. Doing exercises that improve your mobility, in general, will perform better and give you better gains.  You should test your range of motion between each exercise every day because your body changes every day.

Personal Records Every Day (#PREveryDay)

There are three metrics affected by exercise.  Those are: volume, density, and intensity. Volume is the total number of pounds you pushed during your workout. Density is just that volume divided by the amount of time you spent doing it. Intensity is the percentage of your one rep maximum. You should strive to set a personal record in your exercises every day.

Measuring Body Fat

The most accurate way to test your body fat is using a Bod Pod. There are other ways to measure your body fat like skin caliper readings, hydrostatic weight, waist/arm measurements, and taking pictures. Taking pictures and waist/arm are the most effective for people trying to casually lose weight or look better because those are more in line with their actual goals anyways.  You’d be surprised at the changes you’ll see in your physique when you actually document it.

Thank You

Thank you for reading or listening, or both. What did you think? If you enjoyed this interview, show your support by subscribing via email or RSS. You can leave a comment below as well.

Supplemental Reading: Great Fitness Blogs

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On my journey to discover more about how to be fit myself, I’ve discovered some great places out there for material.  Being fit encompasses a whole gamut of things, like eating healthy, exercising, and staying motivated.  There are also places with great stories and overall fitness tips from people sharing their journey.

Extreme Human Performance

Mike T Nelson runs a blog that taps into an amazing group of people.  They are concerned with reaching perfection and perpetual progress with muscle building exercise.  Through them I found out about #PREveryDay, which stands for “Personal Records Every Day.” They do a ton of videos on the proper way to do specific exercises, which are extremely useful.  Through this blog I found out biofeedback, which I’ve talked about before. Mike really knows what he’s talking about.

John is Fit

This guy John is documenting his journey to lose weight.  He started at almost 300 pounds and worked is way to just above 260 pounds, but it looks like he’s been slipping a bit lately. I’ve only been following the blog for a short time, but I’m addicted to going back and reading old posts.

I’m really routing for this guy and hoping he can pull through.  Hey John, if you’re reading this, maybe we can help each other get more fit. He’s been sporadic about posting, but it’s been at least once a month since he started and he often posts daily.

FitBuff

Brandon has an amazing story.  He was never overweight, but he’s just been rocking his health since a young age.  Although I wouldn’t consider him an expert, he’s walked the walk.  He’s had some brushes with medical issues that just killed his fitness, but he always bounced back.  His approach is total mind and body fitness, which ultimately leads to success. Brandon posts almost every day with intensely awesome, in depth content.

Josef Brandenburg

Josef runs a great blog and the recipes and food advice are amazing.  He is really knowledgeable about food and health in general. Whenever you’re feeling like you need a pick-me-up for your next meal, hit up his blog first.  He posts every couple days, so there is plenty to absorb out there!

Think Simple Now

75% of good solid fitness is motivation.  The blog was started by Tina Su and is run by her and a slew of other contributors.  The entire blog is about personal motivation in every aspect of life: happiness, finance, health, etc. This is the perfect supplement to your diet and exercise routing because it will bring you success in those and every other aspect of your life as well.  They post one or two times a week, so you won’t have too much information overload either.

Thoughts?

I’m loving the data from “John is Fit” too.  John, you deserve a little extra recognition for that because I’m a geek. What fitness blogs do you read?  I’m really interested in absorbing as much as I can about getting healthier, so throw some info at me.

Who is James Thompson?

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I am the author of this blog.  I’m a self-proclaimed geek from Morrisville, Vermont. I don’t have any medical or fitness training, but in my own quest to seek personal wellness, I’ve discovered some things along the way and wanted to share them with the world. I started posting my findings here, and the rest is history.

Background

I was born in Plattsburg, New York to Darwin and Ramona Thompson.  My father was in the military and I moved around a lot when I was a child.  I moved from Plattsburg to Omaha, Nebraska.  From there I did a stint in Panama City, Florida and then moved on to Chugiak, Alaska.  I lived in Alaska for ten years, where my parents divorced. I moved to Poquoson, Virgina in 6th grade, and my mother stayed in Alaska.  My father, originally from Vermont, moved back there a few years after he retired from the military in 1998.  I went to high school in Vermont and have been there ever since.  I graduated in 2002.

I went to college at Johnson State College of Vermont, and majored in business with concentrations in accounting, management, and marketing.  While I was still in college, I started Acute Technology, a business doing IT work for local companies.  The business flourished.  I bought out my partner in 2008, and have been developing the business ever since.

I married my lovely wife Michelle in 2005 and we’ve been happily married ever since.  She keeps me in line when I need to be and lets me pursue my ideas when the time is right.

Fitness and Me

My friends throughout high school and college always called me “Anorexia the Hungry” because I could eat intense amounts of food and stay thin as a rail.  That all changed shortly after high school. Sometime around when I was 18 I began to gain a noticeable amount of weight, and it didn’t stop until I decided to do something about it when I was 24.

The catalyst that made me realize I had a problem was when I was taking an exam for life insurance for my company and wasn’t in the highest bracket of health – which is where a 24 year old male should be. I bartered some of my computer expertise to a local gym and began to get back in shape.  I lost about 30 pounds over the course of 6 months and everything was going great – until the gym closed.

Shortly after the gym shut down, I fell back into my old habits – eating at McDonalds, chicken wing eating contests, and beer. Lots and lots of beer.  Before I knew it, I had gained the 30 pounds back and then some.  I weighed almost 240 pounds at my peak.  I’m 6’2″, so that isn’t horrible, but it also isn’t healthy.

In 2010 I started to research being fit again and started to get my fitness under control.  Posting here has been my motivation for staying on track.  I want to chronicle my journey and let people know what is and isn’t working. Because I’m a geek, I like to get into the science of why things do and don’t work.

I’m not an expert on diet, exercise, or fitness, so some of the things I say may or may not be 100% correct, but I’m calling it as I see it.  You have all of the permission in the world to call BS on anything I say.  I want to learn from this.

I look forward to connecting with you, because I truly care.  Please let me know about your journey.