Post 28: Why Your Training Is Busted

          I have been a victim of this in the past, and basically died by my own hands when unsuccessfully coordinating my training efforts. Too often do people end up working their ass off while taking no appreciable strides towards their training goals. This happens for a myriad of reasons but in my opinion there seem to be a few popular roadblocks associated with common training goals. Typically, people workout to do one or more of the following things: a) gain muscle/strength b) lose fat c) improve "fitness."

          The first goal, gaining muscle or strength is more often than not going to be a lack of proper programming and progression. If you're not documenting your training efforts, chances are you aren't progressing, and you most certainly are not programming. One principle that I will bet on every day of the week is: Your body will adapt to the demands imposed upon it. If you understand what "adapt" and "impose" mean, you'll be fine. Hopefully you can deduce from this that if you don't change some component of your training (exercise selection/variations, rep ranges/loading, core/assistance work) you're going to go stale. The human body is always in flux, and therefore is unbelievably effective at adapting. Takeaway: if you allow your body too long to adapt to the same training routine, it's going to become increasingly efficient at accommodating it and eventually stop responding. To avoid this problem, pay attention to your weights and rep ranges, not only on core lifts, but assistance work as well. If you're not willing to change the exercise, (you are still seeing some progress) up the volume or the intensity. If you're not seeing progress, change the exercise altogether. This applies to both core and assistance work. More specifically, if you're not seeing progress on core lifts over a reasonable period, change your assistance work, and rotate core lift variations once every couple weeks.

From www.twoscoopsgethuge.com

          Whatever the case, the typical shortcoming with fat loss is nutritionally related. What most people fail to realize is that unless they are more than a recreational athlete, the amount of exercise you're getting is NOT going to be sufficient to promote fat loss alone. I'm talking about people who are less than (at least) a high caliber high school athlete. I would say that conservatively, 80% of your progress is going to be a result of effective dieting. More often than not you could count on seeing better gains by just dieting correctly than by going to the gym and crushing a baconator afterward. I really don't care if the treadmill says you burned 1000 calories, because it's more likely that's not the case. In all reality it's more likely that you burned between 200-500. Furthermore, even if you do that as a corollary to sound resistance training, that wasn't even 500 calories of pure fat that you burned. So why bother? I'll address that in the last paragraph.

          With respect to the last goal, your hindrances will be contingent entirely on what you decide constitutes better fitness. Is that going to be an increased aerobic capacity? maintaining a "healthy" weight? making it through your day with less difficulty? In any scenario, increasing 'fitness' in one way or another is going to make your body more effective at maintaining internal balances and thwarting physiological disruptions. Of particular interest to you may be that a trained subject is going to possess a body that is better equipped to burn calories at a higher rate during bouts of exercise. Say a typical untrained person may burn about 5cal/minute, and a trained individual may effectively burn 10cal/minute. This lends at least a bit more hope to those of you who were upset after reading the last paragraph.

-Alex

Post 27: Top 10 Songs That Help You Demo Weights

In lieu of any compulsion to put together an informative article at the moment, these are my top 10 tunes for punishing poundage this month.

1. Chevelle - Face to The Floor

2. Saigon - Come on baby (it actually starts around 1:04)

3. Millencolin - Battery Check

4. Nickelback - Next Contestant

5. Rage Against The Machine - Microphone Fiend

6. Rage Against The Machine - Calm Like a Bomb

7. Bush - The Sound of Winter

8. Saliva - Always

9. Marilyn Manson - Slutgarden

10. Bush - Little Things

Post 26: Running is for emergencies only

          Running is for emergencies only. You will not likely catch me running unless there is one or more of the following:

A) Fire

B) Flood

C) Yeti

D) Groundbreaking, flawless research that says running will give me the body I want, and help me keep it

          This isn't to say that you shouldn't run, but there are effective ways to do it. If you can't answer someone who asks "why are you running?" Maybe it's time to think about it. One of the most entertaining people at my gym spends probably between 25-40 minutes daily on the cardio equipment, and (if I'm late getting there) part two of his workout doing what I will admit is an impressive number of variations on the bicep curl. While working on your biceps is kind of an idiot move in itself, doing some extended sub-maximal cardio work is just adding insult to injury. Like chasing your tail. It gives you something to do for a while, but you don't get anywhere. 

          I'm not a vet, or a dog, or sure if that's an accurate statistic, but I'd heed that advice. Similarly, I would be curious why all my time doing cardio and bicep curls doesn't make me look any less like gumby. The way I see it, cardio equipment is like Nike to the lay consumer. Everyone else does it, and since I don't know any better, I "just do it."

          It's very characteristic of human nature to see everything as a cause & effect relationship. What I mean by this is that when women see the little 100 pound blonde hammering the treadmill or elliptical for an hour a day, they assume that they will get the same results. The cardio machines will make my butt look better because the girls on the cardio machines have nice butts. Well, the other 5 days a week that you're not there, they're probably banging out some form of hip extensions.

