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Exercise, Fitness
January 23, 2009
Given the overwhelmingly positive feedback on my previous posts debunking common exercise myths, here are my insights on a few more myths that continue to pervade the industry.
Hopefully by setting the record straight, we can put these misperceptions to rest once and for all and, in the process, improve your toning and weight losss results!
MYTH: Using the Stairmaster will give you a big butt.
TRUTH: This myth might be humorous if so many women didn’t accept it as fact. It came about after a popular magazine quoted a so-called fitness expert who cautioned that stair climbing was a one-way ticket to a movie screen-sized derriere. The “expert” apparently had never studied exercise physiology.
Truth is it’s virtually impossible to substantially increase muscle mass from stair climbing… or any other aerobic activity for that matter. Understand that during cardiovascular exercise the primary type of muscle fibers utilized are the endurance-related slow-twitch fibers. These fibers get much of their energy by burning fat for fuel, contracting very slowly but having the ability to endure extended periods of activity.
The kicker: Slow twitch fibers have only a limited ability to increase in size. It’s the strength-related fast-twitch fibers that have the capacity to grow sufficiently large. And since fast twitch fibers aren’t recruited to any great extent, the chances of your butt beefing up are just about nil.
Bottom Line: If you enjoy using the Stairmaster, go ahead and climb away without worrying that your booty will expand to the size of a city bus. If anything, you’ll ultimately reduce the size of your butt due to its fat-burning effects.
MYTH: Women should train with very light weights so they won’t bulk up.
TRUTH: Go into any gym and you’ll invariably notice women lifting weights that are far too light for their abilities. I’ve actually seen women talking on their cell phones while doing a set of curls or reading magazines while doing leg presses. In most cases, this is a conscious decision due to an inherent fear of looking like a she-man.
The fear, however, is completely unfounded.
Women have very low levels of testosterone — the body’s primary muscle-building hormone. On average, women produce only about 1/20th the amount of testosterone as their male counterparts. This is nature’s way of preserving “femininity.” As a result, it’s difficult for women to add a significant amount of muscular bulk to their frame.
Without an anabolic stimulus, muscle tissue simply has no impetus to grow larger (hypertrophy) and muscular growth remains modest, even at advanced levels of training.
Bottom Line: If your goal is to tone up, then you need to lift weights that sufficiently tax your body. If you don’t challenge your body beyond its present capacity, you simply won’t provide a stimulus for improving body composition. Your goal should be to choose a weight that causes you to struggle on the last few reps. If you’re not struggling, the weight is too light!
MYTH: Lactic acid causes muscle soreness.
TRUTH: Contrary to popular belief, lactic acid is not the bad boy of exercise that some make it out to be. It certainly is not involved in making you sore after a workout.
Truth is any lactic acid that accumulates in muscle is rapidly cleared within an hour or two after exercise. Since delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) doesn’t manifest until about 24 hours after a training session, it therefore follows that lactic acid cannot play a role in its origin.
So what causes DOMS? It’s actually a product of damage to muscle tissue. Intense exercise produces small microtears in the working muscle fibers, primarily as a result of eccentric activity (i.e. lengthening a muscle against tension). These microtears allow calcium to escape from the muscles, disrupting their intracellular balance. Metabolic waste is produced and that interacts with the free nerve endings surrounding the damaged fibers, resulting in localized pain and stiffness.
In response, white blood cells migrate to the site of injury, generating free radicals that further exacerbate the sensation of pain. The discomfort can last for several days or even up to a week, depending on the extent of muscle damage.
Bottom Line: Don’t blame lactic acid buildup for making you sore after a workout. It’s merely a sign that you’ve trained hard. If you experience DOMS, the best thing you can do is to stay active, enhancing blood flow to the affected area. This will expedite nutrients to the muscles, accelerating the rate of their repair and consequently reducing associated discomfort.
Until next time, stay fit!
Brad
Exercise, Fitness
January 18, 2009
I wanted to let everyone know that I’ve added a free, downloadable exercise diary on my site. The diary allows you to track your workouts on a consistent basis and thus be better able to make necessary adjustments to your routine. I highly recommend you keep a journal for optimal results. You can download a copy at the link below (the link is located at the bottom of the page–just scroll down and click on the PDF icon):
http://www.lookgreatnaked.com/services/sculpting.htm
Enjoy and Stay Fit!
Brad
Exercise, Fitness
December 26, 2008
In my last blog I covered a few of the more common fitness myths that pervade society. In the true spirit of the adage, “Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see!” here are three more exercise myths that come up again and again.
MYTH 1: You should perform cardio in your “fat burning zone.”
