About Mike Lipowski

Mike Lipowski is an author, speaker, personal trainer, and professional natural bodybuilder who educates people on the science resistance exercise. Follow him @MikeLipowski

The Busy Fitness Freak

Recently I had a conversation with someone at a nutrition convention at which I was speaking.  It was lunchtime and we were discussing the new nutrition program released by the company that had hosted the event.  This young woman had lost over one-hundred pounds on the program and looked fantastic (kudos to her).  She eventually started to ask about me and my wife’s natural bodybuilding and figure competition prep, specifically how we trained.  She had no desire to compete she said but wanted clues as to how to push her fat loss further along and achieve a more “toned” look.

To her amazement it was not as complicated or as time consuming as she thought.  Everyone assumes that to achieve competition form or your “ideal physique” you need to spend hours in the gym.   You don’t.  Neither I nor my wife did any more than 100 minutes of training each week during our entire 2012 competition season and both of us achieved our all-time best condition.

Just a Busy Bodybuiler

You see, I’m a busy bodybuilder…a very busy “Fitness Freak”.  Just to give some perspective, I own and operate a personal training studio where I carry out 40-50 sessions a week (purposely reduced from 60-70/week), I’m the president of a personal training education and certification company, a co-founder of a natural bodybuilding organization and a show promoter, a coach for other competitors, I write and do speaking engagements, take care of all the marketing for each of my businesses, do fundraising, and networking.  And these are only my business related pursuits, I have not even touched on my personal and recreational activities.

This list is not meant to brag, I know that there are plenty of other people who do what I do and more.  I use it to demonstrate that even with everything that consumes my day I can still body build at a high level.  The key is to determine exactly how much time must be spent training to develop your physique.  For me it is 90-100 minutes a week of weight training (I do not do any aerobic exercise).  The other major component of course is diet.  If you have your diet structured properly and give yourself enough time to lose body-fat slowly there is no reason to perform excessive amounts of aerobic exercise to burn calories.

I understand that for some, working out is their life, their passion, and they enjoy spending hours in the gym.  But for those who would like to pursue their ideal physique or compete in bodybuilding/figure in the midst of a busy lifestyle where spare hours are few, you can.  The first step is to move past the misconception of how much time is needed.  Real science dismisses much of the pseudoscience revolving around muscle development and fat-loss.

Just the Facts

Fact:  There is not a specific amount of time that a person needs train for in order to stimulate muscle growth.

Fact: There is not a specific number of reps or sets that need to be performed to stimulate muscle growth.

Fact:  Muscle development only occurs under conditions where intensity of effort and/or training demands are high.

If you understand these three facts then you can succeed as a Busy Fitness Freak.  As I mentioned I rarely train more than 100 minutes a week and I do not do any aerobic exercise, even during competition prep.  My workouts—as well as the workouts of clients I work with—are typically 30 minutes long and normally performed only 2-4 times a week.  The reason why is because of the three facts stated above, especially the last one.

The key to developing a time efficient training program is to keep intensity high by performing each set to (or close to) momentary muscular failure and continually finding ways to increase training demands.  Without a high degree of effort or a disruption in what the muscles are accustomed to there is no reason for them to become stronger or more resilient.  Let me ask, for what reason would muscles develop if they are not challenged?

Most serious trainees place heavy emphasis on weight progression, constantly trying to heave greater poundage’s from one workout to the next.  This has always been a focal point of every successful training program but it’s not the only thing that should be focused on.  In fact, we know through research that intensity of effort plays as big if not a bigger role than load since it is only when intensity is at or near one-hundred percent that we involve the greatest number of Fast-Twitch (FT) muscle fibers (Henneman’s size principle).

We have learned through the study of neurology that the more we perform certain movements (exercises) in the same manner the more we adapt to those movements and the more proficient we become at performing them.  In the IART’s publication Fitness Science Annual 2008, Brian Johnston explains the negative implications of neuromuscular adaptation for the intermediate and advanced bodybuilder, in the quest to develop more muscle:

In strength training and bodybuilding, a greater focus has been placed on neurological adaptation, or the skill factor and its effect. It has been suggested that neurological/skill factors are a consideration only during the beginning stages of exercise, with less impact or influence on advanced trainees…However, this is not the entire story.  Although the extent of neural factors may diminish, the nature of its role alters and becomes more finely tuned. To explain, the more muscle and strength a person develops, the more reluctant the body is to add more muscle and strength; and the more a person repeats the same exercises in the same way, the more skilled they become at those movements

Keeping the above in mind, as well as the importance of intensity, it should be apparent that a productive training regimen consists of varied, high-intensity exercise.  The, high-intensity + variation formula, is a dependable stimulus for muscle development but by no means is it the only factor.  We need to also consider recovery time and tolerance to exercise stress.  It’s the application and balance of intensity, volume, variation and frequency, relative to individual needs that determines a person’s ability to develop a strong muscular physique while living a busy lifestyle. …And earning the title of Busy Fitness Freak.

