Want to get better at fitness? Train a dog.

My wife and I got our first dog earlier this year. She came to us with minimal training but is the biggest lover ever. Of course, she's a pitbull and stubborn as hell, so after a few months of trying to train her ourselves, we enlisted the help of a professional. You're probably reading this wondering how us getting a dog is even remotely related to fitness. I'm not sure how many of you have ever tried to train a dog, but there are a lot of similarities between training Josie and surviving in a fitness journey. I'm pretty sure if you're reading this you're either in the beginning or know someone that is in the beginning of their fitness journey and when you're done, hopefully, you'll see the link and learn a few things to make the journey better.

Dog trainer, Brandon McMillan, believes in teaching the dogs he works with 7 common commands and teaching them to do them extremely well. Without good control of the 7 commands, teaching any more complex commands will not be beneficial. While we have a goal to pass a rigorous canine exam at the end of the course, we don't advance or build on a command until Josie can do it correct most of the time. In a similar manner, one should develop proficiency in basic lifting technique. The basic movement patterns should be performed with proficiency before moving to more advanced movements. The basic patterns are: squat, hinge, horizontal push, horizontal pull, vertical push, and vertical pull. Additionally, one should be able to perform at least 10 minutes of uninterrupted steady state cardio. In my opinion, the lifts that work best are the front squat, rack deadlift, dumbbell bench, seated cable row, dumbbell overhead press, and parallel grip pulldown. Some will argue the cardio isn't necessary, but for heart health and to have an aerobic base to help build muscle and burn fat, cardio is necessary.

Lesson: become proficient at the basics before adding on or advancing the skill level.

With obedience training, the dog should be able to follow the basic commands: sit, stay, down, come, heel, off, and no. Right now, all of our energy should be focused on helping Josie learn those commands and execute them effectively. Spending time teaching her to rollover, play dead, or any other list of assorted tricks doesn't make her better at the commands she needs to be good at. Essentially, it is a waste of her time and ours. Now look at this in terms of training. If your goal is to get strong, lose weight, gain muscle, etc., the best use of your time is spent on the big, multijoint movements. Everybody likes the show muscles and wants to build them up, but focusing on them won't get the job done without a pre-existing base.

Lesson: focus on the big stuff, not the minutiae until you've gone as far as you can with it.

In our three sessions training Josie, it has been emphasized there are several mistakes we make in dog training. The biggest and easiest to avoid is have unclear expectations. A dog does not have a vocabulary or an education that allows it to interpret the words we are saying, they only know to associate a response with a word. When they receive a positive response, the action they performed following the word is correct. However, when we don't follow through or offer the reward for something that is "close enough", the dog can't be expected to get better. When we're working on our fitness, allowing our technique to get sloppy, being undisciplined and inconsistent will lead to shoddy results.

Lesson: set guidelines for your goal and hold yourself to those.

As a dog owner, it is also extremely important to have realistic expectations while going through training. We can't expect Josie to perform the commands perfectly after 1 day or 1 week, some commands may take more than 1 month, but with realistic expectations, we won't get frustrated. Frustration only serves to make the training process harder for both dog and owner. In fitness, having realistic expectations may be a challenge with all the embellished stories of exceptions to the rule making unbelievable progress may be a challenge, but it is a necessary element in success. Setting an unrealistic expectation, lose 30 lbs in a month when you have 50 total to lose or increase your bench by 50 lbs in 6 weeks are good examples for most people, only leads to frustration.

Lesson: dream big and set goals high, but know what is achievable and be realistic about achieving them.

As you can see, training a dog isn't much different than training yourself. One of the main lessons I have yet to mention comes in the intro to this; when you don't know what to do or how to do it, seek knowledgeable help. Nothing can be more frustrating and tougher to overcome than feeling helpless because you don't know where to start or what direction to go. Whether you pay a professional or have the assistance of a knowledgeable group, the experience can make all the difference between success and failure.

Lesson: seek the help of knowledgeable people.

Not all of us are fitness minded and sometimes the similarities we find in some of our other life activities (like training a dog) can help us get and stay on track to our goals.

Two Questions and Two Answers:

This week, I'm taking two questions I received and putting these out there for everybody. The first is the age-old question of getting a goal while sacrificing as little as possible.

"I'm super-busy and don't have more than 45 minutes three times per week to workout. I want to lose weight and get toned. How can I do it without taking away family time and still enjoy my weekends?"

- Fortunately, the most important part of these goals has virtually nothing to do with training and everything to do with planning. MEAL PREP. You have a goal that is based around changing size and shape of your body and that means your diet is the #1 factor. Unlike training, where you may have to travel to the gym and take time away from your family, meal prep allows you to be at home, cook, and spend time with the family. My only concern is when I see "enjoy my weekends" because I have seen people be 100% on point for five days, followed by going completely off the rails over the weekend, completely undoing all the hard work. Some things just make it virtually impossible to reach certain goals.

Now, you still need to train, because, without muscle, there can be no "toned." The best split I have found for three days at 45 minutes per day is a total body split. Training upper pushing and lower pulling on day one; upper pulling and lower pushing on day two; and accessory work on day three. Something as simple as this can work to change your body. You can obviously change the movements, but I always like to alternate an upper followed by a lower.

Day 1 all 3 sets of 8:
Overhead Press
Deadlift
Bench Press
Romanian Deadlift
Push-Up
Hamstring Curl

Day 2 all 3 sets of 8:
Bent Over Row
Front Squat
Pull-Up
Step-Up
Bodyweight Row
Leg Extension

Day 3 all 3 sets of 8:
Bicep Curl
Tricep Press
Lateral Raise
Calf Raise
Rear Fly
Front Raise

When you can complete all 3 sets of 8, increase the weight the next week.

The second question is the one that virtually all nutritionally conscious people struggle with when they first start out; getting in an adequate amount of protein.

"I'm having trouble getting in all my protein. What can I do?"

- My preferred option is adding in protein rich snack foods that are easy to eat and won't fill you up the way a serving of chicken or steak would. Just toss in a few of these around your regular meals and you'll quickly increase your protein.

For me, my favorites are:

• Hardboiled Eggs
• Tuna
• Beef or Turkey Jerky
• Greek Yogurt
• Cottage Cheese

I hate saying take a protein supplement as the first course of action, but for some people, it's the only way. Most powders on the market can be mixed with water, making them extremely portable. The other option is a protein bar, like the B-Up bars that are high protein and totally up-front about what's in their bar (unlike other companies). While the powders may be slightly more work (you need a shaker and it takes some space) they typically come with less of what you don't want (fats & carbs).

Not All Free Information is Good Information

Seems like an obvious statement, but for the fitness newcomer there is so much information out there that it's hard to decipher what's good and what's guru. Over the last few weeks, I have read, heard, and seen some terrible advice given to fitness novices as they try to learn about training, develop technique, and improve themselves. I'm not talking about "bad information" that says there is only one way to build arms. I'm talking about legitimately dangerous information. Some bad information comes from forums, some from the local broscientist at the gym, and some from well-meaning but ill-informed novices that perpetuate myths. Regardless of where it originates, somebody without knowledge or a bs-o-meter for fitness is at risk.

I won't be the first to say it, but there is more than one way to accomplish any fitness related goal, and while the paths may be more or less efficient, given the correct information, they will lead to the ultimate goal. So, the goal of this post is to help you learn to identify good and useful information while discarding (and maybe even battling) the bad information while increasing your own knowledge. I'm not talking about controversial or less than optimal information; I'm talking about blatantly wrong information.

As an example, a gentleman is seeking advice on his deadlift technique, so he posts a video to be checked. Despite glaring technique issues, he gets the thumbs up and a host of "attaboys" just because he pulled more weight than the people watching the video.

 Another example is a lady asking a diet / nutrition based question as she has not been able to lose weight for several months despite her high 4 days of activity and her low calorie diet. Instead of relevant and educated responses, she receives "cut your calories" and "add HIIT to your training" as advice.

These ignorant responses lead people into potentially dangerous situations where they risk injury or other health problems. With more and more people turning to forums for advice, form checks, programming and nutrition advice, it's hard to know who is and who isn't giving you qualified advice.