TRUTH: Step into any gym and you’ll hear personal trainers preaching that the best way to lose weight is by exercising in your “fat burning zone.” While this might sound good in theory, the “fat burning zone” is actually based on faulty interpretation of research showing activities performed at a low intensity (60 to 80 percent of max heart rate) burn a greater percentage of fat calories than higher intensity activities.
Fact is burning a greater percentage of fat doesn’t equate to burning more total fat calories. High-intensity exercise burns more fat calories on an absolute basis than lower intensity activities, making it the preferred choice for those looking to optimize fat loss.
One of the best fat-burning forms of cardio is interval training, where you intersperse periods of high-intensity exercise with periods of low-intensity exercise. This not only maximizes fat burning during the activity, but also increases a phenomenon called excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) — the amount of calories burned once the activity is finished — which helps keep your metabolism elevated long after you’ve stopped working out.
MYTH 2: Sweat is a good indicator of exercise intensity.
TRUTH: You’ve no doubt heard fitness pros utter the phrase, “Ya gotta sweat.” Many people adopt this as an exercise mantra, believing it’s the key to a successful workout. Not!
While sweat tends to be associated with rigorous exercise, it is by no means essential to achieving results. If it was, you’d get buff lounging in a sauna!
Fact is sweat is an indicator that your body temperature is rising, not necessarily that you are exercising at an intense level. Your body regulates its temperature by activating your sweat glands, which then pores as a cooling mechanism.
Rather than focusing on how much you sweat, the best way to monitor exercise intensity is by using a rating of perceived exertion (RPE). This is a subjective scale that estimates how difficult an activity is to perform. I like to keep it simple and use a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being complete inactivity and 10 being all-out effort. If you want to exercise intensely, maintain a level of an 8 or more on the RPE scale.
MYTH 3: If you stop lifting weights, your muscle will turn to fat.
TRUTH: Some people refuse to lift weights for fear that their hard-earned muscle will simply morph into fat if they stop working out. Nonsense! Muscle and fat are two separate and distinct properties that have completely different molecular structures.
Muscle is a protein-based tissue comprised of filaments called actin and myosin. Body fat, on the other hand, consists of stored triglycerides, which are made up of a carbohydrate (glycerol) and three fatty acids. Hence, the possibility of muscle turning into fat (or vice versa) is akin to an apple becoming an orange: There’s simply no mechanism for it to happen.
Bottom line: don’t let the “muscle-to-fat myth” deter you from lifting weights. The only thing that happens when you stop weight training is that you ultimately lose the muscle that you’d developed.
On the plus side, muscle has “memory” so it’s easier to get back that muscle when you re-start your routine!
Stay Fit!
Brad
Exercise, Fitness
December 9, 2008
“Believe none of what you hear and only half of what you see…”
Nowhere are these words of wisdom more apt than in the fitness field. Fact is, anyone can hang a shingle on their door and call themselves a personal trainer or fitness expert. No knowledge of exercise required.The upshot: There are a lot of people out there perpetrating fitness myths that are at best misleading and at worst potentially dangerous. Here are three of the most common.
MYTH 1. You shouldn’t lift weights until you get down to your ideal body weight.
TRUTH: This myth is based on the premise that adding muscle if you’re overweight will make you look even fatter. This has resulted in a legion of people who try to diet their way to fat loss and just focus on cardio. Bad idea.
Fact is weight training helps to promote fat loss. Muscle mass increases your metabolic rate, which directly aids in the burning of fat as fuel. Studies have shown that for each pound of muscle added to your body, you burn an additional 30 to 50 calories a day at rest. Avoid weight training and your body actually cannibalizes its own muscle, suppressing metabolism and ultimately leading to a rebound effect.
Bottom line: If you want to lose weight and keep it off, lift weights! It’s essential to sustaining fat loss and even more important than cardiovascular exercise for long-term weight maintenance.
MYTH 2. Performing abdominal exercises will give you a flat stomach.
TRUTH: Watch late night TV and you’re bound to see an infomercial for some new ab blasting device that claims to whittle away your gut. Wishful thinking.
Fact is the body can’t selectively target fat on any part of your body, including the midsection. The only way to get a flat stomach is to strip away abdominal fat. This is accomplished by having a proper nutritional regimen, performing cardiovascular exercise to help burn calories, and increasing lean muscle to increase metabolism (see Myth 1).
Bottom line: Ab training will help to develop the abdominal muscles, but you’ll never see that “six pack” unless the fat in this area is stripped away.
MYTH 3. You should train your abdominals every day to get a “six pack”.
