Weight Loss Extras

Hello again! It has been too long since I have added to my blog, sorry to be out for so long, it’s amazing how busy we all can get during the holidays! What I want to talk about today is an addition to the post that I put up previously titled 5 Keys to Weight Loss. These are all still important, but I wanted to add a few things that are also good to think about when starting your quest toward your optimum weight. I hope you enjoy, and good luck with your fitness aspirations!

1. Drink Water

Your intake of water can have a huge affect not only on your quality of life, but also plays a huge role in weight loss. For starters, you are much less likely to over indulge in food when you have a consistent volume of water in your stomach. Often times, when we do not drink enough, we mistakenly think that our body wants food and go straight for one of our favorite snacks. Next time you are feeling hungry between meals, try drinking a tall glass of water first, and then after 10 minutes, if you are still hungry, go ahead and have a snack (hopefully a healthy one!). It is not wrong to be hungry outside of meals, but we just want to make sure that our body is asking for calories before we start eating. Another benefit of water is its ability to help our bodies function at their greatest potential. When we are deprived of water, our bodies and mind cannot function as well, and this leads to stress on the body which can result in weight retention or gain. Weight loss is hard enough; let’s not make it any harder by neglecting water. The minimum water intake each day should be half of your body weight in ounces. So if you weight 120 lbs, then 60 oz of water is MINIMUM. I recommend that everyone carry around a water bottle each day and try to have two refills a day. That way, you have to finish at least two bottles (64 oz) and hopefully have been working on the third (up to 96 oz). Now if you are heavier, then of course three or even four bottles a day would be appropriate.

2. Avoid Starch & Added Sugar

Starch is a good thing to avoid while trying to lose weight because of the high glycemic load that it puts on the body. When you consistently eat foods with high glycemic loads, your insulin is constantly at work, trying to store all of the sugar that is being dumped into your system. When you have added sugar, you are dealing with the same issue. When your insulin levels are consistently high, your body can never enter into a catabolic state where it actually uses its sources of stored energy (fat). Now, if you are going to have these things, breakfast and post workout are the times to have them, but if you are really committed to weight loss, the less the better. Once you have reached your goal weight, then we can add them back into the diet (in moderation), but for now, let’s cut them out! So what counts as starch or added sugar? Well let’s start with sugar. Added sugar is any sugar that does not come naturally in food. High fructose corn syrup, molasses, honey, evaporated cane juice; these are all types of added sugar. But don’t run off to artificial sweeteners either, these have their own problems and actually are more likely to cause weight gain than regular sugar! So we avoid sweet things, and then we also avoid starchy things. Starch is essentially how plants store sugar. Foods that are high in starch are potatoes, grains (corn, wheat), and some fruit (bananas). Now I am not saying that these are bad foods, but when trying to lose weight, we need to help our bodies as much as we can. So limit yourself here and you will be giving yourself a push in the right direction!

3. Sleep

Sleep has endless benefit to our overall health, and if we do not get enough of it, we cannot expect our bodies to help shed any of our extra weight. Much like water, sleep has its weight loss benefits because it helps our bodies to function properly, while also reducing stress. Sleep restriction as significant implications on our stress levels and without it, you just cannot hope to achieve any type of fitness goal. As we all know, 8 hours is the recommended amount, but everyone is different, so it is important for you to find the amount that works best for you. A couple of suggestions on how to help increase your amount and quality of sleep are: 1) Waking up at the same time every day. This will help your body to settle into a biorhythm that will help you to feel better and better! 2) Avoiding screens at night. For the 30-60 minutes before bed, you should avoid any TV or computer usage. When you are in front of a bright screen, your mind has difficulty understanding that it is night and that you are trying to shut down for the night. So instead of staying up late watching TV, get in bed and read for the last hour before bed, reading is good anyway and it will help you to get a more restful sleep! These two suggestions alone could drastically improve sleep and if you add in a nice cup of non-caffeinated tea or meditation before bed, you will be on your way to success!

4. Commitment

This is by far the most important component to weight loss. You need to know the pieces of the puzzle first, but none of it matters if you fail to commit. Commitment is about taking that knowledge and making it a priority. If weight loss is not your priority, it will never happen. This is true for any goal including other fitness goals. So if you are struggling to achieve your goals, try this. I want you to write out why you want to achieve your goals. So if it is weight loss, why do you want to lose weight? There may be one reason; there may be one hundred. Write them all down. Now, look over those reasons, and write down why those are important. Keep doing this until you discover the most true and representative description of why weight loss is important. It may be so that you can live to see your grandchildren graduate college, or so that you can find a partner in life. Whatever it is, it should be emotional. Anyone can say they want to lose weight. But that’s hardly something to find an emotional connection with. We need something that you can get up every day and commit to. Something that truly is more important than having that extra piece of cake. Something that will get you out of bed and make you WANT to go to the gym every day. If we can find this, then you will set yourself up for success and you won’t be able to make excuses to yourself, because you know what is at stake. So go find what is motivating you, write it down, post it up on your wall, look at it every day and achieve your goals!

Tip of the Day: Home for the Holidays

As we enter into another holiday season, it is easy to slip out of the healthy habits that we have worked so hard to establish throughout the year. This can be a breakup of the normal workout routine, or even more common, a drastic change in the way we eat! But the thing that is important to remember is that while they may not be the best health practices, we can still have a little fun without giving up all that we have achieved. 

Often times, especially when we are still working on establishing a routine, a hiccup in the road can knock us off course and we feel that if we already messed up, then why even bother trying. The problem here, however, is not that we failed to maintain our routine, but that we look at the whole concept of health as a finite goal. We feel as if we need to lose 10 pounds, or build a little more strength in our leg or arm, and then everything will be better. When our goals are structured like this, we fail to realize that health and fitness are not an end in themselves, but rather a means to a long and enjoyable life. So what is the point of being fitness crazy if you cannot enjoy all that the holidays have to offer??

So, as we all recover from our Thanksgiving feasts, do not feel guilty or shameful if you overindulged a little. The best thing you can do is to enjoy the feasts, go back to your normal routine in between, and stay active as much as time allows. There is no reason that you cannot have some time to yourself to exercise during the week—it is healthy not only for your body, but also for you mind, especially during a time of year that many people find stressful. So good luck as we start off the holiday season, and remember, health is all about balance, and sometimes, the healthy thing to do is to have another slice of pumpkin pie!

In Related News: 11/17/09

Recently, a movie known as Food, Inc. came out on video and shed some much needed light on the food industry in this country. The health of the country is only getting worse, and while we think that the low fat/low carb/cabbage soup diet is the answer, we consume more and more processed, packaged, corn/soy based, corn fed, hormone filled, pesticide ridden foods. All of this "food" is very cheap, but as we spend less on what our body uses to operate, it is no wonder our health care cost are so high.

This movie covers a great breadth of information, all of which could be looked into more, but the message is sound: change is needed. Here is the trailer to give you a taste, but I highly recommend renting this movie and seeing how far we have strayed from eating real food.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eKYyD14d_0&feature=fvw

This movie deals with health, disease, ethical practices (toward the consumer, the workers and the animals), political corruption, and more. It's not all negatives, however, because as they explain, the best hope for change is with the consumer. So please check this out, I hope you like it, and let's work together to promote health for our bodies, our economy, our government, and our planet.

-Colin

In Related News: 11/9/09

I saw this article in the New York Times and wanted to share it with all of you! It talks about barefoot running and makes reference to the book Born to Run, which I recommend for anyone who enjoys running or would like to get into it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html?ref=nutrition

In my opinion, barefoot activity is the way to go. Running barefoot realigns your body and forces you into a self limiting exercise. This means that you will have a shorter, more efficient stride, while allowing you to only go as long as you feet will tolerate. If you start to feel pain, then it is time to stop. From my experience, however, once you get used to it, barefoot running will allow for long bouts of running without the all to common aches and pains that are associated with endurance running. By running barefoot, you are no longer restricted to move in the way the shoe was designed for (heal striking), but rather what the foot was designed to do (landing on the ball of the foot). This minimizes the impact force that reverberates up your body, helping to reduce pain and injury at the foot, ankle, knee, hips, and back.

