Hello out there! Tis' the season, the season of over-indulging on food, treats, and the like. With that comes the inevitable new years resolution. My goal this year, is to get the jump on de-mystifying fitness, rather than answering the litany of questions that come in after the New Year.
So here you have it... Lets talk fitness, strength, and conditioning.. What you are doing right, wrong, or not doing at all!
1. No Plan, No War: All too often I see people at the gym, absolutely wasting their time. Mimicking a workout that another person does, or some cool exercise they saw someone doing online. So let me not take anything away from the fact that they have taken the first step by actually going to the gym. Now lets not waste that workout, by doing some random exercises, without any understanding of why they are doing them. Take some time (you have a solid month of planning before the new year), read up on general strength training programs, theres a TON of material out there, ill provide some guidelines below. Feel free to reach out and ask a question about what would be right for you. The bottom line is you want a plan that will carry you through at LEAST 6 months of the year.
2. Anatomical Adaptation - Your Key To Success: So now we have a plan! Thats a great start. First thing typically wrong with a training plan, is the fact that there is no time allowed for anatomical adaptation. Let me explain anatomical adaptation. This is for people NEW to training. Everyone wants to be able to push weight, and be a hero day one. Pushing heavier and heavier weight shows progress, similar to losing weight, and who doesn't want instant gratification? So here's the short of it. Anatomical Adaptation is going to prepare the connective tissue, tendons, muscles, joints, proprioceptors and structures to accept load. The goal for this (and it seems counter productive) is to not subject yourself to a fatigued state. Here's why. So here you are, the office jockey, the stay at home mom, the sedentary human being, you have a bunch of muscle fibres that are also sedentary (de-activated), If you dont use them, they get no CNS signals to activate, therefore they go to sleep (de-activate) similar to your laptop or tablet when you step away from it for a certain period of time.. Here's a link showing the design of a muscle, and detailing the fibres I am referencing. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c0/Skeletal_muscle.jpg
So what we want to do is begin to send signals to those fibres to get with the program, turn on , and begin firing (contributing to lifting a load)
Here are the parameters for Anatomical Adaptation - Circuit Style Lifting (1 exercise of 1 type, followed by another exercise of a different type - E.g. Leg Press, Bench, Back, Shoulders, Biceps, Triceps, etc. Typically the Load is 30-40% of your 1 rep max (for non-trained folks, this will be a weight you can move for 15-20 reps), for 3 sets in a circuit style fashion (circle back around to the exercise after completing the other exercises).. Your rest in between sets is 2-3 minutes (allow for full recovery). You will want to do this for 8-10 weeks (3 days a week lifting), from there you will increase the load from 40-60% (12-15rep weight) for 3-5 Weeks. This will fully prepare your body to be able to push more load efficiently. This seems completely counter-productive to "getting your ass kicked", but trust me if you go from 0-60% in 5 weeks, will do nothing but get you injured.
3. Train Movements, Not Muscles : If your goal is to develop a puffed out chest, huge arms, and 6 pack abs, stop reading here. If your goal is to become a stronger, faster, and better individual, there is one important step to take here. You need to train your body to activate muscles to move a load in a specific direction, using a specific amount of power, and endurance.. Unless you are a kinesiology major, strength coach, or athletic trainer, the easiest way to do this is by doing movement based training. It takes the "thinking" out of planning your workouts. By nature, I have always been a prime mover type of strength coach. I plan out with laser precision what muscles I have to train to get someone to run faster, strike a faster slap shot, stop a goal, make cuts, jump higher, etc.al As a part of strength coaching, I am always looking to learn new things, and after taking a con-ed class at Athletes' Performance in Arizona, I began to research movement based training. I ran across someone who basically has written the book on movement based training.. His name is Randy "Fit Fury" V'Estres. He runs a youtube channel https://www.youtube.com/user/FitFury?feature=chclk and also runs Vbody Power Fitness a site for personal training http://www.vbodypowerfitness.com
He is also available on facebook. Search him out (Fit Fury), and ill let him go into more detail on this with you, I always defer to the experts, and he is one that has provided a treasure trove of information on this topic, and I am sure he will be a great help to you.
4. Workout Timing: This is one of those "different strokes for different folks" type of statements. Ill give you some basic guidelines, of things that have worked for me. I typically find that the best time to workout is in the early morning. This is for a few reasons. Primarily, if I start a workout past 7pm, I find myself having a hard time sleeping at night, because my central nervous system is so stimulated. Getting up early enough to get a full workout in is hard, its a discipline thing, however once you get moving, things will come together, and for me, I find its when I can workout the hardest. Experiment with it, the most important thing is make it a consistent schedule, and don't "fit it in" ,treat it as something thats important in your life, and make sufficient time for it on a regular basis.
5. You Need Kindling To Start The Fire: Eating, its extremely important to get something into your system before you start a workout.. My typical recommendation for athletes is to get something with a decent carbohydrate load about 30 minutes before they begin a session. This gets the system pre-loaded with glycogen, and allows the metabolic processes to kick off. My personal routine is a banana and a packet of tuna, while im driving into the gym. Experiment with it, everyone responds differently to different things.