Personal Training Prediction

I’m no psychic but I’m willing to make a prediction.

Over the next 10-20 years one-on-one personal training studios will (once again) be the biggest trend in fitness.  Personal training has existed since Ancient Greece and there’s certainly nothing new about personal training studios.  They began to pop up in mass quantities starting in the late 70’s when Nautilus introduced variable resistance strength training equipment which made it easy to perform fast and extremely effective workouts under the guidance of a personal trainer who was educated in their high-intensity training protocol.

Jazzeridiots Make Their Debut…The Weight Lifters Laugh At Them

As new fitness trends emerged personal training studios dwindled as people made their way to Jazzercise classes and opted for outdoor running over indoor strength training (big mistake).  When doctors finally started to see the light—the same light bodybuilders and strength athletes saw decades earlier—they began encouraging people to lift weights because it provided greater health and fitness benefits over any other form of exercise.

Certified Baboons & Weight Training

Gyms and health clubs start to emerge out of thin air and they filled up with people looking to lift weights.  But the majority of these people have as much understanding about what to do as a baboon would.  This spawned the growth of the personal training industry and now you get a major influx of baboons that are “certified” to teach other people how to waste their time with wasteful exercise.   Add to this the uprising of affordable gyms and Crossfit and now you have an overcrowded mess of unsafe unknowledgeable lifters.

Personal Training Studio Doors Are Opening

This scenario has created a special space in the market for personal training studios.  Big gyms can survive with bad trainers but small personal training studio cannot.  Consumers recognize this.  More than ever they are taking their business to personal training studios that can offer a private or semi-private setting that is devoid of distractions, allows people to “get in and get out” and achieve results safely under the tutelage of a competent and professional trainer.  This market is certain to grow in the next 10-20 years as our lives become more complex, our personal time dwindles, and our need to circumvent the guesswork and “get it right the first time” increases.

3 Rules to Get Fit & Stay Fit

It’s not what you think.  Typically articles like this lay out a bunch of crappy no-brainer generalized suggestion disguised as “rules” and either you follow them already or never will.  I couldn’t do that to you because I can’t stand when a writer does it to me.  Instead I’m just going to give you the low down on the “rules for using rules to get fit and stay that way.”   How does that sound?  I only have three of them which means you should get through this quickly so can get back to Facebook and Twitter.

Rule #1 – YOU Write the Rules

Here’s the deal.  Generally speaking everyone knows what it takes to get fit. It’s a widely known fact that eating healthy foods, drinking plenty of water, exercising, and rest can result in a body that looks just as good as it functions.  Where things get murky is in the details.  There are no steadfast “rules” for how much or how little of everything we need so it’s up to us to write our own rules.

Rule #2 – The Rules Must Be Clear

People who are on the exceptional side of the fitness scale are not lucky.  At least–they are no more lucky than those that are on the piss poor side of the scale are unlucky.  The difference is their rules.

I can’t feel sorry for those that have horrible health and are out of shape because they don’t give a shit about holding themselves to any sort of standard.  Not those that are born with disease or a defect, those who control their destiny…like the other 96% of us.  Who I do feel sorry for are those who desperately want to have greater health and fitness but can’t seem to get out of their own way.  They exercise, they eat “healthy”, they sip on their water throughout the day and they even manage to get some sleep each night.  I feel sorry for them because they haven’t yet “got it”.

The differentiating factor between the group that wishes to have it and the group that has it or on their way to getting it, is how specific their rules are.  Here’s an example of “the rules” as explained by an individual from each of the two groups.

The “I can’t seem to get myself fit no matter what I try” individual:

  • Eat healthy most of the time.
  • Do some exercise every day.
  • Avoid drinking too much alcohol.
  • I should snack less and eat smaller meals.
  • I need to drink more water.

The “I have (or I’m on my way to having) a strong and healthy body” individual:

  • I must eat 4-5 times a day.
  • Every time I eat I must have at least 20 g. of protein, 20-30 g. of carbs, and 5-8 g. of fat.
  • I must keep my calories at or under 1,600 a day 5 out of 7 days a week.
  • Only 2 cheat meals a week.
  • I must weight train for 30 minutes on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
  • If I go out with friends I only have 2 alcoholic drinks and then I drink water the rest of the time.
  • Never get less than 6 hours of sleep a night.
  • Drink no less than 64 oz. of water a day.

