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.

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

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.