January Q&A

We got some really good questions this month in our Q&A blog and we've put together some pretty good answers. This month we received questions about sumo deadlift vs. conventional, flexibility, measures of cardiovascular health, non-standard implement training, muscle gain, and olympic lifting.

On to the questions we had this month:

Irregular training implements versus standard training tools. Anecdotal evidence? Research?
There is a lot of anecdotal evidence to the power of non-standard training implements (slosh pipes, sandbags, ropes, suspension trainers, etc) but limited published research, mostly focused around suspension training. Both the anecdotal evidence and research point to the increased muscular effectiveness when using non-standard implements. I believe this occurs for several reasons.

Instability - whether it is the object or the person, a non-braced, non-stable object requires you as a lifter to make constant adjustments to remain balanced and move the object. Each adjustment effects not only the focused muscle, but also the core (not just the abs) and the small supporting muscles surrounding the joints.

Functional Applications - the objects we lift in our daily lives outside of the gym rarely, if ever, are balanced and come with a convenient handle to make lifting easy. Many objects we lift have strange grips, non-centered weight loads, and adjust as we move.

Dynamic Variable Resistance - The best example of this is a slosh pipe, a 6 - 8 foot PVC pipe partially filled with water. As you move, it moves and move fast. With DVR, the intensity of the exercise can be increased without increasing load based on where the load is placed, how it's held, and the movement being performed.

What this really means is the inclusion of non-standard training implements lends to greater levels of total-body strength because multiple muscle groups must be engaged simultaneously while training.

Is heart rate the best measure of Cardiovascular Health?
Cardiovascular health is a hot topic and everybody is looking for the best measure of cardiovascular health. There are numerous ways to measure our health; blood tests, VO2 max, resting and max heart rate, heart rate variability, etc. Given the number of easy to access tests, I do not believe heart rate alone is the best measure of cardiovascular health. Without fancy equipment, there are several measures, which when combined can provide a better picture of cardiovascular health.

Blood Pressure - high reading can show potential cardiovascular problems but also has potential for "normal" readings that are potentially dangerous due to calcification in arteries, diabetes, or those with Vitamin K deficiencies.

Body Temperature - lower body temperature relates to possible hypothyroidism, which can mean abnormal fat metabolism and result in cardiovascular disease. The lower the body temperature, the greater the chance of thyroid problems.

Resting Heart Rate - elevated heart rate is one of the most powerful indicators of cardiovascular disease in men that can be done easily at home, however, it is possible to have a lowered heart rate due to medications or to also have other cardiovascular indicatiors despite the low heart rate.

Heart Rate Recovery - In order to test HRR, you must reach 85% of your max heart rate (220-age) and then wait a minute and measure your heart rate. A recovery of under 12 bpm can indicate possible cardiovascular disease.

At the end, the best measure of cardiovascular health is a combination of tests performed by your doctor, but for at home screening, the four simple tests above are a good starting point for identifying potential cardiovascular issues.

Is there any science to the cardio recommendation of 20M sitting - 10M standing
I have actually never heard of this before, but it does make sense to me. The reason I believe this could be a good rule of thumb for cardio is the change in load between sitting and standing.

Consider a typical day, standing about for three hours is more tiring than sitting for three hours. During cardio, I believe the load caused by supporting one's bodyweight versus having the weight supported by a seat changes the intensity of the workout even if the speed of the activity remains the same

.In general, my heart rate and perceived effort is significantly lower when I use a seated cardio exercise (recumbant bike, hand bike, spin bike in the saddle, etc) versus a standing cardio (treadmill, stairmill, elliptical, spin bike out of the saddle) at the same RPM / intensity level. Without any research to back up my claims, I can only provide my experience.