If possible, I enjoy working out barefoot as well. There is no substitute in training or maintaining balance and stability than allowing your foot the sensation of having contact with the floor. Don't take my word for it; do some research, try it out, and see if you experience the balance, stability and strength that comes from kicking off the shoes.

As a side note, I do realize that there will be times that this is inappropriate or unsafe, so be sensible. If your running in unknown terrain, it can be best to have protection, but the thinner the sole the better. I hope you try it out, I have been exercising barefoot for a few months now and don't plan on going back. Have fun and let me know what you think!

-Colin

Exercise 101: The Cool-down

The final piece of the workout puzzle should be taken just as seriously as all the other parts. The cool-down allows your body to return to its resting state, slowing down the heart rate, cooling the body temperature, and returning the muscles to their proper length.

If you are finishing up with a cardio session, it will be important to give yourself time in the activity to slow down the pace and ease into your resting state. The more intense your exercises, the more important this becomes, and the more time you will need to recover. If you have been running for 45 minutes at an easy pace, then you may only need a few minutes of walking to allow for your heart rate to come back down, but if you are finishing up with mile intervals, you may want to slowly come out of the last one, going down to a light jog, then to a walk for 5 to 10 minutes. You will know you are recovered when your heart has slowed and your breathing has calmed. Once recovered, you will then move into the second component of the cool-down, stretching.

Stretching will be important after any type of exercise, so if you weight train, you do not have to do a cool-down with the weights, but you will definitely want to stretch. For more information on stretching, look back to Flexibility First and the follow-up, Flexibility Extras. For this blog, I will just make a few quick comments. I must reiterate the need to hold your stretches for 20-30 seconds, and in the case of muscles that are very tight, you may want to get back out your foam roller, work on them, and then stretch. Also, as many times the stretching is neglected, let me recommend some of the most important stretches. If you do nothing else, make sure you do a toe touch and a lunging stretch. This will help your hips to stay mobile, which is important for all major movement. Also, do some sort of rotational twist for your upper back, and for your arms, stretch them overhead. The more you can do, the better, but this is a good place to start.

This concludes the Exercises 101 series, I hope it was helpful and that it gives a better picture on how to organize and think about exercise. Please let me know if you have any questions, I am always open to discussing these topics more. Good luck and happy exercise!

-Colin

Tip of the Day

One of the most important things to remember when starting or changing an exercise routine is the need for progression. Too many people jump into exercise not having worked out in years, and think they can just pick up where they left off or just start where Men’s Health tells them is a good weight and rep range. The problem is that the body is designed to function based on its adaptations, and if your body has not been involved in exercises, or has never done an specific exercise before, you need to progress up to it. By starting light, but perhaps more importantly, starting with the right types of exercises, you set yourself up for success. This would include your static holds, slow reps, and adequate time spent on warming up and stretching. In doing this you will allow your body to go through the necessary adaptations to allow for safe, productive and worthwhile exercise. These changes will include: 1) Rewire your neuromuscular system, allowing the brain to effectively tell the muscle fibers that they need to contract. 2) Strengthen the tendons and ligaments, allowing them to hold strong as you perform weighted movements. 3) Wake up your stabilizing muscles, making sure that they fire, and fire at the right time. 4) Lengthen then muscles, allowing the joints to move freely in their full range of motion to perform exercises as they were intended to be performed. 5) Harden the core, giving you proper power transfer through the body, and protecting the lower back from excessive loading or movement.

Without the proper progressions, you leave your body and your hopes for fitness at risk. Think of the January 1^st syndrome; the first week everyone goes out and hits the ground running with a 5-mile run with no warm-up and no stretch after. The next week, all those people are cursing their sore muscles, tight hamstrings, and the pain in their Achilles. You cannot expect your body to perform at its highest level until you have given it time to build up and learn how to exercise. Treat it like a new skill to be learned: you have to start with baby steps, but after a while, you will look back and see just how far you’ve come. Good luck and happy training!

-Colin

Tip of the Day

Stay clear of machines! Some say that machines are good for those who are new to lifting or are too frail to manage free weights. I say, if they don't have the stability to handle free weights, then why are we just adding to the dysfunction by allowing them to build up their big muscles even more while their stabilizers stay weak?! If you can't squat because you lose your balance or you can't squat down far enough, then why are you on a leg press with twice the weight and half the range of motion? There is just no functional purpose to using a machine, and even for those whose only goal is to get bigger, the benefits of free-weight training are far greater in the end than machine training could ever be.

The only machines I do use in a gym have cables. Cables allow for natural movement, keep you on your feet (or knees), and have a number of quality exercises for which they can be used. I also will recommend negative resistant pull-ups sometimes, but even here I would rather use cables to work my vertical pulls if they are available. If you are hesitant to get off the machines, or do not know where to start with your exercises, check out my Exercise 101 series, and don’t be afraid to ask for help, either from me or one of the trainers at your gym. They should be more than happy to show you where to start, and once you’re rolling, you will see that there are more benefits to free-weight and body weight training than you could ever achieve with machines. Good luck and happy training!

-Colin

Exercise 101: Cardiovascular Training

While you do not have to do cardio on the same days you weight train, many people only have two or three days a week that they can get to the gym, so it would be important to have a well rounded exercise session if this is the case. There can be a number of reasons why people would want to introduce cardio training to their exercise routines. Many times weight loss (or rather fat loss) is a goal, though other goals may include reducing the risk of heart disease, diabetes or blood pressure. Of course for athletes, the goal is usually to increase VO2Max, allowing them to consume oxygen more efficiently. Whatever the goal, there are a number of different ways to train in this medium and each has its benefits. In this blog I will briefly reflect on interval training and the variations that can be utilized, and then I will talk more about the variations of steady state training. What you will come to see is that each of these techniques can be utilized no matter your goals, and as with all exercise, the more variation you have, the better the results will be.

Interval Training:

If you have read my previous blogs, I’m sure you are well acquainted with interval training by now. However, there are still a few variations that I have not previously discussed that I will go over now. The main type of interval training I have talked about is high intensity interval training, also known as supramaximal interval training, where you work as hard as you can for a minute and then recover for 2 or more minutes. Here you want to work your way up to 20 all out bouts, but be sure that you’re ready because this type of training is not easy! Regular interval training, by comparison, involves bouts lasting for 3-5 minutes of high intensity work, followed by 3-5 minutes of low intensity work, alternating for 30-60 minutes. As I covered these before, I will just finish off with a few comments about intervals in general. First, while this type of training is very effective, you need to make sure that your body is properly prepared for the level of work that you will be performing. If you are just starting out, or have not had much time with cardiovascular training, start with lower intensity, longer duration work first, then try out the intervals. Second, the group that will most want to incorporate interval training is athletes. For individuals involved in sports that require powerful bursts of energy (such as football, basketball, tennis, hockey, golf, or baseball) interval training should be a staple in your weekly routine. In these types of sports, there is not really a need for oxidative endurance, such as would be required for a cross-country skier or marathon runner, and it is best to train your body not only for the type of energy systems that will be at work (these sports require quick bursts, then recovery) but also for the type of muscle fibers at work (type 2 b/x fibers, also known as fast twitch fibers, are important in these types of sports.) By focusing your training to maximize this type of muscle fiber, you are not only building up the strength and number of these fibers, but you are also increasing the percentage of these fibers. There are muscle fibers that can act as either fast or slow twitch, and by training more for fast twitch activities, these act more in that role. So in the end, interval training can be beneficial for everyone, but some people need it more than others. When you’re ready, give it a try and see what you think!