Some of you may be wondering what's wrong with the answers. In the first example, a knowledgeable lifter sees poor technique despite the made lift and provides critical feedback while others convince the lifter he's doing it right. If the poster chooses to accept the compliments of the masses over the criticisms, he runs the risk of injury as the weight increases. With the second case, the lady is already under-eating for her activity levels. If she chose to follow the standard advice of "eat less, do more," she will most definitely tank her metabolism, which we all know is worse than gaining a few pounds over time to improve her metabolism.

While forums and social media provide us fast access to free advice, the fast and free advice can also be one of the worst parts. Before the explosion of fitness forums, you had to know somebody, pay somebody, or spend hours experiencing in order to find the answer to fitness questions. Because the community was so small, it was easy to identify who was providing legitimate information and who was not. With large internet forums and the "community" of social networks, Brosef is now out in full force, providing information read in some rag, heard in some rumor mill, or picked up at a Holiday Inn Express. This isn't to say all information in these forums are bad, but being able to sniff out crap makes them much more useful.

This brings me to the heart of this post, identifying good information versus bad information and how to filter what you need. Some will say only coaches and certified trainers should be giving advice. I've even seen a person claim you should listen to them solely because they are "certified." Bull! I've seen my fair share of ignorant coaches and certified trainers giving bad advice online and doing stupid stuff in the gym. The certificate doesn't mean you're good; it means you passed a test. I learned more from training with non-certified people that had years of experience than I did by reading the book for the CPT test.

The first rule, and this one trumps them all, if they demand you listen to them because of their piece of paper, move along to somebody with less fake alpha-ness.  The truly knowledgeable will always put the information out there with their rationale when the fakers just tell you to do it and resort to some form of "because I said."

If the information giver passes the first test, there are a few more steps you can use to sort the useful from the bad:

1. Know who and where you're getting advice from.
• Experience is king, everything else is second (certifications, degrees, staying at a Holiday Inn Express).
• Check the content on the site you're using. If a site caters to bodybuilding, asking questions about triathlons may result in horrible information.
• If you're on a site related to infomercial products (Beach Body, the Wraps, Detoxes), find at least 2 more sites with no ties to those products before accepting the information.
2. Ask yourself if the answer makes sense.
• If you're doing an exercise and it hurts but somebody is telling you it's perfect form, clearly, it's not perfect.
• If you already exercise hard and don't eat a lot but aren't losing weight, it makes no sense to eat less and train more.
• If the answer applies to a different situation than yours, disregard the response because they couldn't even take the time to answer your specific question.
3. Research your question and whatever answers you're considering for some form of consensus before accepting the advice.
• If you're looking for technique, there are a lot of youtube videos out there for instruction of movements.  Video yourself and compare the two. If you're computer savvy, you can use kinovea to do side by side analysis.
• If you're looking for programming or diet advice, stay away from popular mags (Men's Health, Women's Health, Oxygen, etc) because while they may provide some good information, often times they provide partial solutions.
• If the article is trying to sell you a product, re-read the article without the product. If the answer still makes sense, use it, if not, move along.

The next time you're looking for fitness advice, take a moment to analyze what you're seeing, reading, and hearing. Consider asking for resources to help you learn because while it's easy to just ask and accept, it is far better to learn and know. Anybody giving solid advice will be more than happy to point you in the right direction.

To your education!

It's the New Year and They're Back

It’s almost two weeks before the New Year and some of the “resolutioners” have started making plans because "this is the year." Some will quit quickly and some will last longer before giving in. Is it because they don’t have the desire to get in shape, get strong, be healthy, etc.? I don’t believe for one minute that their desire is any less than ours. Nobody wants to be overweight, out of breath walking a flight of steps, or be embarrassed to go out in public. Nobody wants to take pills just to keep their heart from failing or injections every day just so they can eat kind of like a normal person. You’re a fool to think that the person that made it to the gym will quit because they don’t want to get healthy. And you're an even bigger ass if you don't offer them the support they need to transform their lives.

I admit, I used to laugh at the idea of the “New Year’s Resolution” because 99% of them weren't going to make it because they were quitters, lazy, or any other stereotype you can think of. As I spent more years in the gym, I learned that nothing was further from the truth and that them making the permanent changes has very little to do with motivation and more to do with a supportive, educational, and fun environment. Everybody wants to feel better and be healthy, to not be embarrassed to put on tight clothes and not frustrated trying to find clothes when they go shopping. (Even I struggle to find clothes that fit) The same person that appears “resistant” to getting healthy could just be a person that is overwhelmed, intimidated, and sometimes ignorant as to where to begin.  With the internet so plentiful of information, the gym filled with “brofessors” and magazines covered with “fitsporational” people, a new person that has never done anything health related goes into information overload and can feel totally embarrassed. As my friends put it, “paralysis by analysis”stops the effort, makes them feel like they will never reach the goal, and ultimately leads them down the path to failure. They don’t have to go down that path, just like you didn’t go down that path.

Remember back when you first walked into a gym on your own, not because it was a school class or because your coach forced you to train, but because you wanted to do it for you? Was it easy? Were you nervous? Did you have all the answers? Did you feel lost because there was too much information, too much stimuli with the big lifters, the fast lifters, the trainers? Or were you just another new person trying to figure things out, getting in the way, and making mistakes because you had no idea? I'm willing to bet you started training like most of us, not knowing shit and either too confident to admit you don't know or too ignorant to know you don't know.

Next time you're in, look over at the heavy guy walking on the treadmill. His doctor tells him he needs to workout. The talk shows, the daily news, and even his entire family tells him the same thing. This guy joins the gym under peer pressure and doesn’t “have a clue” about how to get in shape. He doesn’t have a friend to guide him, teach him the lifts, or proper training. He sees Dr. Oz, the magic "wraps" and miracle "cleanses", the Shakeology and the other overpriced proteins that promise amazing results. He doesn’t want to pay for a trainer that’s already fit because “they could never understand what it’s like” and admittedly, most trainers don’t know because they have never been heavy or struggled to workout and eat right. Think he's going to last on his own? He's likely to quit. I think his perseverance comes down to something simple, something that the “dedicated” people were lucky to find when they started. Help and camaraderie.

Do you think it’s just the big guy or lady? What about the skinny kid that comes in with ego oozing all over the place with his shaker of colored water and his 17 packs of the latest pills and four protein shakes? He drinks the kool-aid that all the muscle magazines and youtube warriors tell him. He sees the drugs and the routine that Phil Heath used the last three weeks before the Olympia, and hey, if you do it too and take the supplements, you too can get big and ripped. They all forget you have to start somewhere and make steady progress. They all make you believe it takes 21 days, 20 minutes per day, and no weight at all. They ignore that you have to learn about nutrition, learn about training, and then train hard, get your sleep and take the time to recover. Instead of having a helping hand, they look for the shortcut and quit when they can’t find it or worse, they turn to the hard stuff and destroy themselves from the inside out.

How about the shy girl that puts in her headphones and never leaves the cardio section? She heard that doing slow cardio for hours on end will make her super sexy and that weights will bulk her up like a man.  She’s watching Dr. Oz and hearing about all these get thin quick diets and magic pills, but doesn’t know that there are better ways then slowly destroying her metabolism from not eating to create the fit body she desires and not the “skinny-fat” body she sees from all the cardio-bunnies.  She doesn't realize you need muscle to have muscle tone. She sees the infomercials and hears the information, but doesn’t want to believe it because that’s not what her peers are saying she needs to do. She’s surrounded by ignorance and drowning in the pool.

We all know them, have seen them, or were one of them. Every single “new” person to the gym that joins for a resolution, or for beach season, or a cruise, etc. has made enough of a step that the experienced people owe it to them to be welcoming and helpful because you were there once too. I hear what you’re saying; they’re in your way, on your machine, using your bench, and just going to quit anyway. And I suppose the monster that is doing sets of 10 with your max is in your way as well? Are you planning to bitch like a little schoolgirl about him as well? Didn't think so! If somebody told you to quit chasing your goal all the time because you were in the way, you'd still be in your crib sucking your thumb. Maybe you can be the reason they don’t quit. Maybe you can feel good about yourself and help somebody along the way. Trust me, there is nothing better than seeing a success story because of something you did.