TRUTH: This fallacy goes hand-in-hand with Myth 2. It is widely believed that the abdominals exercises can and should be trained on a daily basis to achieve maximum results.
The fact is abdominals can be over-trained just like any other muscle group. Muscle tissue is actually broken down during training, and therefore needs adequate rest and recuperation in order to regenerate. When your abs are trained too frequently, the recovery process is shortchanged, resulting in diminished muscular development.
What’s more, your abdominals are worked indirectly while training other muscle groups. They are stabilizers for virtually every movement you perform. In effect, you get an ab workout every time you train with weights!
Bottom line: Considering these facts, you need only train your abs a maximum two or three times per week. Allow at least 48 hours between ab workouts. If you do not see proper results, train more intensely and/or use weighted abdominal exercises. Remember, it’s the quality of training -— not the quantity of training -— that produces results!
Stay Fit!
Brad
Exercise, Fitness
November 18, 2008
Every time I turn around I see articles on the “best” exercise for (fill in the blank). It got me thinking that I never see articles on what not to do.
Poor exercise choices will not only fall short of getting you desired results — like the flexing fellow pictured here — but can ultimately lead to a debilitating injury. It’s a double whammy you want to avoid.
Here are five of the all-time worst exercises along with five super substitutes. Out with the bad, in with the good!
1. Standing Dumbbell Pec Flys
These exercises are performed in many body sculpting classes and I’ve even seen personal trainers use them with their clients. They are supposed to work the chest muscles (i.e. pectorals). The problem: they don’t work the pecs at all! In order for a move to be effective, it must oppose gravity. In this exercise, the motion is horizontal to the ground while gravity is, of course, vertical. All you end up with is a very inefficient way of isometrically work the front delts.
Super Substitute Exercise: All you need to do in order to target the pecs is perform the exercise lying down on a bench, a stability ball, or even the floor. This allows you to work in the direction of gravity and really develop those chest muscles!
2. Sit-Ups
The good-old sit-up is a staple in most gym classes from pre-school to college. It’s also one of the worst exercises for maintaining lower-back health. Forces on the lumbar region go through the roof each time you lift your lower back off the floor to a seated position. Making matters even worse, the hip flexors tend to dominate the movement, taking the focus off the abs. And when hip flexors get overly developed in relation to the lower back muscles, lumbar health is further compromised. End result: chronic lower back pain.
Super Substitute Exercise: The crunch and any of its variations are ideal for targeting the abs without overly stressing the lower back. For added intensity you can perform the move on a stability ball, which really gets those core muscles firing!
3. Behind the Neck Shoulder Presses
People often perform the shoulder press with a barbell or body bar, starting with the bar held behind the neck. Bad idea. This places the shoulder joint in a position where it is simultaneously abducted and externally rotated — a condition that can cause impingement of the rotator cuff and possibly a tear of the associated muscles and tendons. What’s more, the shoulder joint ligaments can become overly stretched with repeated use of the move. Over time, the ligaments can become so loose that surgery is required to reinstate stability, setting back your training efforts for months.
Super Substitute Exercise: Go with a dumbbell press. Dumbbells allow the shoulder to work in its natural arc, providing a safe and effective workout. As an alternative, consider the Arnold Press where you begin with your palms facing your body and then turn them as you press the weights up so that, by the finish of the move, they’re facing away from you.
4. Behind the Neck Lat Pulldowns
Go into any gym in the world and you’ll see people yanking down lat pulldowns behind their neck. This is dangerous on two levels. For one, it places a great deal of stress on the shoulder capsule, which can cause damage to surrounding connective tissue. What’s more, there is a tendency to pull the neck forward during performance, increasing the prospect of injury to the cervical spine and corresponding muscles and ligaments. There is even the danger of vertebral trauma if the bar is pulled down too hard. Ouch!
Super Substitute Exercise: Perform lat pulldowns to the front, where the bar is brought down to your upper chest at the finish of the move. Not only will this spare your shoulder joints, it has been shown to be more effective in building muscle than the behind-the-neck version. If you don’t have access to a gym, you can also perform dumbbell rows to work the back muscles.
5. Alternating Superman
You might not know the name of the exercise, but you’ve probably seen it performed countless times. A person lies face down on the floor and then lifts the right arm and left leg simultaneously, then repeats with opposite side. The problem here is that the legs are much heavier than the arms. When you lift opposing limbs (i.e. right arm/left leg) at the same time, there is a tendency to twist the torso and, correspondingly, place undue torsion on the spine. You end up doing more harm to your back than good.