6. Fueling to Recover: So you've been lifting now, getting stronger, and the next question that everyone asks is "what can I take post-workout to recover?" Well there are a few things.. I am going to provide a link for a study based on Leucine (a Branch Chain Amino Acid - BCAA) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12501002
On the BCAA Front, I recommend Musclepharm Recon http://www.musclepharm.com/products/recon
Beyond that, you should ideally get a 2:1 Ratio of Carbohydrates / Protein. For this I recommend EAS Recovery Protein http://eas.com/recoveryprotein
The link above will better explain the benefits of this combination of Carbs and Protein. Feel free to ask me any further questions on this, and keep in mind there is a TON of conjecture and information on supplementation out there, I ONLY give advice on supplements that are on the NSF List. These supplements are certified for sport, and protect my athletes from getting Lance Armstrong'd http://www.nsf.org/business/athletic_banned_substances/index.asp?program=AthleticBanSub
7. The Dynamic Warmup: In any part of a workout, this is the most critical portion of it.. People avoid this like the plague, because it makes them look silly.. I say fuck that, it makes you look and act like an athlete. If you ever watch a pro athlete warm up, you will see them do exactly this.. Basically, it allows the fascia, muscles, tendons and connective tissue to "warmup to operating temperature" before beginning a lifting phase. Without a terrible amount of explanation, heres a video that Todd Durkin (a star trainer) posted on the dynamic warmup. Follow this, experiment with it, add and subtract as time allows.. Typically I program 15 minutes of dynamic warmup in any program. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S1q6abG4AI
8. Advanced Lifting Theory: So this section is to primarily address some common misconceptions out there on strength, force, and power. With the advent of crossfit, there have been some "coaches" out there giving advice on lifting theory, that have no scientific value. Now I am now broad stroking all crossfit coaches, there are many out there with kinesiology degrees, and coaching certifications exterior to crossfit, that provide sound theory... However there are coaches ive seen that have nothing other than a crossfit level 1 / or even with a tier 2 ACE certification, that have no business talking strength. So here is a version of the Vertical Integration Model (published by Dr. Loren Chiu) simplified for general consumption
A.
High intensity or high CNS stress training (95-100% intensity).
Intensity is defined as degree of effort when compared to maximum
capacity. This is referred to alactic power and capacity work. It
enables the athlete to rehearse the sporting activity at high intense
efforts. It is anti- circulatory and sympathetic dominant. It increases
neural demand and speed reserve and requires 48-72 hours of recovery
between sessions. It produces a feeling of fatigue hours after
completion, especially with power development.
B. Medium CNS stress training (76-94%). This is
lactic power and capacity. This IS NOT the energy demand of American
Football. It is not lactic based, so quit telling your athletes they
lift weights after game day to clear lactic acid from their system! The
problem with this intensity zone is the superimposed glycolitic and
aerobic training effects that cause a profound impact on adaptation. It
confuses the body. It’s too slow for alactic power/ capacity and too
fast for recovery. Thus, as preparedness increases it must be accounted
for as high intense CNS training. Plus according to Viru 1995/Volkov
1986, this type of training inhibits aerobic enzyme and mitochondria
production.
C. Low CNS stress training (<75%) aerobic power
and capacity. This is pro-circulatory and resets PNS (parasympathetic
nervous system) tone. It increases capillary density slowing blood flow
down. This enables blood to stay in contact with tissue longer
increasing nutrient transfer and waste product removal. It also keeps
motor neurons hot lowering electrical resistance and increasing MU
activation. Low stimulus requires 12-24 hours of recovery between
sessions. The athlete is also able to maintain muscular heat from the
general warm up. Two of its most important properties is it secures the
adaptation of the high CNS stressor all the while teaching relaxation as
the athlete maintains sprint posture. It is this property that is overlooked and never mentioned.
9. Constantly Varied: Without going into a terrible amount of detail, you should be changing workouts or load patterns every 6-10 weeks. This is referred to in american strength theory as linear periodization. Ill provide more information on this topic in upcoming posts, changing workouts will prevent you from plateauing.
10. Multi-Joint Lifts before Single Joint Lifts: This is
another big area of lifting theory. Beginning your workout with multi
joint or large prime mover lifts... For Introductory athletes, this
should be clean components (Clean Pulls - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5a1kkKyKg8Y ) (Jump Shrugs - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRj9Uy8oChQ)
For
advanced Lifters - Power Cleans, Hang Cleans, Clean and Jerks are
always first up on deck.. Typically following that (depending on what
lifting cycle), you deal with large muscle groups (squat, bench, RDL,
etc)... You do this for Motor Unit and Muscle Fibre Recruitment
purposes. This will allow you to perform single joint lifts easier,
because you have activated the CNS and Muscles with the larger group
exercises.
Author Note: My Thoughts On Training Children - As
explained with Item 8. With the increasing popularity of Crossfit, and
the volume of coaches being pumped out of the system with a lack of
other training, Ive been seeing an alarming amount of Sub 14 year old
Children being taught the Dead Lift, cleans, clean and jerk, and snatch
exercises with loads up to double their body weight. This is an
extremely sensitive subject with me, one that I have poured a bunch of
time into research, however I am unable to explain it directly to these
offending "coaches" as they only see things one way (force production
and intensity).... So here's the bottom line. First here's the
scientific evidence backing my theory, http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/Health_Center/adolhealth/content/a1.html
,
and now heres the down to earth explanation... So the easiest way to
explain it is in children that havent experienced PHV (Peak Height
Velocity), their bones are supple, think of a young tree. They need
these supple bones in order to be able to grow! Weight lifting with
excessive loads, takes calcium out of the diet (food) and uses it to
increase bone density. So you have essentially taken this supple,
growing bone, and have subjected it to hardening forces, which in turn
will affect their growth patterns / capability.. Lets not even figure
in what happens when that bone breaks. You will experience asymmetrical
growth.. So while your kid has deadlifted double his body weight... You
are thinking extremely short term and are doing things detrimental to
their future as an athlete.
In Closing: Thanks for taking the time to read through this.. I am available for any questions and help with your journey into fitness, both via the blog, and via Facebook (shoot me a message or an add), also make sure to check out fit fury for movement based programming! Good Luck On Your Fitness Journey!
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