Last week I completed the first of two months for my ‘preseason’ training. Here is a review.
A friend of mine came across an internet interview with a trainer in the California area. I thought his fitness philosophies were in line with mine, which was good. My idea then was to take the questions from the interview and answer them myself. Here we go…
Before I review this month’s research article, I’d like to wish all of you reading this a Happy New Year. One of my goals for this year is to add 50 blog entries this year. Thankfully I write out my goals so this should be an easy one to track and reach!
Ok, onto this month’s study. Back in April 2010, the Journal of Applied Physiology published a study looking at strength training versus aerobic training to modify risk factors for metabolic syndrome. The authors define metabolic syndrome as such:
Metabolic syndrome is characterized by central obesity, elevated blood pressure, high fasting glucose and triglyceride levels, and low HDL levels.
I’d like to add poor sleep quality to that list as well since more research is coming out associating a link between sleep and metabolic health. But that’s for another entry… The authors took 43 people with these risk factors and split them up into one of 3 groups:
- Aerobic training
- Strength training
- Combination of the two
There was a control group as well. The frequency and duration of the exercise protocol was 3 times a week for 12 weeks. The combo group did aerobic work twice a week and strength once a week. I would have split that up a bit better, but I did not contribute to this study. There were a couple of positive results after 12 weeks. All 3 groups saw a reduced waistline with the strength training group coming out on top. Only the aerobic and combo groups saw an improvement in aerobic power and work efficiency. Strength levels went up in the strength and combo groups.
My theory as to why the strength group did not see any improvement in work efficiency is that the exercises were done on machines and not with free weights, therefore, overall muscle demand was much lower. I’m sure very few subjects got a “cardio” workout from any of the weight machines. No changes were seen in bodyweight, plasma glucose, and HDL (good cholesterol) levels. Another surprise was that subjects were asked to keep up their usual diets. It just goes to show that even ONE small change in diet could have major, positive effects on health and how you look. What if they added a protein shake after their workout, and kept everything else the same? What if they took a survey and gave people Omega-3 supplementation, like fish oil? Only future research will tell.
(Source: jap.physiology.org)
(Source: toreyrobinson)
Today was the last workout in my first of a four phase strength program. This first phase lasted four months with an emphasis on strength development. To review, here are the goals of each phase:
When it comes to exercise, there are fundamental differences between training and “working out”.
While March may seem very far away as of now, training for Spring track has to begin in mid to late summer. Here is the layout I put together for my own training.
Today’s track workout consisted of the following:
- 10m fly 35m
- 10m fly 70m
- 175m
Times set
- Rep 1= 4.68s
- Rep 2= 4.47s
- Rep 3= 4.50s
- Rep 4= 4.47s
- Rep 5= 4.47s
- Rep 6= 9.18s
- Rep 7= 9.13s
- Rep 8= Deferred
- Rep 9= 25.27s
All target times were met, however I’m most pleased with how I can maintain my speed fairly well as the distance increases. For example, my top speed today was 17.5 mph and after the 175 meter run my speed was 15.5 mph. Maybe running the 400 might not be so bad after all…
I’ve decided to log what I ate all day since I have not done so since August of 2009! Here you go…
- Breakfast @ 9 AM
Protein shake- 1 scoop Jarrow Formulas chocolate whey protein, 1 apple, 1 tsp cocoa nibs, 1/4 cup Quaker oats, 1/4 cup walnuts, 8 oz. unsweetened chocolate almond milk, honey, cinnamon, and 1 scoop of lecithin granules
Trader Joe’s low sodium garden juice
Slice of watermelon
3 egg whites
Multivitamin, fish oil, Vitamin D 1000 IU, Trader Joe’s Very Green capsule, 3 mg creatine monohydrate, 1200 mg beta-alanine
- Lunch @ 12:30 PM
1 can Yellowfin tuna
1/4 Avocado
1/2 Bell pepper
Grape tomatoes
Trader Joe’s minestrone soup
1 Peach
1 Cucumber
- Snack 1 @ 2:30 PM
1 cup coffee
1/2 cup 2% Greek yogurt
Blueberries
1200 mg beta-alanine
- Dinner @ 5 PM
2 Angus hamburger patties, 85/15 percent lean
1 slice blue cheese
Mustard
1 cup steamed broccoli
Salad- Tomatoes, onions, olives, spinach, cucumbers, with oil and vinegar
- Snack 2 @ 8:30 PM
Green tea
Strawberries
Bowl of black bean and ground beef chili
100 meter dash time trial earlier this afternoon. I believe my (unofficial) time was around 14.79 which I am happy about. A couple of things of note:
Will work on speed-endurance a little more. I felt like the last 30 m were lagging for me.
Will start to incorporate some weighted vest 10 m runs to improve my 0-10 m acceleration time.
Single leg power and deadlift strength must go up together.
Looks like a summer filled with training…
This March will mark 5 years that I have worked full-time as a personal trainer. If not for this job, I would not have had any chance to put exercise theory into practice. It’s this experience that allows me to get better at coaching, training, etc. Even to this day I still abide by the ‘Always learning, constantly improving’ mantra. In order to give clients the best fitness service possible, I am always scrutinizing my programs, always trying to find a way to achieve the best results possible. However, I am still puzzled as to why some trainers still do things that just don’t make training sense…
I have been wanting to write a post like this for some time now. There seems to be a disconnect between trainers who say one thing, and do another which totally violates their supposed fitness philosophy. Let’s take a look at some examples.