Is it ok to do conventional deadlifts one day and sumo the next?
Yes, it's possible due to the different stresses to do them both back to back. You obviously will not want to go to max effort both days, but you can train them on consecutive training days. The conventional deadlift places a great deal of stress on the back and hamstrings becaue the hips tend to be further back and the torso more parallel to the floor. Because of the angle, the low back erectors will be greatly stressed. The sumo, with a much more upright posture will place less stress on the lower back and more of the stress on the quads. Both lifts will call upon the glutes and the hips, so the biggest factor to doing them back to back will be the intensity level.


Difference of conventional vs sumo in sports
The big difference in carryover will come from the muscles activated during the lifts and the speed at which the lift is performed. As mentioned earlier, conventional deadlift stresses the back and total body coordination more than a sumo deadlift. Another factor to consider is the starting foot and back position. In the sumo, the back is more upright and the feet are wider and more externally rotated than in a typical athletic stance. THe sumo deadlift is also a more quad dominant lift. When the quadriceps become too dominant, the athlete is more at risk for hamstring and knee injuries then a balanced athlete. By working a more traditional athletic stance in the conventional deadlift, which typically generates more speed, there is better carryover to core and leg strength with a greater training stimulus to the hamstrings and glutes in a position that would be seen in sport.

What is the effect of rapid deceleration on hypertrophy?
The short answer is yes, eccentrics can be used to produce hypertrophic growth in muscle if they are used sparingly and cautiously. If I were looking to add eccentrics into my training, I would choose two lifts per week to train eccentrically, and I would perform the eccentric every other week for no more than 50 total reps. That will allow me two eccentric days on a muscle each month and should alleviate having too much muscle damage.

The danger of rapid deceleration, similar to plyometrics, such as what occurs when landing a box drop, can produce an overload in the eccentric action of the muscles being used. Eccentric overload can build muscle when the motion is controlled but can damage tendons and joints when not controlled! Eccentrics can also fatigue the CNS if done too often. For these reasons, it is recommended that rapid eccentrics are only used by lifters at the intermediate stage or beyond.

Charles Poliquin posted this article about how to better use eccentric training to achieve better results. While I agree that the use of eccentrics can help build size and strength, I am cautious with the "rapid deceleration" part of the question. The eccentric motion is responsible for the majority of muscle damage (which can lead to hypertrophy) and rapid deceleration implies the sudden breaking of a load. As I discuss in the next question, rapid changes at maximum tension can lead to muscle strains.

Do hamstring curls cause injury in sprinters?
About 29% of injuries to sprinters are hamstring injuries. One of the main reasons for injury according to Conor Hughes (S&C Coach at the University at Albany) is the hamstring contains biarticulate muscle and that sprinting uses the hamstring to provide both acceleration and deceleration. If strength imbalances exist between the quads and hamstrings, the rapid change from eccentric to concentric could be to blame in hamstring injuries. Also, if the hamstrings are weak or are firing at the wrong time, they are more likely to strain at the terminal range of the eccentric motion. At maximal speed, several components of the hamstring (semimembranosus, semitendinosus, biceps femoris long head) are under under peak musculo-tendon force at around the same time just before impact of the front leg, which is where researchers speculate the majority of hamstring injuries occur.

Strength and Conditioning coaches implement a combination of exercises in an attempt to prevent hamstring injuries. Many focus on knee flexion, hip extension, and combined exercises where both occur. In many instances the movement is a form of hamstring curl, be it the Nordic Ham Curl, Val Slide Leg Curl, or a traditional leg curl. Unfortunately no single exercise can be attributed to the majority of hamstring injuries and no exercise is known to be the most effective in preventing hamstring injuries.

What's a good minimalist Oly program?
Like all programs, there needs to be a basic progression. I have had the best results with doing each olympic lift once per week, starting with 80% of my max and increasing the volume each week. In week 6, I increase all the weights by 5% and continue the program.