Pace Training:

On the other end of the spectrum lies what I like to call pace training. It is based around keeping a steady pace at a given intensity level for a longer period of time. The first of these methods is known as split training and it is the shortest of the modes. Split training can be fun because it encourages variety. Here your goal is to work for 15 minutes at the highest intensity you can (you will have to determine what pace you can maintain that will be challenging but will not result in needing to slow down before the 15 minutes is up), then recovering with 5 minutes of active rest (keep moving but at a low to moderate intensity), then moving to a different training mode (start on treadmill, then go to bike) and go again for 15 minutes. You can do this 2-4 times, which can help to make 60+ minutes of cardio training much more enjoyable! Another type of training, known as tempo training, is similar to split training in that you are working at the highest intensity you can for a given duration, but this time, there is no rest. It is just one continuous run, lasting between 30 and 60 minutes, working just below your anaerobic threshold. Again, this will take time to figure out, but once you have it, it is a great workout. The last type of training is called metabolic base training. This is your long slow distance training. This is a great way to get in work without taxing the body, and a great place to start with cardio training. Here our goal is to work for about an hour to an hour and a half at a moderate pace, but if you are just starting out, go for 30-45 minutes and work your way up. This will be great for working on muscular endurance, while also preparing the lungs and heart for more intense cardiovascular training.

To me, there is no wrong way to train your heart as long as you’re doing something! Variety is always great, but don’t think you have to do all of these. Find two or three styles of training and work with them a while, then in a few months go back and see if you want to try something new. Depending on your situation you will need to find how much time you can dedicate on any given day, but your goal should be fitting in at least 20 minutes, 3-4 times per week. So see what types of training will fit into your schedule and have at it! I hope that this will be a good resource for training possibilities, and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Thanks for reading, and happy training!

-Colin

Exercise 101: Resistance Training

Now we come to the most recognizable part of the work-out— lifting weights. While weight training is great for achieving all types of fitness goals, it is important to understand how to structure your training sessions so that you can be most effective in reaching those goals. The first thing that I want to bring up is that technique in lifting is paramount, and without it, training is pointless and dangerous. The technique involved in any lift is going to involve controlled movements, stabilization of the weight, and concentration on using the muscle for the correct function. If form is ever broken, it is important to stop the lift, regroup and try again. If it is too much weight, recognize that you have not worked up to that level yet and take some off. There is no reason to injure yourself for the sake of a number.

With that said, we can now look at how training programs differ depending on your goals. The variables that can change the results you get from your training program include type of exercise, organization of exercises, sets, reps, tempo, and rest. Let’s start with the most basic of training goals: stability. This should be the first step for any training program you design for yourself. If you do not have the stability to control your lifts, then your results will be hindered and you will end up hurting yourself. So in training for stability, let’s look at the different variables. Here we would want to focus on exercises that were kinesthetically based, such as push-ups, air squats, pull-ups, or inverted rows. All of these are using your own body weight as resistance, and until you can do this, using weights does not make much sense. Also, when involved in these types of activities, you are forced to use the muscles that stabilize the body to the fullest extent. Take a push-up: to do a proper push-up you not only need strength in the triceps and chest, you also need the stability of the wrists, shoulders, back, abs and glutes just to hold yourself in the right position.

In organizing our exercises, we are going to follow what I feel is the best workout design for anyone outside of the bodybuilding world: alternating movement patterns. When you think about the exercises that need to be performed, don’t think about them in terms of what muscles are being worked, but rather, what movements are being performed. Take the push-up again; this would be looked at as a “horizontal pushing exercise” rather than a “chest exercise”. The next exercise you would want to do would involve horizontal pulling, such as the inverted row. By doing this, we are making sure to focus our efforts more on the reason behind the exercise instead of the arbitrary strengthening of individual muscles. Also, this gets us out of the habit of trying to fit in popular but essentially useless exercises such as wrist curls or tricep extensions. The reason we alternate them is so that as we exercise one muscle, we are stretching out the antagonist (the muscles opposing that movement). This will serve as a natural primer for the next movement.

Continuing along this thought process we would also want to get in a vertical push (shoulder press, lifts) and a vertical pull (pull-ups, chops). After this, you would work on hip extension (single leg deadlifts, bridges), and a form of hip flexion in working our abdominals (ab roller). The last piece of the puzzle would be knee flexion (squats) and knee extension (stability ball leg curls). If you incorporate all of this into your workout, you will have worked on ever major movement pattern, using only multi-joint exercises, making for the most effective and function workout possible.

Now that we have our exercises, how do we set up our routine? Well, we are still training for stability, so we will want to have a set/rep/tempo/rest combo that will facilitate the development of our stabilizers. That means that higher reps (15-20) will be needed, but only one or two sets of each exercise (start with one, work up to two). Our tempo will involve a slow and controlled eccentric movement (lowering of weight/lengthening of muscles- take about 4 seconds) and then a powerful but controlled concentric movement (lifting of weight/shortening of muscle- take about 1 second). Between sets, we will not need much rest, so try to begin the next set within 30 to 45 seconds.

So there you have it- a full workout if stability is your goal. But what about all the other goals?? Because that could take all day to explain, let’s go over some of the basics. In hypertrophy training, where the goal is to increase muscle size, you would still want a high rep but perhaps 10-15 this time, working your way up to 3 sets. As reps go down, tempo goes up, only taking 3 seconds to lower the weight, and rest gets longer—45 to 60 seconds. The exercise selection can stay the same if you like, or if body weight is now too light, you may need to start using more equipment. This could include dumbbells for bench press or overhead press, TRX for rows, weight belt for pull-ups, and single leg squats or front squats. All of these will help increase the resistance. Another type of training is maximal strength. Here the loads get even heavier, so everything changes accordingly. 3-6 reps, 4-6 sets, 1-2 seconds to lower the weight, and up to 3 minutes of recovery time between sets. You will need to be careful that you are ready for this type of lifting however, as it puts a lot of strain on the body. For the ladies out there who are most concerned about staying toned, what I would recommend is alternating between the stability and strength training programs, while also getting in some cardio work. I will talk more about cardio next time, but for now, just remember that both weight training and cardio work will be important in attaining any fitness goal.

This is just a brief overview of all that is involved in resistance training, but if you take nothing else away from this piece, remember that technique is key, stability underlies all movement, and training movement is more important than training muscles. The other thing that I would like to say is that when setting up a program, you will have to decide how many days per week you want to train. For any gains to be achieved, you really need at least two days, and I would recommend that you vary the type of training that you do each time (if you are new to training make sure to spend 4 weeks in the stability training zone before moving on). Keep the exercises the same if you like, but the most effective way to get in overall better shape is to change up the type of training you do each day. So if you’re training 3 times a week, use the 15-20 reps on one day, 10-15 the next, and 3-6 the last day. And don’t be afraid to switch around the order too. The body responds best to variety, even when the movement is that same.

I hope this is helpful and please if you have any questions feel free to ask, there is a lot of information that I could not go into in a single blog. Next time I will talk about cardiovascular training, another key element of one’s training program. Good luck and happy resistance training!

Exercise 101: Plyometrics / Power Training

Once you’ve completed your warm-up, it is time to work on the quick and powerful movements of the routine. Not everyone is going to need to include these exercises, but if you are an athlete or just want to add in some variety and a great way to burn some extra calories, you may want to start adding in some plyometrics or power lifts. We want to get these activities in before the rest of our resistance training due to the high levels of stability and neuromuscular control needed to perform these exercises safely and effectively. If we were to hold them until the end, our muscles would be tired, and we would be much more likely to break form, compensate with the wrong muscles, or lose stability at our joints when we need it most. First, let’s discuss plyo’s.

Plyometrics are essentially quick movements designed to utilize the elasticity of the muscle to create faster, more powerful movement. The type of plyometric training you do will be determined by the type of activity you expect to be involved in. Take basketball, for example. Here we may want to work on squat jumps, lateral hops, and cutting actions to prepare us for the types of quick movements we would see in a game. With all plyometric work, you want to start out slow and work your way up in speed. So if we were to start working on squat jumps, we would spend the first few weeks working on jumping up and having a balanced landing, then taking a quick break before our next jump. The next level of intensity would be to jump, hold the landing for a second or two, then jump again. The last level of intensity would involve jumping continuously as fast as our muscles will allow. As anyone who plays basketball can attest, it’s not who can jump the highest, but who can jump the quickest that makes the difference. This is why the goal of plyometric routine will be to decrease the time between movements. This phase, called the amortization phase, is dictated by the delay during which the muscles must switch from slowing down movement to creating movement. By practicing landing and re-engaging a jumping movement, you muscles will learn to cut down on this transition time. Other plyometric workouts involve agility ladders, running drills, cone drills, and boxes. In all of these we work on initiating a movement, decelerating that movement, and then creating another. This is what sports are all about, so it is essential to include them in your routine if you are involved in athletics.