Don’t we all know two people like this!  One whose rules are vague and bendable and one who sticks to a specific set of measurable rules or guidelines.  It’s not by luck or chance that some people are fit while others are fat.  It’s the rules by which each person lives his/her life that determines the direction they move in.

Rule #3 – If You Don’t Know What Your Rules Should Be, GET HELP

It’s not easy these days to separate the bullshit from the rational diet, exercise and lifestyle advice.  There are certain things which are obvious and backed by years of research, like smoking cigarettes increases your risk for Cancer.  Other things such as the ideal diet or exercise program are not so obvious because there are so many of them.  And the truth is, just as many work as those that don’t work, and some require a lot of time and effort and others are efficient and easy to follow.

Get help from people who follow a specific set of rules themselves and are successful.  What they do may or may not be the perfect fit but at least you can glean from their approach what rules work for you and which ones might need to be replaced or adjusted for your objectives.  Not everyone can comply with all the rules or enjoy the foods on a Paleo Diet thus they will not be successful with it long-term. Finding a nutrition and exercise approach that will achieve your health and fitness objectives and make long-term compliance with your rules agreeable should be the goal.

***

Rules Can Change

Is it possible to have a different sets of rules depending upon external circumstances?  Absolutely!  My rules for how I eat on vacation are different from my every day rules and those rules are different from my rules during bodybuilding competition prep.  However what’s important to note is how much the rules change based on you circumstances and how often does it happen.

I know people who are excellent when they are home and on a predictable schedule but they also go away every 6-8 weeks for one or more weeks at a time and during such time they are completely erratic with their eating, exercise, and rest.  When they get back home they begin the process of being excellent again but it only gets them back to where they were before they left.  Their condition never improves beyond a certain point and so they remain frustrated.  If they are to make a permanent shift in their condition then they need to adjust their “away rules”.

What Are Your Rules?

If you came here to get some specific answers, some direction on what you need to do differently to get fit and fabulous then you’re probably pissed off at me.  You’re probably saying, “WTF Lipowski, couldn’t you just tell me what the ______ I need to do instead of this pansy ass cryptic shit that makes me have to think?”  The truth is yes I could’ve given you a list of rules but those would have been MY rules, based on what I believe to be ideal for ME.  You need to come up with your own…but if it makes you feel better I’ll leave you with a few of mine.

  • I must consume a minimum of 1 g. of protein and 1.5–2 g. of carbs per pound of body weight each day (off-season).
  • I must take in 25+ g. of fiber every day.
  • I must drink at least 100 ounces of water each day (125-250 ounces during competition prep).
  • I must weight train three times per week.
  • I must log my workouts so I can measure my progress from week to week.
  • I must get at least 6 hours of sleep each night Mon-Fri, and 8 hours a night on the weekend.
  • I can have 2 heavy cheat meals a week in the off-season but none during competition prep (I will have 1-2 re-feed meals instead).
  • I must stay within 10-15 lbs. of my competition weight during the off-season.
  • If I lose my way or overindulge on vacation or during the holidays then I must get back on my diet as long as needed to return to “normal”.
  • I must take my vitamins and supplements every day.
  • I must read food labels and make myself aware of what is in the foods I consume.
  • I must avoid consuming artificial sweeteners or using products containing toxic chemicals.

Although these are not all my rules I think you get the idea and I hope that adopting one or two of them as your own can prove beneficial for you. 

What Supplements Do You Really Need?

People search fervently for anything that will help them build more muscle, lose more fat, and achieve their dream body.  Knowing this, supplement companies are compelled to constantly come up with “new”, “more powerful” and “breakthrough” products to help people achieve their goals.  There are more fat-burning, muscle building products on the market today than ever before.  Do they work?  Can these products help us reach our peak?  The answer is both yes and no.

Through clever marketing people today are convinced that “looking good” is only one pill or powder away.  They view supplements as being a magic bullet, that will get them the body of their dreams. Yes, some of these products work and can help bolster your results.  But they cannot compensate for an inadequate training program and/or poor nutrition.

First Things First Regarding “Supplements”

Understand what supplements are.  The word, supplement means, “addition; complement; enhance.”  It does not mean “to correct; make up for; solve”  yet this is the view most people have of them. They see supplements as the answer or when they are merely an aide.

No supplement, regardless of the claims made, is going to make a dramatic difference in fat-loss and muscular gains if training and nutrition is inadequate.  Supplements are meant to do nothing more than “fill-in the gaps” so that the body always gets what it needs when it needs it.