Super Substitute Exercise: Simply perform The Superman with all limbs together at the same time. Alternatively, you can perform hyperextensions and reverse hyperextensions on a stability ball to really engage the core muscles.
Stay Fit!
Brad
Tags: Worst exercises, best exercises, pec flys, sit-ups, behind the neck press, behind the neck pulldown
Exercise
March 14, 2008
Here’s a great exercise to sculpt the thighs. It’s called the sissy squat, and it is particularly good for developing the upper portion of the thighs, as it targets the rectus femoris—the only quadriceps muscle that crosses the hip joint. Perform the sissy squat as follows:
Begin by taking a shoulder-width stance. Grasp an incline bench with one hand and rise up onto your toes. In one motion, slowly slant your torso back, bend your knees and lower your body downward. Thrust your knees forward as you descend and lean back until your torso is almost parallel to the floor. Do not allow your butt to drop below your torso. Then, reverse direction and rise upward until you reach the starting position.
Want to see an animated demonstration of the sissy squat, then Click Here to visit the exercise database section of my site.
Stay Fit!
Brad
TAGS: thigh exercises, sissy squats, rectus femoris, lower body exercises
Exercise
March 3, 2008
Wouldn’t it be great if there was an exercise regimen that could change the shape of your muscles so they became long and lean? If you listen to the hype being dished by certain fitness pros, you might be inclined to believe that Pilates is just this ticket. Here’s the claim: Lifting weights is bad because it bulks up your muscles, making you tight and stiff. Pilates, on the other hand, supposedly lengthens muscles, giving you a “dancer’s physique” that is willowy and flowing.
Pretty amazing, huh? Think about it. Increasing the length of your muscles would not only make you leaner, but also taller and more statuesque. Heck, sign me up now!
One little problem…the prospect of becoming longer and leaner is a physiologic impossibility. Can’t happen. Fact is, your genetic structure is inherent. Each and every muscle in your body has a predetermined shape predicated on such factors as fiber type composition, tendon insertions, and muscle belly length. You simply cannot alter these properties unless you somehow find a mad scientist who’s invented a new form of gene therapy. Sorry, but that’s reality.
Now this isn’t to say Pilates doesn’t have a place in a workout routine. If integrated into a regimented exercise program, it can help to enhance general fitness levels, building basic strength and flexibility. But don’t fall prey to marketing propaganda. Unfortunately, there are too many people in the fitness field selling the sizzle rather than the steak. This only leads to frustration and disappointment down the road. Exercise, no matter what form, can only improve upon your inherent genetic structure. Understand your limitations and develop your body to its fullest within its genetic potential. With a little hard work and persistence, you’ll be amazed at what you can accomplish.
TAGS: Pilates, long lean muscles, longer muscles, leaner muscles
Exercise
February 24, 2008
As a trainer, not a day goes by where I don’t speak to yet another woman who’s frustrated with her exercise routine. She’ll invariably tell me she’s been training for years without seeing noticeable improvement in her physique. Or she’ll say she did okay at the beginning but suddenly hit a training plateau. Sound familiar?
What derails a woman’s ability to get into shape? After nearly two decades as a trainer, I’ve isolated five workout mistakes as the primary culprits. If you’re not happy with your results and perhaps are thinking of throwing in the towel, take a pause and see if any of the following mistakes apply to your situation. Remember, you can do a lot of things right, but it takes doing only one thing wrong to impair your progress…
Mistake #1: Performing cardio over weight training!
Women tend to gravitate toward cardiovascular exercises like aerobics. They often avoid weight training because they think they’re going to get too bulky or perhaps figure they shouldn’t add muscle until getting down to their ideal body weight.
Reality check: Aerobics do almost nothing to improve muscle tone. Only by lifting weights will you actually firm up your muscles and get that hard body you desire. What’s more, strength training is actually the best activity not only for losing weight, but also for maintaining your ideal body weight over time. Sure, cardio will burn more calories during the activity itself, but lifting weights does something cardio can’t: it improves your body’s ability to burn fat round the clock. Understand that muscle is the most metabolically active tissue in the body. Add five pounds of lean muscle – which any woman can do within several months – and you’ll burn as much as an extra 1,500 calories a week…even while channel-surfing for your favorite TV show!
Mistake #2: Using weights that are too light!
While men tend to lift for ego and go ultra-heavy, all-too-often women go in the opposite direction. Walk into any gym and you’ll see a woman lifting a two-pound weight while reading a magazine or talking on her cell phone. Sadly, she doesn’t realize this is just exercising in futility.