While plyometrics are usually reserved for training athletes, power training is often used for training both athletes and the everyday fitness enthusiast. Like plyometrics, power training is about speed. The difference, however, is that power training is about how quickly we can move resistance over a given distance, as opposed to how quickly can we repeat a movement. Examples of power exercises are Olympic lifts (cleans, presses, snatches), kettlebell swings, and medicine ball throws. In each of these movements, the goal is to produce the most force as quickly as possible in moving the resistance. Power training is important for all sports, including many recreational sports such as golf and tennis. The other great thing about power exercises is that they tend to use a lot of different muscle groups, meaning that they take a lot of effort and are great for burning up calories. Before you go out and start working on snatching though, I suggest you either find a trainer at your gym or at least watch some YouTube videos on the proper technique for each of these movements. Also, make sure that you have already been training for a while and have the proper stability to handle such activities. While having total body exercises is great, they also require clean movement, trained stabilizers, and a solid core.

Now that the quick and powerful moves are out of the way, we can now start to think about our resistance training. Next week I will go over what the sets, reps, tempo, and rest intervals are all about, what types of exercises you should be doing, and a strategy to make sure you are getting the most functional benefits from your workouts. Good luck and happy fitness!

Colin

Exercise 101: The Warm-up

The more time you spend in a gym, the sooner you will realize that everyone has their own exercise philosophy. We pick up bits and pieces of information on what we’re supposed to do at the gym, throw in the parts that we like and come up with a make-shift workout plan that we hope will help us reach our goals. The problem, however, is that this often times leads to an unbalanced exercise program where certain aspects are focused on too heavily, while other parts are left out. Have you ever seen the guy that spends half his time training on the bench? He is the epitome of the uninformed lifter. The bench is all too often the idolized lift that people look to in judging strength, and therefore it is here that this man has decided to concentrate his training.

In an attempt to sift through all the information out there, I would like to break down the different components of a training program and put them together in a way that will allow you to more easily design a program for whatever goals you may have. In this section, I will talk about the importance of a warm-up in your program and what should be included.

The warm-up should be designed to elevate body temperature, get the blood flowing, and prepare the body for the work ahead. If you’ve ever tried to jump right into a lifting session, you would know how inefficient your work is, and how weak you feel. The reason we need a warm-up is because without it, our body is not in the right state to maximize our work. In a state of rest, our blood is distributed throughout the body, with the majority residing in the liver (25%), kidneys (20%), and muscles (20%). During exercise, however, the blood in the muscles jumps to 87%, while the other areas maintain just enough to function. For this reason, it clear that if we do not warm up the muscles and get the blood in the right places, we will not be able to use our muscles to their full potential. Another important function of a warm-up is to get the muscles stretched out and ready for movement, while also activating the necessary stabilizers. Before any type of activity, it is important that our muscles are ready to move through their full range of motion, while our stabilizers are ready to support those movements without compensation.

So to get our bodies ready for the workout, there are a few steps that need to be taken. The first is using a foam roller to loosen up the muscles. Now, you may decide to only use this when you have a tight muscle that has knotted up, but truthfully, it is best if roll out as many muscles as you can, every time. Because one of our goals in the warm-up is to stretch out the muscles, it is beneficial to prepare them with the foam roller so that they are more receptive to the stretching that will take place.

Once you have properly rolled out the muscles (this involved spending 30-60 seconds rolling out each muscle), you will want to go through a series of dynamic stretches. The reason we want dynamic stretching is because this way we can both stretch and get the body moving at the same time. Here we want to do movements such as lunges, side lunges, squats, push-ups, ankle mobilization, upper back twists and extensions, and shoulder rolls. Remember, when you are stretching, you want to focus on the areas that need mobility, i.e. the ankles, hips, upper back, and shoulders.

The areas that we will focus on next will be where we need stability, i.e. the knee, low back, and rotator cuff. To activate out stabilizers, we will run through a series of exercises that hit the smaller muscles of the body. These will include the gluteus medius (band walks), the gluteus maximus (bridging), rectus abdominis (plank), obliques, (side plank), and the rotator cuff (band extensions or wall presses). Through this, we have made sure that our stabilizers are now ready to support us in the way that we will need them in exercise. As you can see, we have done what some people would consider core work here, but if you really want to work the core, there are other exercises that you can do that will focus more on strengthening, which you can put either in the resistance part of the workout, or afterward.

As you can see, there is a lot of work to be done before we even start what most people would consider the “real” workout, but if your body is not properly prepared for the training, then you end up going into a situation that is inefficient at best, and dangerous at worst. Once you are used to the warm-up, it should only take 15 minutes, leaving plenty of time for the rest of the workout.

The next post will focus on plyometrics, an optional stage that is more important for athletes, but can be integrated by anyone trying to increase power and/or reactivity. For now, let’s see some warm-ups in those workouts so that when the next stage is introduced, the warm-up is already a habit. Good luck and happy fitness!

In for the Long Haul

When you think of endurance training, you probably think of long, slow runs lasting for hours and hours, hoping that all this time will help you to reach your goals. This could be training for a competition, a friendly race or just training to look and feel your best. While this type of training can work, I am going to argue that in the end, there are better methods for producing the same (if not better) results, with much less time put in on your part. Let’s start with training for competition: if your goal is to go out and run a race, especially a long distance race, you may train by working on running the longest time possible. Take a marathon, a distance of 26.2 miles. You start running miles and miles each week to build up you stamina, and try to run even further than 26.2 miles in your training. What you are doing however, is training your body to run a very long distance at a set pace. If this is a competition, however, your goal should be to run exactly 26.2 miles, at a very fast pace. Whatever the distance for a competition, you should not be concerned with running one foot more than you have to, but rather, running the predetermined distance while keeping the fastest pace that you can. What about when you’re just running a race for fun? Well, in this case, your goal is still to finish the race, and I doubt there are many people that want to spend more time preparing for a friendly race than needed. Also, while you may not need to run the race at your fastest pace, the better your body can handle running at a fast rate, the easier it will be to run at the pace you will be running on race day. As for those of us that just want to look and feel our best, we must determine what exactly we hope long, slow distances will provide so that we can achieve these goals. Calories burned? Increased cardiovascular endurance? Lower heart rate? Lower blood pressure? Well, these too can be achieved in a shorter time, and with better results.

So, if long, slow distance running is not the answer, what is? Well, as I’m sure some of you have already guessed, interval training is the way to go. Before I get going, I would like to say that if you love running, and long, slow distance is your thing, go for it. The only thing that I would caution is that with excessive running, there are always risks for overuse injuries, but just keep those running shoes fresh (or try out barefoot running) and listen to your body and you should be good. Also, as I will explain later, if you are doing this as training for an event, I would recommend using intervals as a supplement to your training. For those of you that engage in long, slow distance because you think it is the only way to train, or think that there is a fat-burning zone that you want to stay in, then it might be time to try something new. If you haven’t read “5 Keys to Weight Loss”, go check it out and it will explain why interval training is the way to go if you are lose weight. For the remainder of this article, I will focus instead on how interval training can be used to help in long distance performance.

For this type of training, intervals are crucial. As I said before, just because you can run 50 miles at an 8 minute/mile pace does not mean that you will turn that into 25 miles at a 7 or 6 minute/mile pace. This is because your body has not adapted to running at these faster paces. What it comes down to is something called the anaerobic threshold. This is the point where your body can no longer use only oxygen to power the muscles, meaning that you must go to other energy sources. Unfortunately, these other energy sources cannot sustain you for very long. So the goal in training then is to push this anaerobic threshold as high as we can, therefore allowing us to work at higher intensities while still using oxygen as our primary source in muscle activity. This means that now our 8 minute/mile can become a 7 minute/mile, because our body can work in an aerobic state even at this faster pace. With this said, the only way to produce these results is to train at higher levels of intensity, and here is where we start with intervals.