My basic Olympic lift program contains eight lifts:

Clean

Snatch

Hang Clean

Hang Snatch

Front Squat

High Bar Back Squat

Jerk

Behind the Neck Push Press



Depending on your training program, adding a few of these lifts to your training days will help develop speed and explosiveness. A sample program could be:

Monday:
hang snatch 3x3
snatch 6x2
front squat 3x8
Regular Deadlift Day

Tuesday:
BTN Push Press 8x3
Regular Shoulder Day

Wednesday:
Off

Thursday:
hang clean 3x3
clean 6x2
jerk 6x2
High Bar Back Squat 3x8
Regular Squat Day

Friday:
Off

Saturday:
Regular Bench Day

Each week, increase 1 rep of the snatch and clean until you reach 6x6 and then increase the weight by 5%. Increase the weight as possible on all other lifts. By the end of each cycle, you should be able to move significantly more than you could at the beginning.

Tightness / Loss of flexibility: Why does it come with age? Can diet help it? Supplements to help?
We all know that we lose bone and muscle mass as we age, but our connective tissue also becomes less elastic. The primary reason for the decrease in elasticity is the decrease of water in the tendons in ligaments. In addition, the cartilage and fluids that cushioned our joints has been eroded over years of use. Combined with the decreased muscle mass and the replacement of muscle tissue with more fibrous tissue and you get tightness and inflexibility. To date, the only supplements that have research showing their viability in maintaining flexibility are:

• Fish Oil
• Glucosamine / Chondroitin / MSM
• Cissus Quadrangularis

I personally take Glucosamine and Fish Oil every day for their ability to minimize inflammation and maintain cartilage.

By maintaining a healthy and balanced diet with fats and Vitamins B, C, and D, you can also promote healthy cells and elasticity in your body. And finally, maintaining activity and implementing a stretching routine can help delay the loss in flexbility.

What's best for muscle gain, Protein or Carbs?
There are two schools of thought on the carbs versus protein debate for muscle gain. We all can agree that building muscle requires caloric excess, and while one may be better than the other, the biggest factor is the excess calories. Unfortunately, studies on which is best are inconclusive leaving us with many different opinions of what is necessary and what isn't. From a pure gain standpoint, 2 g of carbs per pound of bodyweight and 1.0 - 1.5 g protein per pound. If you are looking to build muscle and lose fat, you will want to reduce the carbohydrates, but still maintain a high protein diet. As with everything health and fitness, it will depend greatly on your starting point and your individual body.

Hooray! Now what?

You finally did it. You prepped. You dieted. You trained your ass off. It took hours of prep, self-control, thousands of hours of work, and months of your life, but you did it. You finally reached your goal weight and now you come to the amazing question: "What next?" You just put in all that effort and now you have to decide on how to maintain the results.

It seems like a fairly easy concept, right? Finish the bulk or the cut and then just maintain your size, but let's be honest, we screw this up all the time. If we all got it right, the diet industry would be shut down in a matter of years...

Whether you are losing weight or trying to gain, your post-diet is just as important as your diet!

If you just finished your diet:

Coming back from a diet can be tricky because there are so many variations and more possibilities than I can ever address.  Some diets require lowering of calories, others, the elimination of macros, and some changing the time period when you eat. Since the ultimate goal at the end of your diet should be to establish a sustainable eating style that maintains your weight, the important principle must be achieving a maintenance level of eating that matches your level of activity.

The largest of these principles is the SLOW recovery to maintenance. Whether you ate low calorie, low carb, or fasted, the diet effected your body's metabolism and hormones. Depending on how long the diet period lasted could have tremendous impact on how long the road back to maintenance will take.

You may be asking yourself "Why can't I just go back to my regular eating?" Your body seeks homeostasis, with weight, fat levels, etc. Simply, as you reduce calories to lose weight, your body is smart enough to slow metabolism and adjust hormones to maintain the current levels. In short, the gradual recovery will allow your body to recover it's metabolic rate, readjust hormones, balance gut bacteria, and set you up for sustaining the weight you worked so hard to achieve.

So how do we perform a slow recovery? Time for everybody's favorite answer, "It depends."

I was eating at a small deficit, how do I get back to full portions?