If you’re an experienced lifter there are some very simple things you can do to make the new person more likely to stay and even help them make progress.

• Accept the fact that you are not better than them because you’ve been doing it longer, you lift more, you’re fit, or you have lifting buddies. Let me give you a little eye-opener; unless you are the best in the world, have the all-time world record, or are the current #1 in the world, there is somebody better than you. Even if you are that good, you don’t have the right to be the #1 jackass to the people that are just trying to learn. Last I checked, you weren’t born #1, you had to work, ask, and get help from people that probably wanted very little to do with you because you were in their way. If they’re on a piece of equipment you “want to use”, ask to work in, and then, make sure they know it isn't an inconvenience to change the weights, because that's what good lifters do ALL THE TIME.

• If they’re doing the same lifts, ask if they want to train with you, and then actually train with them with the understanding it will be slower and you'll have to change weights and you might have to teach. When I was learning, I was lucky to have a group of guys that asked if I wanted to train with them and then helped me learn correct form and how to be safe and didn’t care about stripping and reloading the bar. You’re in the gym anyway, will it kill you to unload and reload the bar? Didn’t think so.


• Don’t be the douchebag that asks how many more sets and sits there and stares and makes jackass comments. And if you’re on the equipment, and the new guy is staring, he’s not just staring, he’s trying to learn. Remember in school, you stared a lot to see what was happening? You learned by being a mimic. Same thing in the gym, except now you’re the teacher. Notice I also said you “want to use” because you don’t “need to use” it because YOU are the experienced lifter, which means you can adapt and adjust, or are you just as ignorant as the new guy? When you’re working in, remember their weight, their machine settings, etc. It takes three seconds and sometimes that simple gesture is enough to give them a connection to someone in the gym that may keep them coming back. Don’t expect them to remember yours, but you can show them how it’s done by setting the example. Eventually, they will catch on without you being a dick.


• Don’t be captain asshole if you see them doing something “wrong” in your eyes. They don’t know any better, so try asking if they need help with the apparatus or with the lift. Some people just don’t know and others don’t know what their body is doing. Trust me, 10 years as a Division I coach and I still see kids that don’t know how they are moving. The exception to that rule is if they stand a chance of catastrophic injury. Only a true asshole will let someone get hurt, and if you’re that guy in the gym, get out! Approaching somebody that might get hurt is hard, but if you know what they are trying to do and you can prevent them from injury, do it. This includes offering a spot when they grab a weight they might struggle with, they have a machine set wrong, or their form is just atrocious. I’ve found asking what they’re working on or watching them for a few sets before asking if I can offer advice helps them accept the advice. And 5 minutes out of my workout to help you be better is worth it.

This is the main point, give them the benefit of the doubt. Whether you learned to train like I did, with a group of great guys that took the time and made the effort to help, or if you had to learn the hard way on your own, be that person that helps the new, timid person and pass on your knowledge. Give them a chance to be successful, a familiar face in the gym, and a chance to accomplish something that so many people fail at because there is no support. We can all learn from everybody, even the new person might know something you never knew or see something you were too cocky to realize. So, as we continue into the new year, try to be the person that gives lifters a good name, not the asshole that makes Planet Fitness commercials real. Stop stroking your ego’s, being anti-social, or being an elitist. Teach somebody, make them better, and learn from everybody. Everybody started somewhere, time to remember where you started and pass on the knowledge to get them to where you are.

How do I get Toned?

An all too familiar question in health and fitness forums and one of the most common goals of people entering the gym for the first time revolves around a single word with a simple meaning; “toned.” While the knowledgeable lifter may know the correct term is “defined”, “toned” is a commonly mis-used term by newer trainees and one that can be easily corrected and then elaborated upon.

Chances are by searching the internet or saying they want to get “toned” they will receive the generic responses including light weight, high reps, lots of cardio, and diet. Experience tells me there is a better way, a faster way, and a way to do more than just look the part. You can actually be strong and be defined at the same time and it all starts with the training program.

Defined bodies have moderately low bodyfat percentages and a substantial percentage of muscle. I won’t explicitly give bodyfat percentages because the number has absolutely nothing to do with the look. Everybody holds and stores fat in different ways, so 15% on one person may look very defined and soft on others. Defined is about what you see, not some number that nobody knows unless you’re boasting.

Dropping fat is the first requirements and without turning this into a 20 page post, fat loss can be accomplished in several ways: diet, metabolic conditioning, cardiovascular training, and strength training. How you lose the fat is up to you, but the fat layer needs to be minimized.

The second requirement is growing muscle. Typically that comes through high volume hypertrophy programs. The most effective method also includes high intensity strength training.

*Intensity is defined as the amount of weight relative to your 1 rep max, it is impossible to do high volume and high intensity at the same time.

I can hear the concern “I don’t want to get big and bulky.” Guess what! Big and bulky is heavily dependent on genetics and most of us aren’t that lucky to instantly turn into a Phil Heath or Dana Lynn Bailey. If you’re a woman, you’re even less likely to experience the massive growth due to Mr. T, Testosterone. Testosterone is the king of all the muscle-building hormones [1]. And most women don’t have as much of it as men.
Besides the years of hard work and unwavering devotion to exercise and diet, developing the kind of muscular physiques you see in the magazines takes hours of training with heavy weights, eating a lot of food, and getting plenty of rest. (And in some cases, heavy supplementation)

Avoiding heavy training because you don’t want to get “too big” is like owning snow clothes and living on the equator.

It just doesn’t make sense.

Most people fail to realize how adding muscle to their frame can change the way they look. Since muscle occupies less space than fat, your proportions will change, typically accentuating the V-Taper. There was an interesting study published several years ago regarding the increase of bodyweight and lowering of bodyfat. [2] Simply, the studied demonstrated an increase of muscle mass and a lowering of bodyfat, which correlates to smaller tape measurements and “definition.”

The study used a group of female tennis players following a planned strength program for nine months. The program involved lifting weights three times a week in an undulating manner, meaning there are heavy (4-6 reps), medium (8-10 reps) and light (12-15 reps) weights.

The result, the women had gained weight – around 2.5 pounds and dropped from an average of 23% to 19% bodyfat. In other words, the layer of fat got thinner and the muscle got bigger.
While you can change your shape with diet or aerobic exercise alone, chances are you cannot create the “toned” muscular look you want without gaining muscle. Strength training gives you control in how you look by allowing you to cut fat and build enough muscle to achieve the look you want.

Sources:
[1] West DW, Phillips SM. (2010). Anabolic processes in human skeletal muscle: restoring the identities of growth hormone and testosterone. The Physician and Sports Medicine, 38, 97-104 [2] Kraemer, W.J., Hakkinen, K., Triplett-Mcbride, N.T., Fry, A.C., Koziris, L.P., Ratamess, N.A., Bauer, J.E., Volek, J.S., McConnell, T., Newton, R.U., Gordon, S.E., Cummings, D., Hauth, J., Pullo F, Lynch JM, Fleck SJ, Mazzetti SA, Knuttgen HG. (2003). Physiological changes with periodized resistance training in women tennis players.Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 35, 157-168

Why Cardio Isn't the Devil

Tis the time of year for everybody to renew their promise to be healthier, lose fat, and get in the best shape of their lives. What this really means will depend upon whom you ask. For most people, losing fat is synonymous with improving their health. By far the most popular goal in health and fitness, many trainers can spout 20 ways to help clients burn fat. As a trainer, our job is to provide the most effective, efficient, and healthy way to achieve the goal without harming the client. Studies have shown the diet combined with exercise will result in the greatest fat loss, but nutrition alone far exceeds exercise alone [1]. I’m not the first, and I’m definitely not going to be the last to tell you, nutrition is king, resistance training is essential, and cardio has gone by the wayside for fat loss…but does it still have a place in our training?

Most people starting on a fat loss journey start out the same, with jogging. Why do they start with jogging? Because it’s easy, requires only shoes and a place to jog.