There are two main types of intervals: short bursts of exertion followed by rest periods that are longer than the amount of time we spent working, and longer durations of hard work that will be followed by rest periods shorter than the time spent working. To better explain, let’s take the first type. This would be equivalent to wind sprints. They are very short, but you exert every last ounce of energy to complete them. A wind sprint could last for 15 seconds, but you will probably need to recover for 30 or 60 seconds, especially if you really went all out. On the other hand, if you ran a mile as fast as you could, it would probably take 5-8 minutes to complete, and you would be more than recovered after 2-4 minutes of rest. Within these types of training, there is much room for variations in the intensity, time, and work-to-rest ratio, all which factor into how hard the training is, and how it affects you. The way I like to train is with some of each. With sprints, it is most efficient if you have a heart rate monitor, but timing it out works too. Let’s say you go as hard as you can for 30 seconds. If you have a heart rate monitor, you can wait until your HR drops to 120 and go again. Otherwise, start with a 2 minute recovery, and if you feel that you are fully recovered by the end, try taking off 15 seconds the next time you go out. This type of training is making you work in an anaerobic state and push yourself to the limits, resulting in an increase in your maximum ability to do work. In turn, you will help raise your anaerobic threshold, which is a percentage of that max. So if your max was a 5 minute/mile, and realistically you ran that at 70% or a 7:08 minute/mile, you may have now pushed that max to a 4:30 minute/mile, resulting in a 6:26 minute mile at 70%. You just dropped over 30 seconds off of your time only focusing on increasing you max.

The other part of this is the longer intervals. Here I would run a mile as fast as I could and then let myself recover. You may just want to start with 2 intervals, but try to add in more as you continue to train. Also, you will want to work on decreasing your rest in-between intervals as you adapt to the exercise. If you have a heart rate monitor, use the 120 bpm mark again (your HR will begin to recover more quickly as you become more fit), or if you are just timing yourself, start by recovering for half the time it took you to complete the mile, and then take off 30 seconds every few weeks. Just make sure that you are able to recover enough so that the next mile can be run at a similar pace as the last. With this type of training, we are teaching the body to perform right at the threshold. Exercises is all about adaptation, so as we work on our mile runs, we are adapting to working at the pace that we will eventually want to maintain, and we are also maximizing our bodies’ ability to efficiently consume and utilize oxygen.

With these two types of training, whether you are a competitive athlete or just want to go out and run an event, you will in the end be able to run faster, or run longer with more ease. As far as long, slow distance running, don’t leave it out of the routine, since your body needs to adapt to the act of running for such long distances, but from a cardiovascular standpoint, interval training is the way to go (plus it takes much less time!). Good luck with your training, and I hope to see you out on the track!

-Colin

Food for Thought: Part 2

This week’s blog will wrap up the rest of my thoughts on nutrition, mainly focusing on the role of sugar and fat in the diet. First, let me explain what the big deal is about sugar—how it affects the body and why the better you control your intake, the more successful you will be in maintaining your ideal body composition.

Sugar, technically known as glucose, is used in the body for energy, specifically for thinking and moving. This is why when you have too much you have a spike in energy, but if you have too little, you cannot think straight and it is hard to do any major activities. So, glucose is very important to the body, but it must be taken in moderation. Not only this, it is also best if the levels in the bloodstream are able to me maintained without too much variation. When you eat a candy bar, however, your blood sugar hits the roof, giving you that spike in energy, but this has negative effects too. Besides leading to an eventual crash, your body will also produce a hormone called insulin. When insulin is produced it tells the cells to open up and accept the glucose from the blood, helping to stabilize the blood sugar, while also increasing the sugar available in the cells to use as energy. All good stuff so far, but problems arise when there is consistently too much sugar. One thing that can happen is that the cells become so overwhelmed with sugar that they begin to reject the insulin and will no longer take in the glucose. This is what happens in the case of Type II Diabetes. This has a whole set of negative implications of its own so we can leave it at that. The other things that happens, that is more important in terms of fat loss, is that when insulin is being produced, another hormone, glucagon, is not. Glucagon, while mostly responsible for releasing glucose from the liver into the bloodstream when blood sugar levels are low, is also responsible for releasing something else: fatty acids. When glucagon is produced, is tells the fat cells to release the stored fatty acids into the blood to be used as energy. This is an important concept that many people do not realize. Sugar does not make you fat, but it sure does keep it once you have it.

On that note, I would also like to say that low fat diets are not the way to go. For one, fat is a very important nutrient that the body needs, and should make up almost 30% of your daily calories. What you have to realize, however, is that there are different kinds of fat. Trans fats are the worst, meaning that at all costs stay away from hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated vegetable oils. These, along with saturated fat (animal fat & tropical oils) are responsible for high levels of bad cholesterol, while decreasing your good cholesterol. Polyunsaturated fats are tricky because there are two main types: omega-6 and omega-3. Omega-6s are found in your corn oil and vegetable oil, and while they are not as bad as saturated, they are not known to be particularly beneficial. Omega-3s on the other hand, found in fish oil and flax, are considered to be very healthy. These, along with monounsaturated fats (olive oil, peanut oil) should make up the majority of the fat in your diet. So instead of picking up the low fat butter, why not use olive oil for cooking next time. Low fat products are rarely as nutritious (or delicious for that matter!) so why not just find the healthy alternative. Also, eating fat is not what makes you fat. Eating too much is what makes you fat. When you over-consume, the body stores the excess calories as fat to be used for fuel later. When you have a diet that is high in fat, however, it is easier to over consume because fat has over twice as many calories per gram as protein or carbohydrates. So in the end it is more important to eat the right amount of healthy fat, rather than stuffing yourself full of low-fat foods. Many times, you just end up eating more when you know it’s low-fat.

Food can be complicated and stressful, but if you change the way you look at food, it can become quite easy. Natural is probably the easiest rule to follow. If it is of the earth, then you’re probably safe. If it is of man, then there has probably been sugar added, oil hydrogenated, or additives stuck in there to prolong its shelf life. Hopefully the guide I provided last week will also help to get you thinking about the variety of food out there that can be cooked up into any number of delicious meals while also providing the nutrients that your body needs. Diet is about daily choices and planning ahead. It’s about recognizing what a healthy life can provide and committing to living that life. There will always be times that the healthiest choices are not available, but if you eat right 80% of the time, you’ll be way ahead of the game. Good luck and happy eating!

-Colin

Food for Thought: Part 1

After laying out my 5 keys to weight loss, I realized that each of those points would eventually need to be further explained. As such, I will first speak in more depth about what I feel is the most important part in leading a healthy life: food.

It’s amazing how complicated a topic such as food can be, but even in my own studies, it takes countless sources and a variety of opinions before one can come out with worthwhile information, and even then there may be a study coming out next week debunking the last most probable data. Either way, there are a few things that I do feel confident in saying when it comes to eating. As I said before, if you eat more than you expend, weight loss can never be achieved. What I would like to focus more on, however, is how to get the right foods, therefore promoting proper caloric intake, and also helping you to lose fat, since that is really what people want when they are trying to lose weight.

The guiding principles behind a healthy diet and fat loss reside in finding foods that are naturally produced and provide more for you than just you carbs, protein or fat for the day. When it comes to eating, vegetables are king. Eat as many veggies as you can and you will be on the right track. Spinach, avocadoes, tomatoes (though technically a fruit), broccoli, zucchini, red and green pepper, carrots, and cauliflower are just some of the many types of foods that you could stuff yourself with all day and end up with a very healthy body.

Another important plant group is fruit. While I would encourage you to enjoy fruit throughout the day, fruit should not be consumed in the same manner as vegetables. The difference is that fruit is high in sugar. It’s true that when you eat fruit it’s not the same as eating a spoonful of table sugar, but sugar is sugar, and too much can unhealthy. I will explain the dangers of sugar later, but for now, 2-4 pieces of fruit per day is going to be a safe bet. My personal favorites include: watermelon, grapefruit, cantaloupe, strawberries, raspberries, mango, blueberries, apples, and bananas. These are a great substitute for dessert if you are a real sweets lover.