The answer is patience. If you were on a low calorie diet, recovering is just a matter of increasing our calories weekly until we reach maintenance. This has become wildly popular under the name of "Reverse Dieting" and can be found in books, websites, and even web software. One of the best books for explaining the concept is Reverse Dieting by Sohee Lee and Layne Norton. Essentially, you increase your calories weekly or bi-weekly with the idea that you will improve your metabolism and hormone profile with little to no weight gain and you will be able to return to your maintenance level calories over a period of weeks. Nobody can give you an exact time-frame, but the longer you dieted, the longer it will take to recover.

I was eating a specialized diet, can I go back to normal?

If you were on a diet like VLC, Atkins, or some other elimination style diet, your re-introduction could come with some nasty side-effects. When you remove a food type, the bacterial composition in your gut changes. With those changes come changes in how we digest and how we absorb the nutrients. Sometimes it's as simple as having a "gassy" feeling, other times it leads to diarrhea, leaky gut, or possibly worse with full out allergic reactions.

On top of the gut health issues, a diet that restricts carbohydrates tends to have an initial loss of weight associated with lost water weight. There's a lot of science behind it, but when you cut carbohydrates from the diet, the initial weight lost is primarily water, so naturally, when you reintroduce carbohydrates, the body will retain some water. A lot of people aren't prepared to see the scale rise and automatically assume it's fat. This is where a little extra time researching your diet is a worth it.

Again, the solution is slowly reintroducing the removed macronutrient WITHOUT creating a large surplus of calories. (Remember, caloric deficit = losing weight, caloric surplus = gaining weight)

What about if I want to change "Eating Styles?"

Sometimes, our diet has us changing from eating three meals a day to a modified eating plan, five meals a day, or possibly intermittent fasting. Although changes like these are typically lasting and are a way of eating for life, some people want to return to their good old three squares a day plan. Essentially nothing changes macro-wise, but you will have to fight through feelings of either being full or starving and possibly a little upset stomach if you've been avoiding morning meals. The best suggestion I have is to continue with the same calories while transitioning back to the three meals per day and then gradually increase calories if needed.

What if I did something radical and possibly stupid to lose weight?

Yup, there are STUPID ways to lose weight that will work in the short term. I do not personally recommend any of them, but people have done things like extended juice fasts, major calorie cuts (like 1/2 their intake cut), or one of the many extremist fad diets. The inherent risk with any of these diets is their effect on our metabolism, our gut bacteria, and our hormone levels. While they may accomplish the short term goal, the consequences could be long term damage, and sometimes the rebound could result in more fat gained than lost.

Of course, people will still do these diets and there needs to be some way to help them recover. Again, I believe "Reverse Dieting" is one of the better options if the extreme diet was run for only a short period (less than two weeks), but the first thing I recommend after a prolonged extreme diet is talking to a physician and allowing them to run blood tests. At the point where hormone levels are outside of the "normal" range, a medical professional will have the safest protocol to attempt to return the hormones to normal. And despite the weight loss, the safest option may be to regain weight and diet back down the right way.

If You Just Finished Your Bulk

This is a far shorter answer. Eat less! Cut the total calories by cutting back on carbs and fats. Again, the key is slowly cutting back each week until you find your maintenance levels. The one macronutrient I recommend keeping high is your protein to keep supporting that new muscle. Unlike after a diet concludes, the conclusion of a bulk allows for a much easier return to maintenance.

The Keys

1. Be Patient
2. Make Slow increases or decreases in calories, radical changes can have bad effects
3. Weigh yourself each week and add or decrease total calories until maintenance
4. Keep protein high to support your muscles
5. If you're doing it right and something isn't right, SEE YOUR DOCTOR.

A little knowledge goes a long way. Now that you've reached your goals, take it slow, recover the metabolism the right way and maintain that body you worked so hard for.