Let’s take Sal as an example. Sal wants to get fit, so Sal does what so many have done before, started eating better and jogging. Sal is losing weight, feeling better, and then the all-knowing internet disparages jogging as not worth the time and convinces Sal to stop jogging and get into the gym and do resistance training and HIIT despite clear indicators that Steady State will benefit Sal. Since everybody wants the biggest return on their investment, Sal jumps ship and joins the HIIT train and continues to make progress; amazing progress with no more mind-numbing cardio.

Despite LISS having been shown to burn significantly more calories than weight training or High Intensity Interval Training during the activity [2], it still gets a bad rap because it takes considerable time when compared to HIIT. Given the data and numerous studies confirming it, HIIT appears to be nominally more effective than LISS for fat loss when looking only at calories burned training times are equalized. In the 24 hours after training, HIIT Training resulted in burning approximately 100 more calories than LISS over the course of the day [3]. Another study showed HIIT resulted in a 10% increase in calories burned in a 24 hour period compared to LISS, despite having the same caloric burn during the activity [4].

Some will use the “efficiency adaptation” argument, that it will take longer to burn the same number of calories after training in a style for a length of time, but they fail to consider the exact same thing happens with strength training or HIIT training. The solution is a simple one, up the intensity or up the volume. If we’re talking running, that means run faster or run further, nullifying the rationale that “it takes longer to burn the same number of calories.” Despite other claims that LISS will slow metabolism, I have only found research that demonstrates lowered metabolic rates DURING exercise which recovers soon after the conclusion of activity [5,6]. Does this mean it isn’t possible? No, it just means I haven’t found any research that demonstrates ONLY LISS will lower metabolism over time.

The problem I have with eliminating LISS is not in the nominal difference in caloric burn between activities, the amount of time, or the boredom, but in the impact on the heart itself. Because the heart is a muscle, it is subject to hypertrophy, just as any other muscle. I may become very unpopular for this, but LISS has its place in fat loss training and definitely in heart health.  Mike Robertson, MS, CSCS, co-owner of IFAST gym in Indianapolis says “One of the biggest misconceptions about HIIT is that it develops the aerobic system and the anaerobic system equally, but aerobic and anaerobic exercise actually place very different demands on your heart and your muscles.” This is where I believe trainers are doing a disservice to their clients by pushing them to avoid LISS altogether. Several studies have shown the positive effects of training on the heart: lower heart rate, decreased blood pressure, improved cholesterol levels, reduced inflammation of the arteries, etc.

There are two common types of hypertrophy in the heart and both occur in the left ventricle. Eccentric hypertrophy, which is the increase of the diameter of the left ventricle resulting in increased volume. The other versions is concentric hypertrophy, which results in increased wall thickness and decreased volume of the left ventricle through the thickening of the walls. In 2002, The Journal of the American College of Cardiology noted the significant increase on the left ventricle mass compared to sedentary individuals [7]. Further, in a study published by the American Heart Association, both endurance trained and strength trained athletes demonstrated increased LV wall thickness, but strength trained only demonstrated the most [8]. In addition, only the endurance trained athlete demonstrated increased LV diameter [8,10]. While the loss of LV volume may not set off alarms, let’s explore the result of lower LV Volume. By having a lower volume, the person is prone to higher blood pressure and higher resting heart rate. By having a thicker wall and lesser diameter, there is greater chance of “skipped beats” as a result of the ventricle not being full when the heart beats [9,10].

Given that most overweight people already have high blood pressure and increased resting heart rate (in excess of 72 bpm) it is risky to remove LISS from their training protocols and prescribe HIIT as a means to lose weight given the likelihood of extreme spikes in blood pressure and heart rate. In general, LISS cardio will effectively improve heart performance and aerobic conditioning better than HIIT or weight training alone while limiting such spikes. Also, while it is very unlikely, there is the possibility of sudden cardiac death caused by having too high of a heart rate in combination with extremely high blood pressure, which is more likely to occur during bouts of HIIT or max effort weight training. Taking an untrained individual, as most beginners are, and removing the gradual process by which they can lower their heart rate and blood pressure while improving aerobic conditioning through steady state cardio is like blocking off everything above third gear and telling someone to drive on the highway. It may work for a while, but eventually, something is going to blow. Even if weight is lost through other methods, the benefit of LISS cardio on the heart cannot be overlooked.

In the era of instant gratification and the greatest return on investment, fitness is not sacred. We are all looking for the “shortcuts” and the fastest way to get fit, but we have to remember, we should be able to stand before we sprint. The long slow road of LISS may be boring and it may not have the best returns on time, but it will safely get you ready to merge on the highway and keep you in shape to stay there.

Sources:

1. Miller, W., Koceja, D., & Hamilton, E. (1997). A meta-analysis of the past 25 years of weight loss research using diet, exercise or diet plus exercise intervention. International Journal of Obesity, 21, 941-947.
2. Trapp, E.G., Boutcher, S.H. Fat loss following 15 weeks of high-intensity, intermittent cycle ergometer training. Obesity Reviews 341, 2006.
3. Treuth, M.S., et al. Effects of exercise intensity on 24-h energy expenditure and substrate oxidation. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 28(9):1,138-1,143, 1996.
4. Meuret, J.R., et al. A comparison of the effects of continuous aerobic, intermittent aerobic, and resistance exercise on resting metabolic rate at 12 and 21 hours post-exercise. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise 39(5 suppl):S247, 2007.
5. Sidossis LS, Gastaldelli A, Klein S, Wolfe RR. Regulation of plasma fatty acid oxidation during low- and high-intensity exercise. Am J Physiol. 1997;272:E1065–70.
6. Romijn JA, Coyle EF, Sidossis LS, Zhang XJ, Wolfe RR. Relationship between fatty acid delivery and fatty acid oxidation during strenuous exercise. J Appl Physiol. 1995 Dec;79(6):1939-45.
7. Scharag, Jurgen., et al. Right and left ventricular mass and function in male endurance athletes and untrained individuals determined by magnetic resonance imaging. J American College of Cardiology. 2002 Nov; 40(10).
8. Pluim, B, Zwinderman, A, van der Laarse, A, van der Wall, E., The Athlete’s Heart: A meta-analysis of Cardiac Structure and Function. http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/101/3/336.full
9. Rawlins, J, Bhan, A, Sharma, S., Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Athletes., European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Imaging, 2009 Feb; 350-56.
10. Mihl, C, Dassen, W, Kuipers, H., Cardiac Remodeling: concentric versus eccentric hypertrophy in strength and endurance athletes., Netherlands Heart Journal, 2008, Apr; 16(4): 129-33.

Help! I'm a Hardgainer

While there are a lot of people in the health and fitness realm that are looking to lose weight, there are some of us that are fighting the opposite battle, the battle of the “hardgainer”. For a long time, I believed I was genetically defective, unable to gain weight and grow muscle. I blamed my father (at 6’4” and under 220 lbs) for my being lanky (5’11” and under 200 lbs). I was frustrated that the scale never moved no matter how hard I trained and how much I ate. I wasn’t getting much stronger and I couldn’t figure out why. I tried supplements and lots of them, with no real results. For those of us that are hardgainers we struggle to find a way to make progress, try every “trick” and push ourselves harder and harder until we break or until we just give up. The idea that we’ll never be bigger or stronger is maddening, but it doesn’t have to be. Along my journey I’ve figured out a few things that can make a big difference if you’re a hardgainer too.

There are the obvious keys to making gains: eat more food, get your sleep, and use your recovery days wisely. There are also some glaring “mistakes” that don’t seem as obvious.

Explaining the Keys
If you’ve done any research, you know the importance of nutrition. Whether you are trying to gain weight, get stronger, lose fat, or just perform better, nutrition is the leading factor. If you want to gain muscle, you have to feed the muscle. Chances are if you are the typical skinny ectomorph, you aren’t eating nearly enough, and unless you take the time to measure your food and calculate your estimated calorie needs, you can’t be sure if you are eating enough to grow. Once you have an estimate, you have to track your weight and your food. If you don’t make any gains at the end of the week, you need to eat more food each day. I know, I know, you’re afraid to get “fat.” Let me clue you in; you’re a hardgainer so getting “fat” is extremely hard and you may have to gain some fat in order to gain some muscle too.