Combined with a training and nutrition program that meets the specific needs of the individual, supplements can help boost exercise performance, recovery and ultimately, results.  Your goal is to maximize fat-loss and muscular development and that cannot be achieved unless the two major components; training and nutrition, are first in place.  Supplements will only be as effective or as useful as your training and nutrition dictates.

Until you are able to make gains simply by manipulating your training and nutrition alone, you should not be using supplements (with a few exceptions we’ll discuss shortly).  Often individuals are compelled to use supplements because they need something to help compensate for their poor training and nutrition practices.  If they had a proper training and nutrition program, then the supplement(s) would most likely be unnecessary.

Before I fully understood the basic components of exercise and nutrition, and learned to effectively apply them, I would try every new product that hit the market in an attempt to enhance my physique.  About ninety-nine percent of the time the results were either short-lived or insignificant.  Even with continued use of a product I still could not make any better progress than what I had already.  After years of frustration, trying new product after new product and getting very little return on my investments I decided to drop the supplements altogether and take a harder look at my diet and training.

It was only after I got a handle on my training and nutrition that I was able to finally see how supplements really fit into the process of optimizing physique development.  It became clear that supplements could assist in my progress but only if things were rolling in the right direction to begin with.  If things were not going in the right direction, the supplements could do little to change this.

Getting a handle on training and nutrition first is important for another reason:  when you utilize a particular product or substance you want to know for certain whether or not it actually works!  You want to be able to measure its impact if any at all!  But you cannot make this assessment unless you first know the effect that certain training and nutrition practices have without the addition of that supplement.  Once you know this, you can better evaluate the supplements effectiveness and worth.

For example, many times people who start taking fat-burners simultaneously start exercising more frequently and consciously eat less—two things that by themselves result in greater fat-loss.  So is it the pill or the training and diet that results in greater fat-loss?

Which Supplements and When

Under “normal” conditions (i.e., not attempting to peak or drop body-fat very low) many supplements are of little benefit.  If you are taking in ample amounts of nutritious foods and your training demands/recovery time is properly balanced, the impact of most supplements is minuscule.  There are, of course, exceptions to this which I will get to momentarily.  Understand for now, supplements tend only to be of significant help under conditions where the body is most depleted yet needing to function at a high capacity, i.e. peaking.  If your body-fat is not rock bottom or on its way there and you are taking in enough nutrients to maintain a positive nitrogen balance and ward off muscle catabolism and you are not scraping the bottom of the proverbial barrel just to get through your exercise each day then supplements are unnecessary.  The reason is 97-99% of your results will come from properly applied training and nutrition.  It’s only in trying to realize that last 1-3% of your potential that supplements can help put your training and nutrition over the top.

With the wide variety and abundance of supplements available for fat-loss, muscle enhancement and exercise performance, it would be too daunting a task to discuss them all in great detail here.  The following are those supplements which I personally have found to be most pertinent, useful and effective.

Food Supplements

There are some supplements whose regular utilization is not only warranted but many times necessary.  One of the most important supplements you can ever take and one that should remain constant throughout the year is a quality protein powder.  Because of our busy lives, it is often difficult and inconvenient to consume adequate amounts of protein throughout the day from “real” foods such as meat, chicken, turkey, or eggs unless we are well prepared or working from home.

Protein in the form of whey, casein, and non-GMO soy protein powders make it easy and convenient to get as much protein as you need throughout the day.  These products mix quickly, easily and provide all the necessary amino acids for muscle repair and growth.  Protein bars can also provide a sufficient supply of protein per serving, but be aware that the quality of protein is rarely as good or as complete as with the powders and some bars are loaded with sugars and trans-fats which more or less defeats their purpose as a “healthy” snack or meal replacement.

Along these same lines of useful and valuable food supplements are amino acids. Amino acids help to provide the muscles with an immediate supply of high quality aminos, improves nitrogen retention and helps prevent muscle catabolism.  They are particularly useful if you are not consume a variety of proteins.

A good Multivitamin can provide you with your daily requirements of all the necessary vitamins and minerals.  Let’s face it, few of us eat as many fruits and vegetables as we should (myself included) and considering the way they are cultivated and treated today with chemical additives to make them grow larger and look better their nutritional value is not what it once was.  Also, with how heavily processed many of our other foods are, daily consumption of a multivitamin can ensure that your body is getting what it needs to function optimally and fight infectious disease and sickness.