Q and A #1 December

Every now and again, I hit a roadblock when thinking of blog topics and I had a little inspiration from searching through facebook for ideas. It seems people do it through youtube, facebook, twitter, and all other forms of social media, so we may as well implement it here. If you have a question or a topic you'd like to see answered, post it to us on our facebook page (http://facebook.com/zstrengthandfitness) or send us an e-mail (zstrengthfit@gmail.com) and once a month, we'll answer your questions to the best of our ability.

On to the questions we had this month:

What is the effect of strength training on the heart?
-Answered by Rich

Recently, I wrote about the effects of cardio training and strength training in Why Cardio Isn't the Devil where I discussed the issues with the changes that take place in the heart from cardiovascular training and from weight training. Both forms of training resulted in a lower resting heart rate, but only cardiovascular training resulted in an increased stroke volume, while weight training potentially decreased stroke volume. Neither was found to have a greater incidence of cardiac arrhythmia, or the feeling of “skipped heartbeats.” In the long run, the only significant difference was caused by the hypertrophy of the heart muscle.

Furthering the look at how training effects our hearts, let's consider some other factors besides resting heart rate and stroke volume. Specifically looking at strength training, let's consider two other characteristics that can be effected by training: blood pressure and maximum heart rate during activity. For many of us, we don't need science to tell us that training has an immediate impact on our heart by increasing the average heart rate and the blood pressure.

It seems logical that strength training would cause an acute increase in heart rate and blood pressure; after all, our body is recruiting muscles which need oxygen, which requires more blood to be pumped through the body. Assuming we are all in agreement about the short term effects, I have a wrench to throw in the system. [1,2] The Valsalva Manuever. During the temporary use of Valsalva, you are effectively holding your breath under high pressure to increase core stability during a heavy lift. By bearing down and holding your breath, your heart rate increases drastically and your blood pressure drops. This is the reason that you will see lifters pass out under a heavy load. When the breath is released, the heart rate returns to normal, but the blood pressure overshoots and is momentarily high, making the technique dangerous for those with cardiac conditions. Coincidentally, the technique can aid in correction of a cardiac arrhythmia and the detection of heart murmurs.

Similar to cardiovascular conditioning, strength training can increase a person's VO2 Max as well as lower a person's resting heart rate. Unlike cardiovascular training, strength training is shown to have little effect on the heart in the long run. After that, strength training is not proven to have any significant effect on heart health. According to the AHA, strength training has little to no effect on Systolic Blood Pressure (the pressure of the blood in the arteries during a heartbeat), but can lower Diastolic Blood Pressure (the pressure of the blood in the arteries between beats). Some studies have demonstrated decreases in Systolic Blood Pressure, but due to variability of training methods used, there is no consensus that strength training alone will lower overall blood pressure. The implications of having a lower Diastolic Blood Pressure is minor as the the majority of heart related issues can be attributed to the Systolic.

1. Fleck, S. J. (1988). Cardiovascular adaptations to resistance training. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 20 (Suppl.), S146-S151.
2. Stone, M. H., Fleck, S. J., Triplett, N. T., & Kramer, W. J. (1991). Health- and performance-related potential of resistance training. Sports Medicine, 11, 210-231.

Tips for Lifting with Degenerative Joint Disease
-Answered by Rich

Degenerative joint disease can put a damper on anybody's fitness program, but there are ways to stay active without causing constant pain. Obviously, you never want to do anything that causes bad pain or joint pain.

Some solutions are neoprene support sleeves, pool workouts, time limited workouts, band workouts, and bodyweight workouts. My prime focus as a trainer working with those that have arthritis is mobility. We focus on rolling, gentle stretching, and several basic functional movement patterns. With the majority of clients, the entire hour was spent working on basic bodyweight movement, increasing flexibility, and working through increasing ranges of motion.

With the majority of cases we work with, the use of a neoprene support sleeve to provide warmth and minimal joint stability helps them continue to train three days per week. We tend not to recommend more than four days per week as proper rest and recovery is essential to not exacerbate the symptoms.