The second key is challenging the muscle with resistance. New trainees have the distinct advantage of their nervous system learning how to recruit muscle fibers and they can make monumental leaps in strength simply through the neural adaptation. As the nervous system learns how to recruit more muscle fibers, the weights get easier, so we increase the load and continue to get stronger. At some point, the “newbie effect” comes to an end, and a change becomes necessary to make progress. In the words of EliteFTS’s Matt Rhodes “It ain’t rocket math” when making the necessary training changes to get stronger or grow muscle.

Finally, growth requires rest and recovery. We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal. There are a plethora of great articles and research showing the importance of sleep, and here is one by Greg Nuckols that explains the importance of sleep and recovery on gains.
http://gregnuckols.com/2014/04/28/poor-recovery-and-increased-muscle-breakdown-insufficient-sleep-part-2/

Now, let’s explore some of the pitfalls and stumbling blocks that keep us from making optimal progress and have us still saying we’re a hardgainer.

Making Overly Healthy Choices
I made the mistake of trying “intermittent fasting” and trying to make lean gains. I found it nearly impossible to get enough calories in to gain any weight. I can hear you asking, “How is eating healthy a mistake?” If our focus is on eating a “healthy diet” we will struggle to reach our daily caloric goal. As an ectomorph, we tend to have a fast metabolism, which burns more calories than most. It can be a curse because it makes getting enough calories hard when we eat super-clean but it’s a godsend when we need to cut weight. I’m not endorsing JM Blakely’s “Big Boy’s Menu Plan”, but eating super-clean isn’t going to get it done either.

The simple solution for most hardgainers is eating simple carbs such as white rice and bread. I’ve been known to eat bagels and pop tarts as a snack because they are high calorie foods that can help us reach the caloric surplus necessary to make weight and muscle gains. I recommend simple carbohydrates make up 30-40% of the total carbohydrates you eat on a daily basis and that carbohydrates make up 40% of your total diet. Having more calories available when your body needs them is always better than not having enough. Also, fat is not the enemy in our food. Healthy fats are a fast way to increase our calories, and can be added to most of our meals by simply using heavy cream, olive oil, coconut oil and the like.

Too Much Training
Training every day won’t get it done. In fact, training that much is too much! I get it, we have been taught that if we want to get better at something we need to practice it as much as possible. And when we aren’t getting results, we push harder, we find new programs, we switch to two-a-days, etc. It makes sense, right? Unfortunately, we don’t grow by being overly active and training every day; we grow by stressing the muscle and then giving it adequate time to heal.
Remember above where I said “We don’t gain weight or get stronger with the one or two hours we train each day, but in the remaining hours we have for our body to grow and heal.” So instead of training longer and harder, limit your training sessions to less than an hour and a half and train three to four days per week. This give your body more time to repair and rebuild new muscle, and you will be better rested for the next training session, allowing you to maximize each workout.

Training Small Muscles
Every hardgainer has looked at a bodybuilding magazine with envy and read about the latest, greatest split routine and how to grow a massive {insert body part here} fast. Isolation workouts work well for targeting specific muscle groups, but they aren’t good choices for hardgainers. Being an ectomorph necessitates a focus on maximal muscle recruitment through compound lifts like the squat and deadlift. These lifts recruit the most muscle and also stimulate the release of anabolic hormones, which are one of the most important components of muscle building. Remember, muscle grows AFTER it’s broken down and repaired, and these lifts will cause the most recruitment and best opportunity for growth.

Great Movements for Hardgainers

Squats Deadlifts Bent Over Rows Bench Press Push Press Weighted Carries

Military Press Pull Ups Tire Flips Dips Farmer’s Walks Heavy Sled Push

Using the Wrong Rep Scheme
While there is no such thing as the perfect rep scheme and it is possible to build muscle using just about any rep scheme, muscle growth is more likely to happen in the moderate to high rep ranges. Working with the appropriate amount of weight and performing the proper reps can greatly enhance muscle growth.

In my experience, the best results for hardgainers happens with loads between 70 and 80% of their 1RM for three to four sets of 8-12 reps per set.  My best growth came right in the middle of both lines at 75% for three sets of 10. Does that mean it will be best for you? No, but I’m willing to be it will work better than doing high intensity / low rep workouts or low intensity / high rep workouts.

The Takeaway
While our genetics are seemingly against us, we don’t have to live the life of the skinny weakling! As hardgaining ectomorphs, we make mistakes by simply not eating enough, training too much or the wrong way, and not getting enough recovery. Our body type dictates that we do certain things to beat our genetics and that we get over our fears. If you finally want to break the mold, the steps aren’t much different than losing weight; focus on your nutrition, train hard with the right sets, reps, and weights, and get proper rest and recovery for growth.

Cumulative Fatigue Factor and the need to De-load

Recently I’ve been hit with several questions regarding the use of de-loads and messages from people feeling burned out from training to reach their goal. The first thing I remind them of is that fitness is not a sprint. We all want fast results and fall victim to the thinking that more is better and will get us there faster. Sometimes, more is actually worse because we push too far and we can’t recover in time. As with any training endeavor proper rest and recovery will go a long way. This is where the concept of a “de-load” comes in and the idea of the cumulative fatigue factor.

What is a de-load? What does it do?

A de-load is a period of time in a workout program that allows for the body to recover. This doesn’t necessarily mean avoiding the gym, but it does mean lightening the workload by either lowering volume or intensity or both. Many de-loads are planned, and some are the result of life. There are several ways a de-load can be accomplished including low-intensity, moderate volume de-loads; do-nothing de-loads, bodyweight de-loads, and many other variations that have been used with great success. There are two ways de-loads are worked into a training program, planned or fixed interval, and floating or adaptive.

It is common to see planned de-loads in weight training programs. Jim Wendler’s many variations of 5/3/1, Brandon Lily’s Cube variations, and countless other training programs build them in every “X” weeks to allow for recovery. Other programs don’t specify a de-load, but will have you repeat or go backwards for a week if you fail to complete all of the training load. While there are arguments on both sides regarding the necessity of a de-load, I believe every well-written program incorporates a de-load in some way or another.

The de-load serves several purposes. It allows our muscles and connective tissue a chance to rest and recover. It allows our CNS to relax and if we can avoid stimulants (caffeine, pre-workouts, etc.) it gives our adrenals a chance to rest as well.

Our muscles are capable of recovering very quickly from training, which is the case with DOMS (even though DOMS can feel like it lasts forever). However, the connective tissue, the tendons and ligaments, have less blood-flow than muscle and don’t grow or recover as fast from strenuous training. The de-load allows the soft tissue and connective tissue a chance to heal and grow. In addition, training effects your nervous system and your hormones. Whether we’re training for a marathon, triathlon, competition, or just working through a challenging weight program, our body faces challenges in the nervous system and adrenal glands. While fatiguing the CNS and adrenals is less common, it is possible and can have a greater effect on training if it is reached.

Defining Cumulative Fatigue Factor

Many experienced lifters have heard of the RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) Scale and it has been around for some time in different varieties.  In a similar manner, I look at the CFF of a trainee on a week to week basis. While the RPE only considers the exercise being done, the CFF takes into account daily activities and the training day to reach a scale measure between 1 and 5. Since these are “feel” measures, we will each have variance between a 1, 2,3, etc. but they should be roughly the same.  

Here are my levels:

1.        Feel great, tons of energy all day
2.        Feel good, can tell I didn’t sleep well, but not tired
3.        Feel OK, little slow to get going, but still have energy
4.        Tired, slow to get going, feel like the day is dragging
5.        Exhausted, can’t get going, just want to sit and relax

I rate each day with a 1-5 paying special attention to how I feel before I train and on rest days. When I am fresh, my days rate as 3 or less, but as I begin to tire and accumulate fatigue, I will see more 4’s and an occasional 5. As a rule of thumb, when the weekly average is greater than 4, a de-load week should follow shortly thereafter. Keep in mind that fatigue doesn’t just have to come from training, but can be compounded by stress at home or in the office, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition.