I take Shaklee Men’s Vitalizer strips

Fish Oil

Fish Oil/EFA’s (essential fatty acids) are essential to getting Omega-3 & 6 fatty acids.  The health benefits of Omega-3’s have been well documented for years.

The laundry list of these benefits includes:

• decreased triglyceride levels
• decreased growth rate of atherosclerotic plaque
• improved Arrhythmia (irregular heart beat)
• helps to lower LDL’s and raise HDL’s (bad and good
cholesterol respectively)
• lower blood pressure
• improved mood
• aids in fat-loss
• relief from joint pain
• improved autoimmune function
• improved brain development and memory function
• helps control Type II Diabetes
• helps relieve dry skin

Those Fish Oil/EFA supplements which are high in EPA/DHA will help you metabolize more fat and contribute immensely to your cardiovascular health.  The amount of research being accumulated on the benefits of Fish Oils/EFA is becoming quite extensive; however, most of it up till now has been geared towards cardiac health and only in the last decade or so has its effects on fat-loss been more closely examined.  The results of such studies have been quite impressive in that the subjects were losing fat with the implementation of exercise.  Studies which have compared the effects of FO supplementation and exercise both independently, and combined conclude that the addition of Omega-3 to an exercise regimen greatly improves fat-loss and cardiovascular lipid profiles.  But once again the news gets even better as those studies had the subjects performing only low intensity aerobic exercise as opposed to high intensity anaerobic exercise which we already know has greater impact on body composition and fat-loss!

All in all it is a pretty safe bet that supplementing with approximately 3-6g./day of Fish Oil/EFA will reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease and help you shed unwanted body-fat.

Muscle and Performance Enhancing Supplements

I do not view this next supplement as being a must like I do the above food supplements but it has proven to be an effective muscle enhancer and more importantly, a very good recovery agent (i.e., speeds up recovery between workouts).  The supplement I’m speaking of is Creatine monohydrate.

The body’s energy supply for muscular work comes from creatine phosphate (CP) and ATP.  When we perform muscular work of a high intensity ATP is quickly depleted and must be replenished immediately in order to sustain further amounts of work at this capacity.  The phosphate from CP is used to replenish and regenerate ATP.  Consuming creating prior to training will top-off your CP stores, which in turn allows ATP to be regenerated quicker.  With greater energy reserves you can sustain a heavy work load longer.

Fat Burners

Fat-burners, also known as Thermogenics, are quite easily the most popular supplements on the planet.  What used to be a product that could only be purchased at the local vitamin and supplement store or online you can now find lining the shelves of supermarkets!  Since the removal of ephedra from this product’s main ingredients it has certainly lost much of its punch.

What needs to be cleared up regarding fat-burners is not whether or not they work but what they actually do and how they can be used most effectively.

First, fat-burners DO NOT BURN FAT per se.  These products do in fact help facilitate the use of fatty acids for energy but this does not necessarily correlate to ‘fat-loss’ unless the stage is set for it.

In order to burn fat you must first be in a caloric deficit, period.  If you are not in a caloric deficit, taking a fat-burning pill will not magically put you in one without changing your diet.  If you pick up any fat-burning product and read the label they all say something to the effect of: BEST USED IN CONJUNCTION WITH A LOW-CALORIE DIET AND EXERCISE.  Even the manufacturers realize that their product will not work unless you help it to work.

Fat-burners and thermogenic products are stimulants.  Upon consumption they cause an immediate increase in your energy levels and metabolic rate.  This is the direct result of caffeine and other stimulating substances being present in high dosages.

Note: Caffeine is responsible for most of the physiological effects of Fat-burners which is why it is the main ingredient in all of them.  Caffeine by itself (either as coffee or in pill form) provides the same benefits of most Fat-burning pills and drinks but to a lesser degree because of smaller dosages and the absence of other substance which “amplify” its effects.  This makes caffeine a viable alternative for those who cannot tolerate or do not like the stronger effects fat burners/thermogenics can have.

With this sudden rise in energy you feel compelled to start expending some of it if you were not planning on doing so already.  So if you were laying on the couch when you took the product about a half-hour later you’ll want to get off the couch and start doing something because you simply can’t sit still.  Plus, your metabolism is now moving at faster rate than normal thus you burn more energy per unit of time.   So between an increase in energy and rate of energy expenditure you can burn a greater number of calories over the course of a day.  Combine this with being in a caloric deficit and voila you start burning body-fat.

Another side-effect of stimulants is appetite suppression.  Taking a fat-burner/thermogenic with or between meals can help curb hunger, resulting in you eating less which, you guessed it, means less calories in.  Now efforts to burn body-fat are being assisted from both ends…less calories are being taken in and more calories are going out.