As a general rule, when clients that have Arthritis or Degenerative Joint Disease can perform more complete ranges of motion, we move onto strength building. We start conservatively with 3-5 minutes of constant movement followed by a brief rest of about 2 minutes. The other recommendation is to alternate movement patterns. For example an upper pushing movement followed by a lower pulling movement. By changing the focus, we are allowing the body to continue working while allowing effected joints a chance to rest. As we find the threshold of activity, we can train for longer periods with shorter rest or increase the intensity. Increases in intensity are done very slowly as the goal is not to become superhero strong, but to slow or even stop the degeneration.

For clients that are less limited, it is highly recommended that axial loading is used as science has shown weight bearing lifts can maintain or even contribute to bone density. Again, progression of weights is slow as rule #1 must be do no harm.

And for the most extreme cases, the use of a warm water pool can help tremendously. The warmth helps joint to move fluidly as well as the support of the water can allow for less stressful workouts that can still burn calories and keep you in shape.

How can we combat Winter and Less Daylight
-Answered by Erin

Winter brings cold, less sunshine and a mood change for many people. Weight gain during the winter is common among many people. This change in body composition is likely caused by two things; Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D) and the craving for high fat, high carbohydrate foods. S.A.D doesn’t directly affect weight gain, however, it leads to people being less active and often eating more. 

In order to combat Seasonal Affective Disorder, there are a few action steps that you can take.

These action steps include;

Light Therapy: Use a light therapy box. Light therapy boxes are brighter than regular light bulbs and provide light in different wavelengths. Sitting in front of the light therapy box in the morning for 30 minutes a day is shown to have a positive effect on S.A.D. You can purchase “Full Spectrum” light bulbs from most hardware stores.

Get Moving! Exercise can help relieve the symptoms of S.A.D.  The best place to exercise to help alleviate Seasonal Affect Disorder is outside. However, if you are unable to exercise outside you will still experience the benefits of moving. That said, continue your training regimen and possibly add in some additional walking or jogging.

Vitamin D: Supplement your diet with vitamin D. Adults should supplement with at least 2,000 IUs a day. Those with more muscle mass require more vitamin D.

Diet Suggestions for Lean Muscle Mass in the Over 40 Club.
-Answered by Rich

Science has shown time and again that as we age, our ability to build muscle mass decreases, our ability to store fat increases, and our body just generally starts to break down with potential bone loss, loss of cartilage, and loss of elasticity in connective tissue. So what can be done to prevent it and is there a way to get it through the diet?

Well, I'm not known for wanting to push supplements on people, and because I can't guarantee anything will work, I'm inclined to say if you're really concerned with hormone levels, go get a full blood panel done by your doctor, and if something is on the low end, and is a concern, voice it. Only they have access to give you the medications known to work. Notice I called them medications? That's because most over the counter “testosterone” and “gh” boosters don't really have an effect. If you are curious about supplements that work, I rely onexamine.com to provide accurate results for supplements.

So the diet itself, isn't much different than what I would suggest for most people looking to remain lean. Eating a diet high in protein and moderately high in fat with low carbs is probably the best way to maintain. Another option to consider, but requires more preparation is to use carb cycling.

Obviously, making it work will take some tweaking for each person, but in general, I recommend 1-2g of protein per pound, .75g of fat per pound, and .5g of carbohydrates per pound. During this time, it will be necessary to get on the scale and take measurements several times during the week. If any number changes rapidly in the wrong direction, making calculated and appropriate adjustments is necessary. An appropriate adjustment would be increasing or decreasing the total calories by 50. We will always want to make small adjustments because drastic changes can have unpredictable results and negatively effect your hormone levels.

In addition to eating the right food, you will need to consume enough water to keep the body hydrated. Using the simple urine color check, we don't want clear, but we don't want dark yellow either. Keep it in the middle and all will be well.

Finally, making sure you achieve optimal sleep is key. I prefer the add “Sleepbot” as it can track sleep movement, sounds, and has a smart alarm to wake me at just the right time.