Even with well thought out and executed rest and recovery protocols, it is possible to accumulate enough fatigue to necessitate a de-load.  Many times we are hesitant to take a de-load. We try to convince ourselves we aren’t tired, and in fact, we wake up and don’t feel tired at all, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t fatigued.

If you are self-evaluating, there are several signs you may be fatiguing and in need of a de-load.

Signs of cumulative fatigue:

1.        Exhaustion that lasts beyond 1 or 2 rest days
2.        You never feel warm / your joints ache / the weights feel heavier than usual
3.        Loss of interest in the training (assuming you normally love training)
4.        Increase in resting heart rate / slowed recovery time between sets
5.        Cranky / Nervous for no reason
6.        Your Pre-workout (assuming you use one) didn’t do anything

One day of these symptoms isn’t a reason to sound the de-load alarm, which is why the CFF uses a weekly average to consider whether our body and our performance can be benefit from a de-load. Yes, it is possible to push through and continue making progress, and most of us do exactly that. We push through until we’re at 5’s all the way across the board, but at some point, something has to give. I’m no exception because I have tried to push through for weeks at a time and instead of just needing one down week, I needed three because I was exhausted and got sick. Thankfully I didn’t get injured as well.

Do you need a de-load?

You’ve worked hard for six weeks, you feel strong, you’re seeing progress each week and you charge forward to week seven.  You feel energized but your body won’t cooperate. Your joints are stiff, the weights feel heavy, and you can tell something just feels off.  Maybe you’ve been sucking down pre-workouts and grinding ahead, but now, nothing. It could be an off week but more than likely, it’s a sign your cumulative fatigue is getting high.

Keeping in mind that fatigue doesn’t just have to come from training, but can be compounded by stress at home or in the office, lack of sleep, or poor nutrition will allow us to more accurately evaluate our CFF. As stated before, when the weekly average is greater than 4, it would be good to consider a de-load week.

There is much debate into the term “overtraining” and I am not going to enter the battle of “overtrained” versus “under-recovered” here as it is essentially a battle of semantics.  In either case, a change is necessitated by the decline in health and performance in order to recover and get back on track.

I need a de-load, now what?

You figured out you need to de-load, now you need to choose how. I’m a big proponent of going to train, but dropping the volume and intensity.  I believe in doing bodyweight accessory work and only training on the days I squat, bench, or deadlift. By lightening the load, lowering the number of reps, and taking an extra day off, we allow our body to get blood and nutrients to the parts of our body that need time to heal.

When we are talking about training and adapting for a de-load, intensity is how heavy the weight is or how fast the run is; heavier weight / faster run, higher intensity. Volume is simply the total amount of weight moved. My recommended drop in intensity is to between 40% and 60% of max. We are still doing the same motion, but the lighter weight / slower pace allows us to focus on technique, get blood into the muscles and connective tissue, and not stress the tissue further. By lowering the number of sets and reps or distance, we will tax our energy systems less, stay short of our fatigue limits, and allow our body a chance to recover. I prefer to train 5 sets of 5 on a de-load week.

In extreme cases of fatigue, it may be more beneficial to only perform bodyweight activity or avoid the gym altogether. It is important when choosing your de-load activity to not replace your high-stress training with another high-stress activity, like hiking 50 miles or mountain climbing all day. You took the de-load to recover, not to stress yourself out in different ways.

The Takeaway

Every day we accumulate fatigue in several ways. When we don’t get enough sleep, don’t drink enough fluids or get the right nutrition, have more stress than usual, etc., our body accumulates fatigue. When we fatigue, our body does the best it can to adapt, but the result is decreased performance and greater risk of getting ill or being injured. By using the CFF weekly, you will be able to better predict the need for de-loads and hopefully avoid costly setbacks to your training. 

Is Your Coach Worth the Money?

There are few things that bother me as much as broad generalizations in Health & Fitness. Before you dump a lot of money into programs that might not work and get frustrated, you need to consider that no two clients are exactly alike. While a program may work similarly for 1, 2, 5, 15, or even thousands of other people, it may not work for you.

I've seen coaches employ the cookie-cutter plan in diets, eating styles, and training programs. Some coaches assign their clients a basic cookie-cutter program like Stronglifts 5x5 or other free programs that can be found online. I've heard a self-proclaimed nutrition "guru" insist every client change to a VLC Diet with a specific set of macros without concern for the previous diet experience of their client. I've worked with another coach's failed clients because he insisted their clients all switch to Intermittent Fasting without considering their background because "it worked for so many others." And the worst, I've witnessed a trainer openly admit they didn't know why "their own" program worked!

Sadly, I see people get sucked into these programs with shining testimonials and expert promotion because the "promise" is too much to ignore and "all the others that are getting results can't be wrong." And then something goes wrong; the program isn't working and the "expert trainer" doesn't know how to adapt the program to make it work. The trainer blames the client, or just falls back to "it worked for others."

Before jumping into a training program, consider the trainer, their knowledge and experience, their previous clientele, the results compared to your goals, and the methods.

If a trainer is worth paying and trusting, they can not only explain what they're doing and why it works, but they can quickly adapt if it isn't working. If a trainer has a "successful" program, but can't explain why it works, then there is a good chance they won't know how to make it work for you if you aren't one of the lucky ones. So before hiring a trainer / coach, take the time to talk with them and have any of your questions and concerns addressed. If they aren't willing to or aren't able to give answers to your satisfaction, consider going elsewhere.

Lose and Gain...At the Same Time?

One question is brought up at least 10 times a day on different fitness boards I read, “Can I gain muscle and lose fat at the same time?” Another version I see all the time which has the same answer is “Can I get stronger while cutting weight?” Some will say “absolutely” while others will scream bloody murder at the very idea. Unfortunately, it isn’t a simple yes or no answer. Like many fitness questions, the answer “it depends” is the answer. There are no simple solutions in fitness because everybody’s body reacts differently, but the more you know, the better your chances of finding success in obtaining your goals.

Let me first address the “gain muscle / lose fat” conundrum. A quick search of the internet returns no less than 42 million results. Unless you have experience weaving through the magic of fitness advertising, you’d wholly believe that everybody can gain muscle and lose fat at the exact same time or that nobody can do it. The internet makes the body seem capable of building muscle from the fat that is being burned. Some basic science tells us that our body needs a caloric deficit in order to lose weight and a caloric surplus in order to build muscle. In an ideal world, your body could use the stored fat as the energy source for building and maintaining muscle. Unfortunately, the fat we burn is not that source and our body doesn’t work that way. Human Physiology tells us that when we eat below maintenance levels, our body does not focus on making muscle [1]. The body will find energy, which can come from the fat we burn or the food we eat to maintain functions, but it does not make muscle from it. According to Dr. John Berardi, the body uses the energy from the days before for repair and growth and not the new nutrients with the exception of long duration exercise [2]. Seems like I just gave some solid reasons why it isn’t possible, but there are a few times when it is possible.

Given the resounding “no” that came from above, there are several cases where the answer is a resounding “yes.” In order to figure out how possible it is, and if is it worth the extreme effort, there are several questions that I consider.

• What is the training age of the client?
• What type of training has the client been doing to this point?
• What is the body composition of the client trying to make the change?
• How much weight is the client giving me to manipulate?
• What is the client's age?

As you can see, that simple “yes” or “no” just got more complicated. Each question and answer gives me an idea of the likelihood of success when trying to do accomplish two goals at the same time. The best chance of success comes from:

• A novice trainee
• Someone that was in a trained state and became detrained
• Someone with higher body fat or a lot of weight to lose
• Someone that is younger

There are many reasons these types of trainees are more likely to experience success, primarily it is the greater potential to build muscle. In contrast, more experienced trainees, trainees that are still in a trained state, people with lower body fat or weight, and older people have several factors against them. In my experience, if the elements are leading away from success, I would look for alternate routes.

If you fall into one of the magical categories, the answer is yes, it is possible and worth trying. One study found that a group of overweight novices lost 16+ pounds of fat and gained nearly 10 pounds of muscle during a 14-week training program [3]. Another study took 30 newer lifters and divided them into three groups of 10. One group did cardio, one did weights, and one did both. Despite the fact that the third group started out with an average body fat of just 12%, the men gained 7 pounds of muscle while losing almost 6 pounds of fat [4].  Finally, a study of trained then detrained and retrained individuals also showed promise that it is possible to lose fat and build muscle due to muscle memory [5]. Does this mean it is possible for everybody? No, it doesn’t, and as I have said many times, what works for one person may not work for any other person.

