Pushing The Limits

Lisa Tamati professional Adventure Athlete, Author and Fitness & Mindset Coach explains in this educational short podcast why you need to build a little more functional muscle and why that will help you burn fat. She dispels the myths of the fat burning zone and slow steady cardio workouts, and calories in calories out. Please like, subscribe and share this podcast with your networks and help us get the word out. You can also find us on itunes under "Pushing the Limits"

Mikki Williden has a Phd in nutrition and is an endurance athlete. she is passionate about maintaining good health and wellbeing through a whole food approach to nutrition, regular exercise, and a focus on optimising lifestyle factors that influence our ability to cope with the demands of everyday life. She is a Registered Nutritionist and Research Associate at AUT University. Mikki's by line is eat real food, enjoy real health she has worked with a vast number of people with different health and performance goals. She has a regular column in Bite Magazine, which is part of the New Zealand Herald and Kiwi Trail Runner magazine. She is also a Research Associate at AUT University, Auckland, teaching public health and sports performance nutritio and is part of the Human Potential Centre researching the effects of low carbohydrate, high fat diets on health and performance outcomes for adults, children and athletes.

Maz Quinn is New Zealand's best known and most successful surfer. A four-time winner of New Zealand's national surfing championships, and winner of the 1996 Billabong Pro-Junior Series, Quinn comes from a surfing mad family - his younger brother Jay and sister Holly have both won national titles, his mother is an advocate for Women's surfing and his father was a national official. During the 1990s, Quinn took part in the World Qualifying Series and in 1999 Maz became the first New Zealander to win a WQS event and in 2001 he became the first New Zealander ever to qualify for the World Championship Tour, in doing so becoming one of the world's top 44 ranked male surfers. In 2009, Quinn helped to stage the Quiksilver Maz Quinn King of the Groms, a national surfing event for youth. In this interview Lisa finds out from Maz what it's like to be on the world tour, what the pressures are like, how hard it is to qualify, the setbacks and successes along the way, how it feels to surf alongside legends of the sport like Kelly Slater and how he faces up to his fears when surfing the big waves. Maz opens up about how his parents guidance put him early in his life on the right road and what life has been like after the lights went down and the circus of the tour was over. He talks about women in surfing, the state of the tour now and what surfing holds for the future and hones insights from his sport for life.

Phillip Balmer has had more than 33 years of experience in the health sector with 20 years at the senior management or executive level and 15 years of that involved with commissioning or redesigning health care facilities. He is a strong strategic leader and is brilliant at leading change, he is very people-focused.  His goal is to develop an engaged workforce who are empowered and capable to drive and manage change. In his current role he has responsiblity for 7500 employees and a 1.5 billion dollar budget.  The role also includes overall responsibility of CMDHB hospital services. The combined size of Manukau Health Park and Middlemore Hospital makes it one of the largest emergency, ambulatory and inpatient facilities in Australasia. They also provide tertiary services in orthoplastics trauma, burns, and spinal services. Past roles include being Chief Operating Officer for the Bay Of Plenty District Health boad, Chief Operating Officer for the Qatar Orthopaedic and Sports medicine Hospital and many more roles. In this interview we look at the state of the Health system in New Zealand, what the future holds, how he hopes to improve the collaboration between hospital services and community based primary health organisations and his new project setting up NZ's best rehabilitation centre. We discuss managements styles and his approach to leadership, some of the major challenges the health sector faces in future. and much more. 

Steve Stannard is a research academic and Professor in Exercise Physiology at the School of Sport and Exercise at Massey University. He has a PhD Human Applied Physiology and also a Masters of Nutritional Science, both from the University of Sydney. He conducts research at the interface of exercise science and human nutrition, and his work on fasting, endurance training, and nutritional impact on muscle recovery, is well regarded. Prof. Stannard is often sought by the media for public comment about issues relating to sports nutrition, and in particular, supplements in sport. In his younger years, Prof. Stannard represented Australia as a road-racing cyclist. Steve is still a keen Masters competitor in bicycle racing, but mainly in the wake of his children; his daughter recently represented NZ in the World Elite Triathlon Championships, and his oldest son represented NZ at the World Road Cycling Championships, both held in the USA. In this episode Dr Stannard cover a large number of sports nutrition and performance related areas from his cutting edge research.  The difference between how men and women burn fat What the liver does and how you can train your liver to get "fitter" and to act as a better resevoir of energy when you are performing your sport. The effects of starvation on elite endurance athletes How endurance athletes use fat differently and how training your body not only train the muscle and cardio systems but also the efficiency of how you burn fat and how you can keep exercising even when you no food for 3 or 4 days.  How important the brain is to your sports performance and how it effects the body.  and much much more. 