Do you have any tips for avoiding the onslaught of unhealthy foods during the holidays?
-Answered by Erin

During the holiday season we are bombarded with sweet treats and large dinners. You shouldn’t feel like you’re missing out. Learning to enjoy the holiday times is part of living a healthy lifestyle.  During this time your goal should be maintenance in order to greet the New Year without tipping the scale. 

There are several ways to avoid the holiday weight gain, they include:

Don’t skip your workouts. Even moderate intensity workouts can burn 300-400 calories per hour. These workouts can help counter act some the rich foods you’ll be eating and you will also be less likely to overeat. Remember, the idea is to just maintain during the holidays and working out excessively hard will only serve to make you more stressed.

Eat breakfast. Eating breakfast will help you avoid a binge and thus keep your calorie intake in check for the day. While many people try to fast, it can be a challenge to fast and maintain a healthy balance of proteins and carbs given the nature of high-sugar desserts.

Keep a food diary. Write down every single thing you eat—even if it is only one bite of shrimp cocktail. Research has shown that people who keep journals are more successful at keeping their weight in check.

Monitor your hunger. Never show up at a party or buffet ravenous—you will most certainly overeat. Drink water and have a protein-filled snack (such as nuts or cheese) before arriving.

Weigh yourself twice each week. Throughout the year you should be weighing in no more than once a week. However, during the holidays its a great way to stay on track with your goals. Remember that there is potential for the scale to move 2 pounds in either direction daily due to hydration levels.

Watch your portion size. Use a dessert plate which are known to be smaller than dinner plates. Using this plate will help ensure that you don’t overeat.  When you return for seconds, fill no more than one quarter of your plate. This will give your body time to process the signals that tell you if you are full without eating too many calories.

Deal quickly with leftovers. If you have unhealthy leftovers in your home, you are likely to indulge. Don’t leave them sitting around. Freeze them, give them away or toss them.

With these tips you can survive the holidays without putting on the pounds. During this time enjoy yourself, but keep in mind how you want to look and feel on January 1st!

Willpower is a Muscle

“I wish I had more willpower.” The sentence heard repeatedly around dessert tables at holiday parties. The same sentence muttered by the “this is the time” guy that wants to kick some bad habits. Let’s not forget the New Year’s Resolutionist, this is going to be the year, fitness chaser that can’t seem to stay on track with their diet or training. But why do we say we don’t have the willpower to overcome these obstacles? Maybe it’s time we actually looked at this mystical thing called willpower, why it fails us, and how we can overcome.

Bear with me for a minute and see if this situation seems familiar.

You enter into health and fitness for some motivational reason: you want to lose weight, the doctor says you need to or you’ll have xyz disease, you want to grow an ass that holds your pants up, you want to be able to run with your kids, etc. Whatever the reason, you entered into this crazy venture and you’re beastmode, going ham, dedicated, and committed to doing it. You got the magazines, the supplements, the training books, and you’re on your way. After a few weeks the progress slows, the enthusiasm dwindles and eventually, you’re finding that “other” things just keep popping up and stopping you from training.

Your friends and family don’t support you and encourage you, and you’re on the verge of quitting. You hear about this website called Fitocracy that supports people on their fitness journey and you join. You get re-energized and you’re back on track with all your props, badges, and duels. Somehow, you still have demons telling you to just quit because the the novelty wore off. You reach out to the community and ask for support, and they give it, some say train with friends, others to get a trainer, and inevitably, somebody will give you the same old line about “get a goal.” [Read about why having goals isn’t enough here] You’re now in a position to make a choice, with community support you lose a few, fail, or succeed, or you can just quit.
**Losing and failing aren’t always bad things. There’s an important difference between losing, failing, and quitting as David Allen points out in his article on EliteFTS**

Bear Bryant said “The first time you quit, it’s hard. The second time, it gets easier. The third time, you don’t even have to think about it. If you’re reading this in disbelief, that’s great that you are one of the lucky ones that hasn’t thought “why am I doing this?” or you’re just delusional. I’m willing to bet my Ben & Jerry’s that you’ve been down this path with something. I know I’ve been there a few times where I was chasing goals and kept falling short but because I didn’t give up, I’ve been able to make it.