If you aren’t in one of the special categories that typically means you have less body fat / weight to manipulate, have more years of experience training, or have reached a limiting factor based on age, training, or diet. Without the use of pharmaceutical assistance, it is tremendously hard to do both at the same time. At this point and in most cases it is the wiser choice to attack one goal and then the other. Along with many other trainers, my preferred pattern is to lose fat in the first phase and then gain muscle in the second phase. I’m not going to break down cutting and bulking here as they are topics unto themselves. By losing the fat first through maintaining a high protein, caloric deficit and utilizing proper training, you will be able to spare a lot of your current muscle. Following the fat loss, it will be possible to gradually increase caloric intake to maintenance levels and above to allow for the growth of muscle tissue while minimizing fat gain. While this process may seemingly take longer, it is more reliable and better than spinning your wheels making no progress. This two-phase method will allow for much more control and the ability to manipulate and adjust if things aren’t going as planned.

Still want to try and lose fat while gaining muscle? Here are a few essential elements that need to happen in my successful experiences:

• Train HARD.
• Not just heavy, or cardio, but a mix of both. Train low rep, high intensity two days per week.  Train high intensity one day per week and long steady state one day per week. Every day needs a form of metabolic conditioning circuits.
• Increase protein intake and decrease the carbs.
• You’re trying to save and build muscle which needs protein. Approximately 1-1.2 g per pound should be good.
• Cycle your intakes on training and non-training days.
• This doesn’t mean splurge or starve, but eat slightly more or less based on the training style that day. Carb cycling is popular as is intermittent fasting and the paleo diet. Previous research also showed very low carb / high protein diets to be successful in muscle sparing as well. Be sure to research and fully understand this new eating style before diving in headfirst.

The “it’s possible” to lose fat and gain muscle at the same time verdict relies upon the right combination of circumstances, nutrition, and training protocols. The truth is that while possible under certain circumstances, it is not ideal or possible for most to easily achieve losing fat while gaining muscle and your time may be best spent tackling one goal at a time. If you are one of the few predictable cases where it is more likely and worth the time investment, I support pursuing fat loss while gaining muscle, however, for the many others where it is less than ideal, I urge you to consider all of the variables and options before making a decision. It is a choice you must make regarding the amount of effort and the time it will take to find what works best for you before finding success. From here, you have a starting point to continue educating yourself about your options or you can choose to reach out to a coach to help you accomplish your goals.

Sources:

1. Pasiakos SM, Vislocky LM, Carbone JW, Altieri N, Konopelski K, Freake HC, Anderson JM, Ferrando AA, Wolfe RR, Rodriguez NR. (2010). Acute energy deprivation affects skeletal muscle protein synthesis and associated intracellular signaling proteins in physically active adults. Journal of Nutrition, 140, 745-751
2. Berardi J, Andrews R, (2014). The Essentials of Sport and Exercise Nutrition, 2nd ED, 71
3. Wallace MB, Mills BD, Browning CL. (1997). Effects of cross training on markers of insulin resistance/hyperinsulinemia. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 29, 1170-1175
4. Dolezal, B.A., & Potteiger, J.A. (1998). Concurrent resistance and endurance training influence basal metabolic rate in nondieting individuals. Journal of Applied Physiology, 85, 695-700
5. Staron RS, Leonardi MJ, Karapondo DL, Malicky ES, Falkel JE, Hagerman FC, Hikida RS. (1991). Strength and skeletal muscle adaptations in heavy-resistance-trained women after detraining and retraining. Journal of Applied Physiology, 70, 631-640

Fitness Industry Deception

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen it at one point or another in our health and fitness journey; the program or the trainer or the supplement company that boasts unbelievable success, and I admit it’s hard to ignore these claims when you are chasing a goal. As humans, we like to see proof of concept before we buy into something, but we can’t resist a great sales pitch with unbelievable results. We’ve been struggling with this goal for so long that it doesn’t take much to convince us; some pictures, a few well-written marketing pitches, some statistics, and a lot of “air” time. They convince us those products like juice fasts, wraps, and pills are quick and permanent solutions to our fitness problems, that these products or programs can make it easy and will get us what nothing else ever could. It’s sad that fitness preys on ignorance through flashy and sometimes dishonest marketing methods. The proof that calm our doubts and make us into believers can be manipulated to look better!

I’m not going to spend a lot of time discussing the hype marketing of the fitness industry, but I will say that as consumers, we need to ignore all the buzzwords. We’ve all been victim to the word game; we get drawn in and go further down the rabbit hole until we analyze the total package. Just a few buzzwords or phrases you see in fitness every day: Muscle Confusion, ROI, Effortless, Alpha, Super Secret, Revolutionary, Shortcut, and Ultimate. Of course, I have to mention the outcomes of these programs: Shredded, Jacked, Beast, Toned, and Ripped. These lists can go on and on. This is where your bullshit-o-meter comes in to play and can move you through the flashy, buzzword, speak.

Images are another element the fitness industry uses to lure you to listen to their sales pitch. They place oiled, tanned, beautiful people on the screen to sell the product.Seriously, when’s the last time you saw a normal person in clothes selling the newest fitness craze? I’m betting the only ones you remember are freakishly fit and wearing skin-tight clothes. Then they flash amazing transformation photos and have these amazing transformations speak about how easy it was. They fail to mention that most of these amazing changes took longer than the 12 weeks of the program. Other photos are less grandiose but never do you see the photo of the participant that lost less than 12 pounds in 12 weeks. It’s as if the average result is tucked away because the average truth doesn’t sell. While photos seem more reliable than marketing, multiple trainers have debunked the before and after photos by showing how to do it in under an hour. I’m not saying everybody does it, but be aware; it isn’t that hard to do. If you haven’t seen the before and after tricks, here are two sites to check out:
Mel V Fitness
Trainer Andrew Dixon

This is where you meet the hardest challenge, the numbers. If you don’t have an idea of what is realistic, you can get caught in the amazing numbers touted by programs. Most people don't want to think about the data and the fitness industry knows it. Programs tend to show their successes, and rarely, their total data including their failures. I’m naturally a skeptic, but when I see only positive data or data that nobody else can substatiate, I get a little worried. Some examples of claims that make me think hard:

Participant’s averaged 80% pure fat lost in the first two weeks.
Participant “X” lost 50 pounds in 12 weeks.
Participant “Y” gained 10 pounds of lean muscle in 12 weeks.
Participant “Z” improved their [choose a lift] by 50 pounds in 12 weeks.

All of these start my BS meter chirping because they are all things we want, but in over 15 years, I’ve learned these types of successes are the rarest exception and some, I have never seen verified, only estimated. I am not saying these numbers are impossible, but results like these are highly unlikely.

I’m going to take a realistic view, break down the examples, and explain where I have issues.

Participant’s averaged 80% pure fat lost in the first two weeks.

80% fat loss sounds really, really, good, right? The biggest problem I have is I want to see the bodyfat measurements, not an estimate or an average. Here’s my second problem; most people entering a diet knowingly or unknowingly restrict their carbohydrate intake. Carbs encourage your body to retain water, so cutting carbs results in lost glycogen and lost water weight. Some estimates say that for every gram of carbs cut from the diet, 3 grams of water weight will be lost. If we accept that it takes a ~3500-calorie deficit to burn a pound, that is a maximum of 125 grams of carbs being removed from a diet per day(I eat over 400 grams of carbs on a normal day, so it’s possible to remove that much). That would be 1500 grams lost between the carbs and the water in one day. That’s 3.3 pounds on day one of just carbs and water, not fat, not muscle! Say you run the same deficit for multiple days and your water loss slows and eventually stops after about a week. Assuming the 80% is truthful, that means you have to lose over 16 pounds just to match up with day one's 3.3 pound water loss. So that was an extreme, let's take a smaller number. A very low estimate of water loss for two weeks, 2 pounds (1 pound per week); that means losing 8 pounds of pure fat over two weeks (~14000 calories below TDEE per week). That doesn't include how much lean muscle would be lost as well to claim 80% pure fat. I can continue to scale the numbers to lower and lower weight loss per week, but you should be seeing the point by now.