I would also recommend getting some good lean meat in your diet. Unless you are vegetarian, where beans and nuts are your main sources of protein, it is just easier to make sure you are getting all of the essential amino acids by eating meat. Chicken, lean beef, fish, and dairy products are good choices. This doesn’t mean that just because you eat meat you cannot have beans or nuts. These are both healthy food items that should not be neglected.

The last type of food to include in your diet is grains. Now this one can be tricky because it is easy to get into trouble with sugars again when you start eating grain products. That is why I recommend whole grain items, mostly from whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, brown rice, and whole grain oatmeal. When you eat whole grains, you are eating more than just the starch (which is basically a string of sugar bundled up together)—you are getting fiber, vitamins, and minerals that keep the sugar from hitting you system as fast.

These are my recommendations for eating, but diet is a lifelong experiment. You must discover for yourself which foods are most enjoyable, manageable, and available. Remember the guiding principle of natural foods with lots of veggies, but discover the details of your diet for yourself. As this post is already long enough, I will save the rest of my thoughts for next week. For now, start thinking about which parts of your diet are healthy, and which parts you might want to change. It is important to be mindful of what goes into our bodies; otherwise we are at the mercy of our cravings to determine what we eat. Check in next week where I will speak more specifically about the affects of sugar and fat in ones diet. Good luck and happy eating!

-Colin

Functional Fitness

This week I want to talk about the basic ideology behind my style of training and my way of thinking about exercise. For me, the single most important thing I can do as a trainer is to help my client to function better in life. Now, they may have goals that are more important to them than general functioning, but all that means is that I need to find a way to help them achieve their goals in a manner that will also allow them to function at their highest capacity. If you to lose weight, but are no more functional in your daily life, then the weight loss was not a success. I think that in the end, most goals are functional goals, though they can take on many forms. Keeping with the topic of weight loss, there are of course the aesthetic reasons behind having a goal like this, but usually someone who is overweight also wants to be more active, not tire as easily, or simply be able to get through the day without all the stress that extra weight can put on the joints and organs. So when I put together a plan for weight loss, it will be focused on calories burned, but I will use activities that will make this person not only leaner, but more capable in movement, strength, endurance, flexibility, and stability.

This idea of functional fitness gets thrown around a lot in the fitness industry these days, but I feel that much of the functional training that goes on is not functional at all. To me functional is about participating in activities that you can take back to your everyday life. Doing upside down pushups on a stability ball may seem like a functional progression of a shoulder stabilization exercise, but the fact is that this is not something you will likely encounter in your daily movements…unless perhaps you are in the circus! So when I talk about functional training, this is what I mean:

Stretching - allowing your muscles to go through their complete range of motion.

Balance - making sure that you are capable of maintaining your equilibrium and posture through movement, preparing your body for the stabilization and reactivity needed to maintain balance throughout all activities.

Stabilization – focusing on the muscles around those joints that are in the greatest need of stability: the knee, hip, lower and upper back, neck, and shoulder.

Strength - training in the basic movement: the squat, deadlift, overhead press, pull-up, and push-up.

Cardiovascular Training- getting your heart used to working at higher intensities, increasing the maximum output that your heart can handle, and increasing the volume and efficiency of your oxygen consumption.

By combining these important areas with the goals of the client, I am able to produce the most effective changes that will both make the client happy and functional.

Now in the world self-training, where you do not have a trainer, start thinking about the exercises you do, what the purpose is, and see how functional they really are. My favorite nonfunctional activity is the bicep curl. Unless you are a body builder, there is really no purpose behind this single joint movement. Of course some people just want to have bigger arms, and that can be a legitimate goal, but don’t think that this is going to be useful in any other endeavor. I would also point out that in a well balanced training routine, you are already working the biceps during pulling exercises and the triceps during pushing exercises. Often times, if you add in arm work on top of that, you can end up with disproportionate limbs. So if functional training sounds like something that interests you, here are some tips.

- Workout on your feet. You sit enough during the day, and most movement takes place standing, not sitting.

- Stay away from single joint work, i.e. curls/extensions for the arms, legs, wrists.

- Run outside. A treadmill does not produce the same effect on your body as when you propel yourself across the ground.

- Sweat. If you really want to make any changes, you need to push yourself. Don’t overdo it, but if you aren’t sweating, you aren’t working hard enough.

- Stretch after training- check out my previous blog, Flexibility First

- Do single leg work such as single leg squats and single leg deadlifts. These are great for working on balance, symmetry of strength and movement, and training you for life the way most movement happens- one leg at a time.

- Form first. If you do not have correct form during exercise, your efforts are only going to be counterproductive. Work on stability first, and only work with as much weight as you can handle.

This is not all that being functional is about, but it’s a good start. Try thinking more about what you do and why you do it and you may find yourself changing some exercises that you do. I hope this helps—if you have any questions, feel free to ask. Take care and happy fitness!

-Colin

Not all Group Classes are Created Equal

If your involved in a group yoga or pilates class, make sure your instructor knows what they are doing! Any class can have a bad instructor, but these two types of activities can more readily lead to injury. In today’s culture of high intensity exercise, many of these classes have been modified to appease the masses, making them more challenging or getting you to feel the burn. Unfortunately, these activates were not meant to serve all of our fitness needs, so when we try to make them harder, they also become more dangerous. Make sure that your instructor is both experienced in their field and knowledgeable about the why and how of the movements you are performing. Yoga and pilates are very worthy forms of exercise, but when used inappropriately, they can have unpleasant consequences.

If you haven't taken a yoga or pilates class, I would certainly recommend adding it to you exercises repertoire, they have many health and movement benefits that are useful in our everyday lives. Just make sure to find that instructor that will lead you through it safely!

-Colin

5 Keys to Weight Loss

1. Eat Less

This is the number one rule if you want to lose weight! It doesn’t matter how much you exercise, if you do not eat fewer calories than you expend during the day, it is impossible to lose weight. Now this doesn’t mean you have to starve yourself. The best thing to do is to keep a food journal for a few days. Write down everything you eat, how much, when, and why you ate it. This will be useful not only for discovering extra calories that might be slipping in, it will also show you if you are an emotion eater- eating when you are sad, tired, bored, etc. With this information, you can also find a program that will calculate how many calories you eat; I recommend FitDay. Once you know how much you eat, look for ways to cut out 300-500 calories each day, and this will be the first step to dropping those pounds.

2. Eat Better

While eating less is surely important, you are most likely not trying to lose weight just to have a lower number on the scale. You want to be healthy! So another key ingredient to not only losing weight, but being in overall better shape is to change the way you eat. Incidentally, healthy foods also tend to be lower in calories! (Fat has 9 calories per gram while Carbohydrates and Protein only have 4). So what foods do we need to focus on? Well, I hate to be cliché, but fruits and vegetables are a good place to start. Very few people get enough, if any, of these most important food groups in their diet, yet they are vital to having a fully functioning body. Add in some lean meat (turkey, chicken breast, lean beef), whole grains (whole grain bread, brown rice, oatmeal), and some good quality fat (olive oil, avocados, fish), and you’re ready to go. This can be a major change for some people, so take it slow. Try adding a salad in with dinner, or having a piece of fruit for a snack. It all starts at the store, so start shopping healthily. If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it! A good rule of thumb is to stay on the perimeter of the store; here are all your plants, produce, and dairy. When you start getting into the middle, you run into processed food that is full of unhealthy fats, refined carbohydrates, and sugar. If you can start shopping healthily, and slowly integrate healthy foods into the diet, you’ll be one step closer to achieving your desired weight and lifestyle.

3. HIIT it hard

There has been a long standing myth that long slow endurance training is best for fat burning. This was based on the fact that at lower levels of exertion, your body burns a higher percentage of fat compared to carbs. With this logic, however, the most ideal way to burn fat would be to do nothing at all, because the highest percentage of fat would be burned at rest! So we can see that a change in philosophy is in order. What we know now is twofold. First, to burn fat and lose weight, we need to work at higher intensities to have the most overall calories consumed. Second, because most fat calories are consumed at rest, we want to increase what is called our excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). EPOC is basically the elevation of the body’s metabolism after exercise. So while we were burning calories during exercise, now we are also burning them as we recover from exercise. So how do we utilize these two components? We HIIT it hard. HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training) has been shown to have the greatest effects on increasing metabolism and in turn increasing fat loss. This method of training involves working at a very high intensity, ideally for a minute, and then dropping down the intensity for recovery. This recovery period can be anywhere from twice to half as long as the interval itself, decreasing as you become more fit. Don’t jump right into this however; if you have not been running / cycling / rowing, try working on maintaining a good pace for 20-30 minutes before you try out HIIT. You don’t want to overdo it.