Fact is, in order to tone up you need to challenge your muscles beyond their present capacity. This is exercise 101—the general adaptation syndrome. Take home message: make sure the last few reps are difficult to complete. If you’re not struggling at the end of your set, the weight is too light! And trust me ladies, you won’t end up looking like a she-male by pushing your body a little. It’s simply not going to happen.
Mistake #3. Not having a game plan!
Training is all about strategy. Too many times, I see women walk into a gym not knowing what they want to do that day. So they end up doing a little of this and a little of that, but really not getting a whole lot out of their efforts. It’s like trying to writing a novel without having a plot in mind—you end up with an aimless journey that ultimately goes nowhere.
The important thing is to decide what you want to do before you start your workout, and then follow through on that game plan each time you train. Map out the muscles you want to work and the exercises that you intend to perform. Better yet, write down your routine in an exercise log and take it with you to the gym. Guaranteed it will keep you more focused throughout your session.
Mistake #4: Training too frequently!
Here’s something a lot of people don’t realize: when you lift weights, you’re not developing your muscles, you’re breaking them down. That’s right, each time you workout, tiny microtears form in your muscles as a result of the training process. Once you finish lifting, your body needs rest to recuperate. This is when development takes place. Your body anticipates you’re going to shock it at some point by lifting those obscene weights and reacts by getting stronger and harder.
It should therefore be apparent that training places a major stress on the body. Not only does it tax the muscles themselves but it also taxes your entire neuromuscular system while you’re training. If you train too much, you’ll short circuit the recuperation process and can actually become overtrained where results come to a complete halt. To avoid this malady, allow 48 hours rest in between weight-training sessions. This is the approximate time course of protein synthesis—the mechanism by which your muscles are repaired. Also limit intense cardiovascular activity (such as running or interval training) to no more than five days a week with two full days off.
Mistake #5: Expecting to see immediate results!
Unfortunately, exercise isn’t an instant gratification process. Results happen over time. If you expect to see change in a few days or a week or two, you’re setting yourself up for frustration and destined to end up demotivated.
What can you reasonably expect? If you exercise properly, you’ll begin to see changes in the body in about four weeks. After about 8 to 12 weeks you’ll see fairly significant changes. Keep it up for four to six months and you’ll really start turning heads. The key is to maintain perspective and follow through over time. You will see results if you have the right routine and remain dedicated.
Train hard and stay fit!
Brad
TAGS: workout mistakes, training plateau, exercise mistakes, exercise plateau, workout plateau, tone up, shape up
Exercise
February 10, 2008
It seems every year another fitness “guru” releases a book or video claiming superslow training is the best thing since the invention of the dumbbell. For those of you who’ve never heard of superslow training, it’s basically a form of resistance exercise where each repetition takes about fifteen seconds to complete. According to superslow proponents, the biggest attribute of the technique is that it reduces momentum during training, thereby increasing force to the target muscle. In addition, by reducing momentum, the potential for injury is supposedly decreased. Sounds logical, right? Well, not exactly…
The effects of momentum on training are wildly overstated. Provided that weights are lifted in a controlled fashion, the target muscles are performing the majority of work. Momentum is a non-factor. What’s more, assuming proper technique is utilized, simply slowing down the speed of repetitions will have no effect on reducing injuries. In fact, the injury rate for those who train with proper form in a traditional protocol is almost non-existent. Thus, the science behind the superslow claims simply doesn’t add up.
All things considered, superslow training is suboptimal for achieving maximal muscular development. Here’s why:
First, the weights used during superslow training must be extremely light to compensate for the slow speed of the lift. While this allows the concentric (i.e. positive) portion of the rep to be executed in the desired fashion, it takes away most of the muscular stress on the eccentric (i.e. negative) portion (muscles can handle significantly more weight on eccentric actions than on concentric actions). And since the eccentric component is perhaps the most important aspect in promoting muscular development, results from superslow simply can’t compare to performing reps at a traditional cadence.
What’s more, superslow training is extremely tedious. The excruciatingly slow tempo causes most people to become bored with the routine in a relatively short period of time. This ultimately reduces exercise adherence – and if you don’t train, you won’t get results!
Bottom line: If you’re looking to optimize muscle development, the best advice with respect to rep speed is to follow the ABCs of lifting: always be in control. As long as you lift weights in a controlled fashion, the effects of momentum are negligible. This is not to say that superslow has no place in a routine. It can serve as a good “change of pace” and, when used occasionally, might help to overcome a training plateau. But for the majority of your workouts, a traditional lifting regimen is the way to go.
Stay Fit!
Brad
TAGS: Superslow, speed of repetitions, rep speed, repetition speed, lifting speed, superslow exercise, eccentric repetitions, lifting momentum
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