Back to willpower. What is willpower? Many would agree it is the “thing” that allows us to make good choices or fails us when we make poor choices. Some believe it’s a force inside of us that allows us to hold on and defeat temptation and others refer to it simply as “self-control.” The APA defines willpower as the “ability to resist short-term temptations in order to meet long-term goals.” I define willpower as the muscle behind habit and the scapegoat behind our failures.

So how do we get better at defeating temptation and continuing the pursuit of our goals? We train our willpower, of course! When we want to conquer physical tasks, we train and use our muscles. When we face intelligence-related tasks, we study and we use our brain. It is the exact same thing when we want to change our lives, only we can’t see or feel the immediate impact of our efforts. We change our lives through building good habits and we build good habits through exercising willpower.

Some studies say 21 days builds a habit, others, 66, and I’m sure if I were to look long enough I’d find 20 other timeframes. The short of it is habits take time and every day until it becomes a habit takes willpower. We’ve all been there, to that place where we’re so tired and so stressed that we just don’t have the energy to fight anymore. While we can’t flip a switch and make ourselves strong enough to resist, we can take three small steps to help us in the battle.

The first step, and probably one of the most obvious and overlooked steps is to minimize the exposure to the trigger that brings out the bad habit and to emphasize the good habit. If the problem is eating junk food, then removing the junk food, avoiding the fast food restaurants, and rearranging the kitchen so healthy foods are easy to access and junk requires more effort is a starting point. If the goal is to work out more, start with 10 minutes and increase in small amounts each day until you reach 45 minutes, and then add a second day, and a third.

The second very important step is finding a balance in your life. Over-indulgence and over-restriction are both tremendously detrimental to willpower and good habits. We read it all the time now with IIFYM and Flexible Dieting. If I am too strict, I am exhausting my willpower at every turn and eventually will run off track and give in before I have trained a new habit. If I’m too loose, I will never change.

Finally, for those times when we just can’t do it on our own, have a support group and an accomplice that truly does have your best interest at heart. Some will turn to family, some to friends, and some to social networks like Fitocracy. In any case, having others there to talk to and offer strength when you feel weak will help you beat those evil temptations and strengthen your willpower. And after enough help and support, that willpower will become a habit and you will be able to focus on your next healthy habit.

To sum up the three keys for stronger willpower

1. Minimize exposure to trigger objects, maximize exposure to healthy triggers
2. Find balance in your life, being too extreme only makes it harder to succeed
3. Have an accomplice to keep you on track, there are support groups for everything

A few years back I saw this posted on a weightroom door and it spoke to me.

The Habit
I am your constant companion.
I am your greatest helper or your heaviest burden.
I will push you onward or drag you down to failure.
I am completely at your command.
Half the things you do, you might just as well turn over to me,
And I will be able to do them quickly and correctly.
I am easily managed; you must merely be firm with me.
Show me exactly how you want something done, and after a few lessons, I will do it automatically.

I am the servant of all great men.
And, alas, of all failures as well.
Those who are great, I have made great.
Those who are failures, I have made failures.
I am not a machine, though I work with all the precision of a machine,
Plus, the intelligence of a man.
You may run me for profit, or run me for ruin; it makes no difference to me.
Take me, train me, be firm with me and I will put the world at your feet.
Be easy with me, and I will destroy you.
Who am I?

I am a HABIT! 

And with everything I write related to health and fitness, BE PATIENT! Nothing happens overnight, and with health and fitness it will take time, so take a deep breath, get out the calendar and celebrate the successes, no matter how small (no, I did not say to eat the cake) because the little celebrations are what keeps us going. 

And if you need some support, join Fitocracy and follow Erin and I (GottaLift and ErinEW6916) or send us an email at zstrengthfit@gmail.com