Sir John Kirwan KNZM MBE is a New Zealand rugby union coach and former player of both rugby union and rugby league. He scored 35 tries in 63 tests for New Zealand, making him one of the highest try scorers in international rugby union history, and was part of the New Zealand team that won the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. He also played rugby league for the Auckland Warriors in their first two seasons. He is the former head coach of the Blues in Super Rugby, and the Japan and Italy national teams. In recent years, he has spoken openly about his battles with depression and been honoured for his services to mental health. He has written two books on depression and mental health the first "All Blacks don't cry" details his journey through depression to wellness, offering help and tools for those suffering from this debilitating illness and the second "Stand by me" was written for parents of teenagers facing mental illness issues. Kirwan is married to Fiorella, Lady Kirwan, with three children Francesca, Niko and Luca. Kirwan speaks fluent Italian and good Japanese, a result of a playing career in Italy and coaching career in Japan. On the show he talks with Lisa about some of the tools he uses to stay, how we need to help our athletes transition out of the sport and back into life at the end of their careers, about what greatness is to him and how to deal with failure in life and much more.

Meet Annie Doyle, a Sydney-based, 56 year old dedicated old mother of two. Working hard as a Chief Financial Officer for a large disability organisation she somehow finds the time to also be a mountaineering machine who is on a mission to become the first Maori woman to climb the Seven Summits (The highest mountain on every continent and well regarded of as the Holy Grail of mountaineering) She’s 6/7ths of the way there. Her transcontinental summit quest started when she reached the top of our very own Mt. Kosciuszko in 2005 and then Tanzania’s Mt. Kilimanjaro the same year, followed by Mt. Elbrus in Russia in 2006, Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina in 2007 and both Mt. McKinley in Alaska in 2009and Vinson Massif in Antarctica in 2013. Only Everest awaits her. Unfortunately luck hasn’t been on her side…yet. In 2012 she positioned for her first attempt but bad weather made the Khumbu Icefall too dangerous, again she made another attempt in 2014 but the mountain closed following a tragic icefall avalanche that killed 16 Sherpas. In April this year, she was readying for her 3rd attempt, this time from the Tibetan side, but the sheer devastation of the catastrophic Nepalese Earthquake once again closed the mountain and rocked the climbing community to its core with the loss of so many lives. Annie’s 7th summit awaits another season.  

Dean Karnazes is the most well known ultra marathon runner on the planet. He has written 4 books and is a New York Times bestselling author. He was named by mens health magazine as the fittest man on the planet and by time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people on the planet. His running exploits are too many to even list but some of the highlights include running the Badwater ultra-marathon 10 times. Running 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days (about which a book was written), he was the winner of the racing the planet 4 desert series, has run 350 miles non stop (i.e. going without sleep) and has done 10 x 200 mile races. He has been featured on The late show with David Letterman, on 60 minutes CBS news, CNN, ESPN and has been on the cover of Runners World. He is a US ambassador using his running talent to spread a unifying message around the world. He is an accomplished businessman and holds business and science degrees and has done post graduate work at Stanford university and has worked with a number of fortune 500 companies. He is uniquely positioned to demonstrate how the lessons from sport can be applied to business. He is a philanthropist and has raised large amounts of money for various charities and has inspired literally hundreds of thousands of people to their feet. His latest book is highlighted in this podcast. "The Road to Sparta" details his journey to retrace the footsteps of his ancestral countryman Pheidipides of Greece who ran 153 miles from Athens to Sparta in 490 BC to recruit the Spartans into the battle the Athenians were waging again the invading Persians. The story tells of this history but also his journey back to his roots, being of Greek descent and follows his race doing the Spartathlon the grueling modern day ultra marathon 153 miles that has to be completed in under 36 hours and goes from Athens to Sparta. Host Lisa Tamati has run alongside Dean during ultra marathons and is uniquely qualified to interview this legendary athlete.