What’s important realize is that you do not need these products in order to burn fat. They can be of assistance in the process but they are not necessary.  Again I personally have found these products to be most useful under extreme circumstances.   Such as, being on a heavily (calorie) restricted diet yet needing to increase or sustain energy levels in order to perform workouts.

When not dieting, I’ve found taking fat-burners/thermogenics prior to my workout helps to increase my mental focus and aggressiveness while training, making for a more productive workout.

Nitric Oxide

In recent years Nitric Oxide (NO) supplements have become widely popular as a muscle and performance enhancer.  NO and products like this are known as vasodilators.  What these products do is increases the diameter of your blood vessels thereby increasing blood flow to the muscles and vascularity.  This results in a great “pump” while training and one that lasts longer after you’re finished training.  Other benefits include more rapid recovery and increased energy.

Some of these NO products contain other substances such as Arginine, which promotes the release of growth hormone, improves nitrogen retention and helps in the synthesis of creatine.

Proceed With Caution

You need to be as methodical about your use (addition) of supplements as you are your training and diet.  You also need to be honest about their results or lack thereof.  Just because a product is purported to do x, y, z does not mean it will deliver.  Much of the “scientific studies” done on these products are nothing more than marketing tactics to make you think the “holy grail of bodybuilding supplements” has been discovered and is “now available” for your benefit.

Treat your use of supplements like a controlled experiment.  Try to isolate as many factors (i.e. diet, exercise, daily activity) as possible then assess the impact adding the supplement into the mix has on your results if any.  Take note of the immediate and/or long-lasting effects and whether they are significant enough to merit further use.  Most importantly, do not become dependent on them.  There has not yet been enough long-term research on these products for us to know for certain their long-term effects on our health…so proceed with caution.

4 Ways to Overload

Increase the weight, increase your reps (or time under tension) or increase both.  This has been the tried and true means to progressively overload ones muscles in the pursuit of greater strength and size since Cavemen were doing squats using a thick tree branch and boulders tied to the ends.  But as any advanced lifter will tell you, there comes a point where despite the 5, 10, 20+ lbs. increases in strength on a given exercise increases in lean muscle mass does not follow.

So what’s a lowly lifter who desperately wants to squeeze out every last bit of genetic potential to do?

Find new ways of creating overload!  New ways to disrupt homeostasis.  After all, the body is an extremely adaptive organism and if it can blunt muscle development for the reason that it increases metabolic demands then it will.

Here are four ways to break homeostasis’ strangle hold and create an overload environment to drive new muscle growth.

1. Increase Volume

I make this suggestion with hesitation.  The reason why is that most people overuse this variable to the point where their progress is stalled because of an inability to recover.  However for those that follow low to moderate volume training programs, doubling or even tripling the volume of one or many workouts can present new and usual demands.

2. Increase Frequency

As with volume I suggest this with a hint of hesitancy because so many are guilty of taking the “more is better” approach to exercise.  Over the long-run more is not better; this we know through the study of stress physiology (you can’t argue with real science Broscience guy).  However for a short-term increase in demands (1-4 weeks) there’s not a simpler way bombard the muscles than training them more frequently.

3. Change Rep/Exercise Performance

This is one method of increasing demands that doesn’t require you to shuffle around your schedule to account for more time or days in the gym, making it an extremely efficient way to up the demands.  The only limits are those of creativity and the willingness to check your ego at the door.  This is not about how much you can lift or the number of reps performed.  This is about disrupting neural patterns.

In ‘non-Exercise Science Nerd’ terms this means breaking the usual pattern of how your reps/exercises are performed.  This increases the metabolic demands of the exercise because the muscles must work harder to overcome a change in the skill.  Think of how much more difficult, exhausting and disrupting to the muscles it would be (in the short term) if a baseball pitcher who typically throws overhand was told to start throwing sidearm.

4. Do it all!

Let’s face it, if you’ve been training for over a decade and have “been there done that” then your body is very well in tune with nearly everything you throw at it.  Sure you still get tired, fatigued, your muscles get sore, but none of that is nothing new and certainly not enough to persuade the body to add more muscle.  At this stage sometimes the best the best thing you can do is to do it all.  Change things in a massive unexpected way.

Now comes the disclaimer.  This is not how to train all the time…that’s just stupid.  This is a planned part of an intelligently designed training program that allows for proper balance between exercise demands (stress) and recovery for long-term adherence.