4. Weight train

Weight training will help with weight loss in two ways. First, it is great exercise, and can work in a similar fashion as HIIT- increasing metabolism and burning calories during the work out. The other major factor in weight training is that as you build muscle mass, your body’s resting metabolism will increase. This is no longer part of EPOC, this is your metabolism the rest of the day, including while you sleep. So now we are burning more calories throughout the day! And don’t worry ladies, I know that having big muscles is the opposite of what you are looking for, so be assured by this: women cannot build muscle in the same way men do. As women build muscle, the fibers form in a much more dense fashion than in men, so while the size increase is less than men, the strength and metabolic affects are still there! This doesn’t mean that women cannot build muscle size, however, so hypertrophy training (8-12 reps) may not be for you. If you are worried about this, stick to endurance type training (15-20 rep range). This will still increase the amount of muscle fibers but will have less of an effect on muscle size.

5. Don’t obsess

The final rule to weight loss is to not obsess. Too many people become overly conscious of when and how they eat and exercises. What I always say is that nutrition and exercises should not be seen or treated like a program. They should be treated as part of your life. Yes there are certain things we can focus on here or there, but the goal is to make these lifestyle choices sustainable. If you really love chocolate chip cookies, don’t give them up forever, but just enjoy them as a special treat instead of having a box ready to go for your nightly snack. If you hate running, try out swimming or biking. And if you are feeling worn out from a long week but only had two days at the gym, it’s ok to let your body rest and recover rather than forcing yourself to get in that third day. Ten years from now, you want to be a healthy, balanced individual, not someone that tried to get in shape once but found it to be just too hard.

I hope these suggestions can help someone out there. Good luck and happy fitness!

-Colin

Flexibility Extras

After receiving some feedback on my last post, I wanted to add in a few extra notes concerning flexibility and flexibility training:

1: When performing a static stretch, make sure to hold the position for 20-30 seconds to make it worth your effort. If you are especially tight, go for 2 sets of 30 seconds.

2: Self-myofacial release, aka foam rolling, has been getting more recognition these days and for good reason. There are many benefits to massaging your muscles, but because most of us cannot afford a personal masseuse, the foam roller is a cheap substitute that can still have beneficial effects on the muscles. I recommend using this when you have a knot, but some people liking using it for every warm-up. Either way, the goal is to roll over the muscle at a slow rate, and if you do find a knot, use your weight to put pressure on the tight area for 20-30 seconds, then continue rolling. If you have never done this before, be warned, it can be a little painful the first few times, but it gets easier the more you do it.

3: Pre-workout stretching should consist of dynamic stretching. Save static stretches until the end. Dynamic stretching means that you are taking your body through various ranges of motion while staying active. An example would be air squats or lunges. You are stretching out the muscles but you are moving too, trying to get your core temperature up before exercise.

4: In explaining the problems that can arise because poor range of motion, I left out a key factor. While I mentioned that having a tight muscle can restrict its own ability to move functionally, I failed to explain that this also inhibits the surrounding muscles. This means that you now have a multi-directional dysfunction, which can only lead to further alterations in movement patterns. In turn, you end up with weakened muscles surrounding the joints, leading to poor joint mechanics, and making injury all the more likely to occur.

5: The last thing I would like to say is that with the major factor in all of this being injury prevention, we must recognize that along with an injury taking us out of the gym, it also makes future injury more likely to occur. Unless you change your stretching habits after an injury, the reasons that the injury occurred in the first place will only get worse, only now you have another area that will be adding dysfunction to your movement. It turns into a cycle that can only be broken by altering the training program.

If there are any more questions or concerns, feel free to ask, I am always open to elaborate on a topic. Thanks for checking me out, I hope you come back soon!

-Colin

Flexibility First

Thinking back to my high school days, I can remember first learning about exercise and instantly finding an interest in the subject. Training with weights was always my favorite, as is often the case for men and adolescent boys alike. Get to the gym, get those guns pumped up and get out of there after you can no longer lift the weight off the stand. While there is nothing wrong with weight training (though my opinion on the exercise choices of most will be coming soon), many do not see exercise in the holistic light that it should be seen. People have specific goals in mind when they go to the gym and spending even a second on something that is not directly related to toning / bulking / endurance training would in their eyes be a waste of time. While there are probably a number of things that I would like to see emphasized more in the gym, the most neglected, yet one of the most important, is flexibility.

Reminiscing again on my early days of weight training, I was the same way. I would never stretch after a workout because I had gotten the “important” exercises out of the way, and I just wanted to get home. Sometimes I would get in a quick stretch or two between sets if I was tight, or maybe in the morning when I could barely walk, but I was obviously being reactive to the tightness that my training was causing. The result: sore muscles, restricted movement, bad technique, pain in my lower back, inability to play sports well, and problems in my shoulders during lifting. Looking back, it now makes so much sense! All of these issues, and more, can come from lack of flexibility. When your joints cannot go through their full range of motion, a number of key things happen. First, muscles will not be able to stretch to the length required to allow for full range of motion. What this means is that your body will be unable to move properly, which affects your performance in everything from washing your car to maintaining proper technique during exercise. As you continue to work through these faulty movement patterns, your body will have to compensate and eventually be put into a compromised position, resulting in injury. Second, you will lose power in movement. Your ability to move weight is based on your muscles ability to fully utilize the muscle fibers available. When you have tight muscles, the fibers are stuck in a semi-contracted state, preventing them from having a full contraction. The more bound up the muscles become, the less capable your muscles will be to live up to their full potential. This will clearly be detrimental for lifting weights, but it will more importantly inhibit your ability to perform more fundamental movements, such as running, jumping, and squatting. Finally, your body will feel downright tired. Think about how much harder it must be for our bodies to move through the world when there is resistance against every movement you try to make. Every step, every reach, and especially every time you try to pick something up, your body will be fighting against those tight muscles that aren’t allowing it to move the way it knows it should!

In the end, if your body cannot move properly, nothing else in exercise matters. The movement you put on top of faulty movement patterns only reinforces that dysfunction, and this dysfunction can lead to injury. And if the work you do to stay healthy is getting you injured, then what’s the point! So as a quick guide to what type of stretching is important, we need to think about the major movements of the body. The foot goes up and down (though the focus would be on moving it up), so here we would want a calf stretch. The leg bends at knee, which would require a quad stretch. The legs go forward, backward, and side to side, meaning that we will need to include exercises such as the butterfly, toe touch, lunge and pigeon. The trunk bends forward and back, so we can include the toe touch again, plus a cobra stretch. The upper back twists, bends, and extends, so will want to hold the hips straight and work on rotating the upper back in both directions, and then work on some cat and horse stretches. The arms go up, down, and side to side, so make sure to hold your arms in each of these positions. You could use your other arm or a wall to help put pressure on the stretch, but know that each direction is just as important as another.

If you could stretch in all of these directions after every workout you would be a gymnast! The goal, however, is not to spend hours stretching every day, so focus your time on stretching those muscles that were used that day. Start paying attention to the movement that you are doing in your workout and think about what muscles are being activated, so that when you finish up, you can put together a ten good minutes of stretching. We need to lengthen those muscles that have inevitably tightened up from exercise, and get them prepared for our future activities. Trust me; even if you need to skip a whole exercise to make sure that you stretch, your body is going to thank you. Fitness is not about any single workout, it’s about how long can you continue to exercise throughout the rest of your life. Good luck everyone and let’s get flexible!