Takeaway: If the claim doesn’t have verifiable bodyfat measurements, take any short-term fat-loss claims with a grain of salt.

Participant “X” lost 50 pounds in 12 weeks.
It troubles me with the lack of details because weight loss is a percentage thing to me. Safe weight loss per week is estimated at 1%. First thing I want to know is how overweight was the client? If the client was 400 pounds, this is possible, but if they are 250, not so much. For those of you that watch Extreme Weight Loss or The Biggest Loser, remember those clients are selected because they have over 75 or 100 pounds to lose!

Takeaway: If you have less than 200 pounds to lose and you’re doing it the healthy way, don’t expect to see 50 pounds of weight come off so quickly, and that’s including the water.

Participant “Y” gained 10 pounds of lean muscle in 12 weeks.
I only want to know a few things with this type of claim. First, what was the training age of the participant? A low training age allows for “newbie” gains, and those can be massive. Second, what was their diet? If they ate poorly, didn’t get enough protein, or just plain under-ate, they have room for growth. Third, what is their actual age? Younger, more active participants have the hormonal advantage that us older people don’t have. Finally, show me the bodyfat measurements. Anybody claiming pure fat lost or lean mass gained should have bodyfat measurements to back it up.

Takeaway: Research their “proof.” If it’s a supplement company, ask for a study to support their claims. If they can’t cite a complete study or the numbers don’t line up, chances are it’s a bogus claim.

Participant “Z” improved their [choose a lift] by 60 pounds in 12 weeks.
After 15 years, I know there are two truths to this: The participant was a new lifter with very low training age and was given an appropriate progression or the lifter fixed faulty technique. For people that have been training for years and training with progressive overload programs with solid technique, the chance of this happening because of the program is slim to none. The last piece I worry about is the change in bodyweight. Mass moves mass, so if I put on weight, I expect a jump in my lifts.

Takeaway: Check the background on their participants. Younger lifters and lifters that haven’t trained for long can make these gains easier. If they’re experienced, check the starting and finishing bodyweights. Finally, ask yourself if it’s a technique fix.

The big takeaway from all of this is to be skeptical of fitness industry claims that seem unbelievable. In the fitness world, we are all different, but when the claim seems unbelievable, lack concurrence, and have poorly administered studies or no data at all to back them up, it is probably the exception and not the rule. Do your research, take a moment to think about all of the information, and then make the decision and put 100% effort into it. Fitness is a journey, not a dash.

Does the Music Matter?

I don’t know about you, but for years, I have walked into the gym, plugged in my headphones, turned them up, and had music fueled training sessions.  I never thought much of it until I was in a gym and didn’t have my headphones.  The gym was playing smooth R&B songs.  The energy, the ability to ignore the discomfort, the ability to ignore how tired I was, shrank.  In fact, the music had the exact opposite effect on me.  Then it happened again, I forgot my music, but this gym was playing loud country music and I was still full of energy.  This made me wonder how the choice of music affects a workout.  I always thought the energy and focus I got from playing my music was because it was my music.  Is there something special about the music we select?

Studies have been done for years on heart and respiration rates based on music and many have found a correlation between the music and increased rate of breathing and heart rate.  One recent small population study (most fitness studies are) showed 93% of subjects experienced a slowing of their heart rate following a slow song and 100% experienced an increase following a fast song.1  Studies done as early as the 1940’s produced similar results2,3.  In 2012, BASES released their expert opinion on music’s effect on exercise, which correlated with previous studies that music has the ability to influence heart and respiration rate and produce positive effects during training4.

So what does this mean for us as we exercise?  The music we choose to listen to or is being played by the gym can have an impact on our training sessions.  The music can stabilize our heart rate, help us ignore the fatigue and discomfort from moderate and high intensity workouts and push us to go a little further.  Equally, a poor choice can lower our energy, allow us to acknowledge the discomfort, and hinder our attempts at progress.  Whatever your music preference, choosing the right songs can give you that extra edge you’re looking for.

Based on a study at Sheffield Hallam University, music that was upbeat (between 120 and 162 beats per minute) resulted in lower rates of perceived exertion and heart rates mimicking the BPM of the music.  So the next time you are setting up your playlist, for that long run or the heavy workout, take a moment to think about the songs you’re choosing and consider faster, more up-tempo songs for increased training results and leave the slower songs for the cool-down.

Try it and see if it doesn’t help you over the edge.

1. Agrawal, A., Makhijani, N., & Valentini,P.,The Effect of Music on Heart Rate, The Journal of Emerging Investigators, April 2013
2. Schullian D M., & Schoen M., Music and Medicine (1948). P. 1-499
3. Soibelman D., Thereputic and Industrial Use of Music. (1940). P. 103-108
4. Terry, PC., Lane, AM., Bishop, DT., & Priest, DL., The BASES Expert Statement on Use of Music in Exercises, Journal of Sport Sciences, 30(9): 953 - 956, May 2012
5. Hutson, M., The Effects of Preffered Upbeat Music on Rate of Perceived Exertion, Heart Rate and Lactic Acid Concentration at Moderate and High Intensity Exercise

Is it Time to Make a Change

When people begin to make lifestyle changes, it normally happens with a goal in mind and I have pretty much heard them all, but three are very common: “I want to lose weight”, “I want to get stronger”, and “I want to get more defined.” After several months of doing the same program, consistently working, and seeing progress I am mystified every time I am asked “Should I change my program?” Everybody needs a little change every now and then, but constantly switching programs may be short-circuiting your progress.

Program hopping isn’t new, but it is being seen more and more with the increased publicity of fitness professionals and their revolutionary new training techniques. I blame Tony Horton for coining the term “muscle confusion” and helping generations of people believe they have to have constant variety to see progress. I blame Crossfit for popularizing the idea further with training programs that don’t demonstrate logical progression in any one particular aspect other than conditioning but attempt to train everything. There is benefit in these programs as it gets people off the couch and gets them active, and for many people struggling to get fit, that’s the biggest challenge to overcome. Think about it this way: for a plumber to be a great plumber they aren’t doing landscaping, cabinetry, painting, electrical, and plumbing; their doing plumbing. The training matches the goal and as long as the training is moving the plumber towards their goal, they continue doing it. Fitness is the same way.

I understand the “Grass is always greener” concept. I’ve been guilty of switching programs when I was still making progress and the result, slower and even stalled progress until I went back to what was working. The simple answer to “should I change programs?” is in two questions:

1. Have you changed your goal?
2. Are you still making progress towards your goal?

If you haven’t changed your goal and you’re still making progress, there isn’t a reason to change. Finding a program that allows for consistent progress is hard and if you have one that works, are you willing to make a change that could stop or even reverse your progress. If you’re bored with the current program, doing a few weeks of something new won’t destroy what you’ve done, but remember, it takes 8-12 weeks to see measurable progress. The only exception for seeing progress is with newer trainees, who have the potential to see progress every workout because of the adaptations the nervous system is making.

If you haven’t changed your goal and you’re progress has stalled, it may be time to consider a change. Sometimes you’ve reached the limit of the program and changing may get us going on the right path again. Sometimes we need a “reboot” of sorts, whether it’s backing the weights down by 10% or adding a little more to our daily diet. Remember, the body adapts to the imposed demands and eventually will reach homeostasis. In order to get passed that point, we will need to increase the intensity, volume, or nutrition in our program.

If you have changed your goal and this program doesn’t match the goal, it is time to change programs. There are no two ways about it. If the goal and the steps aren’t on the same path, the path has to change.

We all want to reach our goals fast, but fitness is not a sprint, it is a marathon that takes consistency and dedication. Everybody that trains for more than a few months will encounter a stall, but switching programs at the first sign of struggle is less than ideal when sometimes the stall can be attributed to poor sleep, poor diet, or life’s other stresses. Be patient, evaluate, and if it may be something other than the program, give it another week and then make a move.

Keep working hard and you can achieve those goals!