The New Way to Wealth Creation (Hint: it begins with a “P”)

The one piece of advice that has served every business that ever chose to implement it is the “10x’s Value Rule”.  To attract and retain clients or customers give them value that is ten times the cost of the service or product you are offering.   It’s simple, effective, and just good business practice.

The state of our economy has made the consumers more conscious than ever about what they spend money on and they are far pickier about who they do business with.  As a result businesses have needed to find ways to give more value or otherwise watch their business disintegrate.   Even though we never like to see businesses fail—especially small businesses—this situation has helped eradicate a lot of bad and “middle-of-the-road” businesses from the marketplace, leaving only those that bring real value to people’s lives.

However, if you haven’t been paying close attention lately you may have missed the paradigm shift.  Now that (mostly) everyone has become value driven, ten times value is what’s “expected” by the consumer.  Suddenly value has lost some of its WOW factor.  Which means something else has to take its place in order to draw the awareness of consumers and create a gap between the good and the great.  That something else is Purpose.

I’m not talking about a mission statement on the third page of the company’s operations manual or what they mention to a new employee upon hiring them.  I’m talking about something that’s bigger than the company or any one person in it.  A cause that employees, team members, clients, and customers alike can rally around.  Something that makes your team feel good about where they work and the work they do.  It makes the customer feel as though their money is not just supporting a business and its owner, but its supporting a culture and concept that lifts people up and makes a difference.  This is the new way to wealth creation.

Separating “Training” and the “Training Business”

I have a lot of friends in the fitness industry. (Actually I just lost one the other day but hey, some people need to alienate as many people as possible in order to help their brand stand out…I get it.)  One thing I always find interesting is that sometimes my fellow fitness professionals have a hard time breaking away from their long held beliefs.  They might question a few of them from time to time but rarely will it result in them making a change in how they train themselves and others.

The reason: business.

Many—me included—have built successful personal training businesses that center around a message.  This message is at the core of what makes the business tick, why people keep coming back, why others seek you out, and why others run in the opposite direction.  Just look at Crossfit.

In order to have people follow you and adhere to your recommendations, you need to be “all-in” and follow your own advice.  A big part of the message at our studio is that it doesn’t take more than sixty to ninety minutes of exercise a week to achieve a high level of fitness.   Some of my friends take this message of efficiency to another level by promoting fifteen to twenty minutes of exercise weekly.

When someone turns to me and says, “You must train every day, right?” I’m quick to point out that I rarely train more than ninety to one-hundred minutes a week, even during the bodybuilding competition season.   I remain true to what I teach and to prove a point in the process.  The point being—based on the way I implement exercise I can train less than the majority of fitness enthusiasts and bodybuilders and still compete at the highest level.

But let’s back up for a moment.  Did you notice in my response to the question I’m often asked I said “rarely”?

I do this not to be deceptive but to leave doors open to other possibilities.  Sometimes you need to set the business model (and ego) aside in order to focus on the training; to experiment or explore an approach that is outside of the model.  Or the other option is to hold steadfast to what you do, look like you have all the answers because you work within a very narrow system, and come up with reasons why the other methods are complete shit.

If what you uncover through experimental training works but doesn’t quite fit your business model it doesn’t mean the model is wrong and you have to abandon it or eat crow.  You may consider revising it, adding on to it, or keeping it exactly as is because it works for the niche you cater to and is what they want.   The worse that can happen is that you learn something which helps you to better comprehend the nuances of the art of exercise science.

Running Makes You Fat: Fact or Fiction

Everyone that trains with me knows my loathing for running or any type of long duration cardio. It makes me cringe when clients say, “I need to do cardio otherwise I’ll get fat” because I know how untrue this is. In fact it’s running and long duration cardio that keeps people fat, and in many cases contributes to them getting fatter. Need proof? Well I’ve got it!

This is one of those moments that, if you are like me, you’ll love what I’m about to show you. Conversely, if you are one of those who clings to their running shoes or cardio equipment because the fear of out-of-control-fatness haunts you then this is going to be one of the toughest pills you’ve ever had to swallow. And if you are the type who runs for the love it then whatever I tell you or show you won’t matter, and you’re going to keep doing what you do.

So here it is…brace yourself

In 2006 the results of a 9 year study were released in which 12,568 runners were monitored to measure the effect that their weekly mileage had on their body composition. As you might suspect, the runners who decreased their mileage over the years gained the most amount of body fat. But don’t get too excited runners and you cardio queens. Because even the runners who maintained the same mileage or increased it slightly from one year to the next also got fatter.

The only group that didn’t experience an increase in fat were those that increased their mileage to the levels of a competitive marathoner; which brings along a whole slew of other problems related to joint health. So unless you’re running enough to train for marathon should be at least be a little concerned about how much you rely on running or cardio to maintain your waist size.