-Colin

Core Training Part 2- Posterior Core

As promised, this week’s post will finish up my discussion of the core, and what we can do to properly train it without risk of injury. One of the main points from last week was that the abdominal muscles are responsible for resisting extension in the lower back, which is why we need to train them in that role. This week, I would like to focus more on the gluteal muscles (the butt), as well as the muscles in the lower back, and discuss function and exercise relating to these areas.

First I would like to say that the majority of people out there probably do not have nearly enough strength in their glutes, and too much in their low back. This can be most attributed to the atrophy of muscle and movement that people experience as they spend more and more time sitting, and less time moving. While the abdominals working properly can help to resist over extension or rotation, normal extension is still needed, such as when you pick something off the ground. This would be the major role of the gluteus maximus, with support from its partners; if this group is undertrained, however, the low back muscles must compensate and help the back to extend. This is a dysfunctional movement because the role of the low back muscles is NOT to extend the back. Its role is to stabilize the back, making sure that the spine is kept in proper alignment both in static and dynamic situations (holding and moving). So, if we see that the low-back muscles are over-training, then we know that there is poor movement resulting from weak supporting muscles. This type of movement is putting a lot of strain on the back, and these little stabilizing muscles that run along the spine are picking up the work. In fact, just an 80 lb. weight lifted completely by your back can place 1500 lbs. of pressure on the spine, simply due to the angle from which that muscle must pull. This is not how these muscles were meant to be used, so let’s get those glutes back into action!

Before I go over exercises, I want to quickly touch on the role of the gluteus medius, the muscle most responsible for lifting your leg to the side. While this movement in itself is only at times important, from a functional stand point this muscle also helps to keep your knee in alignment during movement. As it weakens, your knee can become susceptible to inward movement, therefore putting stress not only on the ligaments, but also creating negative effects elsewhere in the body. Remember, the body is a chain of muscles, bones, and nerves, and when something is going wrong in one area, you can bet more problems are on there way.

So, how do we train these muscles? Well instead of looking to hyperextensions and overloaded deadlifts (I like the deadlift, but many people think they can do much more than they are capable of, leading to a break in form, and increased stress on the back) let me suggest some exercises that can help the situation without risk. First: the maximus. When training, you can decide to focus on an isometric contraction (no movement), a concentric contraction (shortening the muscles) or an eccentric contraction (lengthening the muscle). The first exercise is an isometric exercise, and if any of you have ever done yoga, you are probably familiar with the bridge. This one is performed by lying on your back, knees bent, and pushing your butt off the ground so that your shoulders, hips, and knees are all in a straight line. This is a great way to start on your way toward better strength, and if you want to make it a challenge, try straightening one leg, leaving only one leg of support.

Another great exercise is the single leg deadlift. This allows you to work on extension of the trunk using the glutes and hamstrings, balancing, and keeping your knee in line with your toe all at once. It’s also great because you don’t need to load it as heavily as you would a regular deadlift, meaning you are not going to overload your back. Here you are doing the deadlift motion, but with a weight either in both arms or in the opposite hand of the foot you are standing on. Keep that back straight and drive through the hips to straighten your body.

The last exercise I will mention is one to hit the glute medius. Here we are using a band, placed under our feet, then crossed, and held up overhead. This is called an X-band walk, and you basically walk side to side, without swaying your upper body. It is a strict abduction (movement away from the body to the side) of the leg, and it is a great way to target the medius.

I hope this core information has been useful. It is all extremely important no matter what your level of activity. As I said before, without the core, no movement is possible, and if we want to keep our lower backs in good shape, both the anterior and posterior core need to be fully functioning and strong enough to support our movement. Thanks for checking in and I’ll be back again in a week. Happy fitness!

-Colin

Core Training Part 1- Anterior Core

The anterior core, more commonly known as the abs, is the single most important muscle group in the body. It is actually made up of a two main muscle groups: the rectus abdominis (responsible for flexion and resisting extension) and external obliques (responsible for both rotating and resisting rotation). No functional movement in the body can take place without the core activating first, so it is no wonder that core training is such an integral part of any exercise program. Unfortunately, most information concerning core training comes from infomercials and health magazines that rarely explain any research behind their products or suggestions, and base their claims on what will get the most emotional response out of the buyer. This is why every ab product on the market still claims that it will burn fat and turn that gut into a 6-pack. The truth is, you could do a thousand crunches a day and never get a 6-pack. The only way to do that is to move more and eat less. What I want to talk about today, however, is not how to lose weight. What I would like to focus on are the types of exercises that are going on out there today—what works, what doesn’t, and what could actually be dangerous if kept up.

The first thing I would like to say is that hollowing has now been shown to not only be inefficient, but also potentially dangerous. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, hollowing is where you suck in your stomach or draw in your belly button before an exercise. Originally, the idea was that by tucking it all in, you would increase the internal pressure of the “core” and therefore better stabilize your movements. What has been found, however, is that this movement actually lessens the tension, and in turn reduces the amount of load the spine can handle without injury. What is more appropriate is to contract the abs enough to stabilize the body, while not over contracting, which would lead to dysfunctional movement.

With that out of the way, let’s talk about exercises. The latest research in the world of core training has shown that flexion (bending forward) and extension (bending backward) of the lumbar spine (low back) should be limited if not removed from practice. In terms of anterior core, flexion is what we will need to be carful with. What this means is that some of the most common movements in training your abs need to be either eliminated or modified. Most notably: the sit-up and the crunch. The sit-up should be avoided because it puts too much strain on the lower back resulting from high levels of flexion in the lower spine. According to Stuart McGill, a highly respected spine biomechanics professor at the University of Waterloo, sit-ups place a devastating amount of load on the disks, which over time can lead to back injuries. The crunch, while better, can also result in flexion unless you are able to strictly flex at the mid-spine, also known as the thoracic spine. What most people do, however, is try to curl up the head, and as a result, flatten the back against the ground, again resulting in a flexion of the lower spine. If you want to do it right, McGill has his own suggestion. Start with one knee bent, both hands under your lower back and only lift your head and shoulders. Make sure that your back does not flatten, and be sure not to hollow! Other exercises that he suggest include the side plank, and the “bird dog”, where from all fours, you raise alternating arm and leg. You can find out more of Stuart McGill’s work in his books, Low Back Disorders: Evidence-Based Prevention and Rehabilitation and Ultimate Back Fitness and Performance.

While McGill has had a profound influence on how core training is now perceived, his exercises are limited and are just a start to how we should train. One of the oldest yet most effective tools out there for anterior core training is the ab wheel. What makes this such a great tool is that we are getting away from the old paradigm of training the abs through flexion, and now training them through anti-extension (Anti-extension, along with anti-rotation, are now thought to be the primary function of the anterior core, meaning that its job is to stop your low back from extending too far or rotating too much). While this is a simple piece of equipment, the abdominal strength required to use such a tool is remarkable. It’s so difficult, in fact, that most people should not even use it at first! But don’t worry—there are other exercises that mimic the movement that provide for a workable progression for the abs. Start out by working on your plank. If you can get your hold up to a full minute, then it’s time to move on. Next is rolling out with a stability ball. Start with your hands on the ball when it is close to you, and then roll out until your elbows are on the ball and your arms are fully extended overhead. From here roll the ball back toward you using your abs to pull your body back from your extended position. You will probably want to perform these movements from your knees, though if you really want a challenge, attempt them from a standing position. Next, we can perform this same action using an ab-dolly, getting us closer to the ground, and then finally advance to the wheel. If you do get to where the wheel is not enough, use an Olympic bar with weight to roll out (and good luck with that!).

Starting postition for rollout (use whichever method is best for you)

End position (Make sure you don't let your body touch the ground!)

Other effective exercises include medicine ball anti-rotations, medicine ball chop and lifts, or single-arm rows from a push-up position (make sure you don’t let your torso rotate).

Medicine Ball Anti-Rotation (don't let your hips turn)

Medicine Ball Chop and Lift

Push-up Anti-Rotation

While these are not all of the options out there, I want to provide enough so that you can get a solid ab workout without reverting to the old way of training. Next week I will talk about the “posterior core” including the gluteus maximus (Butt), gluteus medius (Outer hip), erector spinae (Lower Back), and how this group is just as important as the anterior core. Good luck working the core, and remember—easy on the flexion!