          While these things can provide motivation for some, it could be of use to channel some of that energy into the dumbbell or squat rack areas. So without further ado, these are the top rationale I've heard regarding why people do cardio:

1. To burn fat
2. To stay healthy
3. To sweat out the booze

          Reason #1 is a classic. To burn fat. Nice. This is a likely outcome for someone who sweats when they think about exercising. Even then, they probably have some pretty unsightly movement patterns that could get them hurt just trying to turn on a treadmill. If you're in decent shape, and interested in getting bigger and/or leaner, I would avoid long slow cardio. A better alternative would be some circuits, or an effective resistance program. If you're still dying to rack up some mileage, do some sprints. In addition, (this applies to reason #2 as well) you will experience difficulty achieving lean mass gains, and even regressions, or muscle atrophy, if you have low body fat to start with, or lack an accommodating diet. This is due to the body's mechanism of minimizing losses vs. maximizing gains in the protein synthesis department. Not to mention a noteworthy detrimental effect in your fast twitch fibers. These are skinny-fat people, they look healthy, but they feel like pudding. Like Richard Simmons - I've never touched Rich but I have a feeling about what to expect.

Actually a Richard Simmons imposter, I'm good without slander suits.

          Reason #2, staying healthy. There's actually a good amount of research to the contrary. Increased oxidative stress and elevated cortisol levels can lead to inflammatory responses and actual damage to the tissues. High amounts of oxidative stress has been linked to cancers, heart attacks, and parkinson's. If you need any more examples, you should seek help elsewhere. Not to mention, in high doses overtraining symptoms like elevated resting heart rates, nervousness, anxiety and the likes are also characteristic of people who are hooked on chronic cardio routines. 

           Reason #3, if you're over the age of 20, and you drank a LOT. My advice would be to turn the lights off, drink some water, and try again tomorrow. Unless you like whopper headaches, cold sweats, hot flashes, and vertigo.

          These are only a few of the reasons I'm not into running. Well, long slow running anyways. Sprinting and interval training are a great way to get your cardio in without really inhibiting your gains. Lean muscle chews up more fat than cardio, every day of the week. That's not just my opinion.

-Alex

Post 25: Summer Training 2

Post 24: My What & Why of Movement Training

          As you probably won't remember; I have disclosed my opinions on two different types of periodization, as well as the functional movement screen and the components of the functional performance pyramid. Since my last article stemmed from what people think entails functional training, I decided to address what they're actually talking about. As I have mentioned in the past, nearly all exercise falls under the  category of "functional training," but I believe that under that banner there are also several realms of functional training, one of which is the topic of the day: Movement Training.

          Now anyone that wants to reciprocate my punctilious musings and say that "all training is movement training" feel free, but let me validate my claims first. 

         I consider movement training to include any types of series or complex involving multi-planar movement, and multi-joint components. **It doesn't have to be this complicated, and can include things as simple as single-leg exercise.** The video below of the guy in the red/black shorts is a pretty extreme case of what I'm describing, but it serves well to illustrate the point. Retired Romanian-born strength coach Istvan Javorek is famous for his complexes in this area. A video of him coaching below on the right. 

 

[On the top] This guy's got a ton of high pulls, swings, olympic movements and steps in all different planes going on. This, like I said was an extreme case but definitely demonstrates what we're trying to accomplish.

[On the bottom] Here is the famous Istvan Javorek working someone through his dumbbell Complex I. You'll notice, of course that movement occurs primarily in the saggital plane, but that's a great place to start your progression. Especially if you're working with a new athlete, someone returning to training after a long absence, or for injury rehabilitation.


          What you will notice immediately in both of cases is that both series entail a fair bit of intricacy in terms of execution. The goal of these movement-based complexes or series is to improve neuromuscular coordination, and to develop more sound movement patterns by forcing the body into athletic positions under loading by incorporating movement. 


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          So there's my "what" of movement training. Now why should you bother? Well maybe you shouldn't. Like anything - it depends what your current training status is, and where in your programming you are. Chances are if you're a power athlete and you're halfway through your strength phase, or a bodybuilder in the middle of a bulking cycle, you shouldn't drop the bar right away.

          The benefits of movement training include but are not limited to: increased neuromuscular recruitment, muscular endurance, and better motor control. You will also develop a better ability to accelerate and decelerate loading in athletic positions.

          What does this mean for you? Movement training typically entails a high volume with a mild intensity. That means sweat, soreness, discomfort and feelings of uncoordination during training. These are good things because that means we're creating a training effect, or in other words, causing an adaptation. If you think of these complexes or movement patterns as obstacle courses, your body learns to accommodate demands by activating and using a greater number of muscles in synchronization to accomplish the task at hand. At first you will feel uncoordinated and confused, but as you progress through planned movement, you will become more proficient at navigating these obstacles. This will transcend into your other training as improved movement efficiency and guess what? Improved strength gains in your next block.

          So throw some movement training into your next "preparation" or "accumulation" block, (see my post on block periodization if that's confusing for you) and notice the benefits you will reap when you transition into the subsequent strength and power phases.

-Alex