A number of other studies, as well as empirical evidence from those with extensive experience competing in steady-state endurance competitions (i.e. triathlons and marathons) have pointed out that these activities train the body to become more efficient at storing fat. This is why that person who hits the treadmill every day for 30-60 minutes still looks the same as they did a year ago.

The answer

Does anyone else find it ironic that the study I cited above was published in the International Journal of Obesity? You would think that those who study obesity, fat-loss, exercise, and nutrition would be championing the movement to get people to go out and run. But the fact is no amount of exercise can account for poor nutrition or overeating (even if you eat well you can still get fat). And certain types of exercise like running and other forms of steady-state cardio are metabolism killers.

Nutrition is the solution; the proper foods in the proper amounts (i.e. caloric deficit). If you “need to do cardio to keep from getting fat” then you clearly do not have a handle on your food. Instead of spending that hour running try spending it figuring out how many calories you’ve been taking in and how much you need to prevent your waistline from expanding. If needing to give your metabolism a kick-start or keep it elevated throughout the week, and you are already weight training 2-3x a week, then implementing 10-20 minutes of sprints or intervals on the bike or elliptical are your best options.

This has been a public service announcement from your brutally honest personal trainer. :-)

Change!

Change is inevitable. No matter how much you try to resist it or run from it, you can’t. Even if you hold your ground and stand still the world around you is changing. If you’re not evolving you’re regressing.

It’s a fact, with each birthday we celebrate we’re getting older.  With that comes the natural depletion of the resources that keep us fit, energetic, and strong.  Of course we’re able to counteract or slow this regression through exercise, nutrition, supplementation, rest, and managing our stress.  However, as our bodies are changing, as those resources are dwindling, we need to change or “revise” our lifestyle choices and actions to stay ahead of the curve.

Change is not always easy but almost always necessary if the objective is growth. We all have room to grow. No matter where we are in our lives, in our work, in our health and fitness, there’s always a next level. The question is, how willing are you to go after it? Do you just talk about it or do you take action? Do you make excuses or make it happen? Do you let fear paralyze you or does your “why” help you to make the necessary changes?

Choose change.

 

Defining Your “Why”

Beth Colucci, IART Fitness Clinician

 

If you have ever set a goal, or at least thought about it, you’ve probably heard or read about setting SMART goals.  I personally believe setting SMARTER goals is a bit more effective when the focus is on your fitness. I’ll explain what the “ER” stands for in just a moment but first for those that need a refresher let’s take a quick look at what a SMARTER goal is.

S – Specific – what exactly is it that you want to achieve?

M – Measurable – how will you measure your progress?

A – Attainable – are you being realistic about the goal you’ve set for yourself?

R – Relevant – how will reaching this goal affect your life?

T – Time Boundwhen would you like to achieve your results by?

E – Energy Driven – how many calories (energy) will you eat, and how much physical energy (exercise) will you put in?

R – Results – did you achieve your goal?  Why or why not?  [Obviously, evaluating this step comes at the end of your time frame.]

When you set a SMARTER goal, you know where you want to go…but do you know why?  I’m not talking about a simple reaction such as, “I want to look better.”  I challenge you to dig deeper than that.  Really ask yourself WHY you are working so hard and taking steps toward a healthier life.  Are you working for a better you to…

  • Set an example for your children?
  • Feel better physically and mentally?
  • Extend your life to be around for your grandchildren?
  • Get off medication?
  • Give yourself more happiness and confidence?
  • Diminish or even erase any ailments you suffer from?

Whatever your reason, find it!  Without this intrinsic motivator, it’s easy to forget why you started your health journey in the first place.  Trust me when I say that I too have set goals for myself and let them fall to the wayside because they didn’t actually mean anything to me.  However, any goal I have ever set that really meant something to my present and future I have been sure to attack it.  Why the difference?  When I know why I am pushing myself, I can continually remind myself what I want and why it’s important to me.  That connection is key.

Every single person on this planet has a goal for themselves, whether emotional, physical, monetary, relationship-wise, etc.  Take the time to define a SMARTER goal you have for yourself, and then take some extra time to figure out why you want to achieve that goal.  This may take minutes, hours, or even days.  Don’t rush the process, or you’ll only end up faking it.  Once you’ve discovered what’s driving you, try writing down both your goal(s) and your “why(s)” and post it somewhere where you will see it every day.  The visual will spark your intrinsic motivation over and over.  Watch and see how your WHY will drive your actions, and your goals will seem all that much easier to conquer.