Ultra Athlete, Author and Coach Lisa Tamati takes you through: How to get over a bad run. How to deal with a bad run We all have then, find them confidence destroying and depressing, but here are some tips to forget it quickly and get on with your next happy, flowing, exciting, uplifting run… 1. We are not robots. Daily stresses, hormones, infections, stress, lack of sleep, exhaustion, dehydration, low blood sugars, mineral deficiencies, nutrient deficiencies and more can all cause you to have a bad run. Don't expect to be at the top of your game everyday. Even if your truing calendar tells you you have a big run planned for the day or an intensive workout sometimes you need to be flexible or just find a way through it. Don't over think it. 2. There are real benefits to getting through a bad run and not giving up. It makes you mentally tougher and lets face it that is our most important attribute as runners. It teaches you to keep going when the going is tough and when you push through you get that little bit harder psychologically.Learning to deal with pain or sluggishness is exactly what you will have to do during a ultra marathon or a long distance race or short races run at speed for that matter. So if its been a hell run think "It was tough but I go through, strength comes from struggle .. so my training today was about honing my mental strength and that is the most valuable form of training of them all." 3. Appreciate it when you have a good run. Having a bad day out not he road or on the trails make you appreciate those wonderful times when its flow where everything comes together. Appreciation and enjoyment when its good is what comes out of having the odd bad run. 4. Analyse - Why was your run bad? Are you overtrained? Perhaps you are coming down with something? Are you dehydrated, hungry or perhaps overstressed at work or home. Is there something you can change or improve to stop it happening next time. 5. Don't let it put you off running. Beginners especially can be totally put off by a bad run and think they have gone backwards. Perhaps there first few runs or weeks went great and they could see improvements then a whammy out of the blue and they think it was all for nothing that all that past success was for nothing.. "no its just a bad day" 6. Don't think you have lost your fitness because the run went bad or was harder than usual. Your fitness doesn't just up and go like that. Something was just not on target today. Just see it for what it is and don't overdramatise it and get back out there again soon. Don't let that bad run put you off for days thinking the next one will be the same. 7. Do your overtraining checklist. Check your morning resting pulse is it higher than usual, do you feel generally not good, lethargic, exhausted, grumpy, hormonal, have you been overdoing the training or had high levels of stress. Rest for a bit and recover if you have. Improvement comes from the recovery part of your programme. Training actually tears the body down remember, its the quality recovery and rest is where the improvement comes. Your training pogramme is not only the actual running part but the recovery as well. 8. Forget it as quickly as possible. Move on. Mentally tick it off and get on with the job of the next run or training session. Perhaps change something for a day or two. Go for a swim or cycle instead, an aerobics class perhaps or pilates. Challenge your body in a different way and see if it comes right. I just came back from a limit end aerobic speed session (15 min warm up jog, then 20 minutes at running at a level when I am getting out of breath, then 15 warm down) it was horrid and every minute of the speed work was hell. My lungs just wouldn't work and my legs felt like lead. Last weeks limit end session was empowering, this weeks was a painful experience but thats ok.. tomorrow will be different. www.lisatamati.co.nz The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.

Nicola McCloy is an Auckland -based writer and editor who hails from Southland. After gaining a degree in Political Studies from Otago University before embarking on a career in corporate communications. After several years in Wellington, and time living in London, she moved back to Auckland to pursue a career in publishing. Following on from the publication of her first book, New Zealand Disasters in 2004, she was written 15 books, specialising in New Zealand social history. She also works as a ghost writer. When she's not writing or fixing other people's words, Nic spends a lot of time in the water, having rediscovered her love of open water swimming in 2012. Since then, she's competed in most of New Zealand's big ocean and river swims as well as Samoa Swim Series (four times!) She also manages to fit in a bit of trail running - with her major achievement being a finish in the 50-km event at the Great Naseby Water Race in 2014. www.lisatamati.co.nz The information contained in this show is not medical advice it is for educational purposes only and the opinions of guests are not the views of the show. Please seed your own medical advice from a registered medical professional.