- Don’t call yourself a “functional” trainer when you still have clients perform bicep curls. In all honesty those exercises belong in a bodybuilder land. The only reasons I see those exercises being part of a real fitness program are for assistance work for chinups, or if a client just wants extra arm work for the summer. Isolation exercises are usually a waste of the client’s time, and time equals money.
- Any trainer can write a workout, but not programs. This is an area I feel very passionate about because programs take time to develop, and workouts don’t. A workout is just a random selection of exercises put together by a trainer, usually right before the session. A program has to take into account the assessment results and the client’s goal. The key to writing a program is to work backwards. How much time does the client have? 12 weeks? Then write a 12 week program. Break it down to four 3-week phases. What rep ranges do you want to use? Sets? Exercise order? Exercise selection? Think it through and your client is guaranteed results.
- Time to evolve core training. Gone are the days of having people lay on a stability ball and do some crunches. All the best research done on the spine shows that repeated flexion, AKA the crunch motion, will damage the spinal disks at some point down the road. The only exception to me are straight leg situps which progress the client to performing Turkish getups. Planks and their numerous variations are what we should focus on with core training. Learning to stabilize the torso is the key to a strong core.
- A huge majority of people do not know how to stretch correctly. This may be just my observation, but almost everyone is inflexible from the hips out. Only Yoga instructors and gymnasts have very little hip mobility restrictions. The usual culprits are hip flexors (rectus femoris, TFL), lateral hamstring (biceps femoris), and deep external rotators (obturator, gemelli). I feel that most clients need to know how to stretch these muscles themselves and not have the trainer stretch them out. A few clients do need to be stretched passively in the beginning of a program, but just like strength training, stretching has to be progressed from beginner to advanced.
I am sure there are other areas of training that I have not mentioned here, but I will in another post. The take home message is that fitness is a way of life, something to engage in for as long as you live. Hiring a trainer that understands the process of teaching fitness and exercise programming will go a long way to ensure that you will have positive results.
In light of numerous recommendations by health officials and government health agencies, only about 15 percent of Americans are regularly active. By “regular” I mean at least 3 days a week, exercising between 30-60 minutes a session. Fitness professionals have done an excellent job in keeping that 15 percent active throughout most of their lives. There are numerous clubs and fitness studios across the country for them to workout, take a class, etc. But what about the other 85 percent? Why haven’t they jumped on the exercise bandwagon? My guess is that they either don’t know what to do with working out, have been injured with exercise before, or that exercise just isn’t that important in their lives. Our focus as trainers and group fitness instructors has to be on teaching people not only how to move, but to get them to realize that exercise has to be incorporated into their lives.
About 10 years ago, when I was a student at Rutgers, the main three areas of fitness we focused on was stretching, strength training, and cardiovascular exercise. This made sense at the time, especially when sitting through an exercise physiology class. However these three areas of fitness have to evolve in order to meet the needs of today’s client. For example, a workout from 10 years ago would have been to walk on the treadmill for 5 minutes, jog for 20 minutes, stretch for a few seconds, then do the circuit of machines with the additional set of stomach crunches on the floor. I am sure a lot of people still workout this way. This approach has limited value to getting a sedentary person to change their habits for the better. The reason is that this the default program; no to little changes are made.
Fast forward to today and fitness coaches need to be aware of how to improve a client’s joint mobility and stability and how to implement exercises that correct improper movements. In addition, a separate core training program has to be developed to protect the spine. Studies show that traditional crunches damage the spinal disks over time, so they are removed from the program. Also, strength training on machines does nothing to prepare someone for the body’s movements. This the structure that has the best chance of teaching an individual that fitness should be personalized and is geared towards injury prevention and health improvements.
Yesterday I had the privilege to attend the Perform Better! One day seminar and Coach Mike Boyle was one of the speakers. His topic was ‘Success in the Fitness Industry’ and while there were many other great points made by Coach Boyle, this one stood out a bit more. He mentioned that for trainers who just start out, it is wise to be a “cook” and use programs written out by other more experienced trainers. This is what I did years ago when I became a trainer. Every fitness book/DVD I bought had programs written out and I used them all with clients. This wasn’t a bad thing since the programs I used formed my training philosophy. It was after reading and watching these coaches talk about program design that I went to being a “sous-chef”.
Being a sous-chef is actually a great way to learn more about programs. Not only are they written out for me, but I can now add/delete/modify certain exercises based on the client I am training. I feel a trainer needs a full year of work being a cook before going up to a sous-chef. In my opinion a full year equals about 2000 sessions. I still feel, even after 5 years of being a personal trainer, that I am still a sous-chef. I always refer back to my books, DVDs, etc. and I am still finding out new things.
One of my long-term goals is to hit 10,000 sessions and it looks like I will hit it next fall. I won’t consider myself a “chef” until I achieve this number. I say this because I hope to gain more experience in designing group training programs and keep up my one-on-one sessions. I think a chef has a full understanding of ALL program design components and I am almost there. Am I over-scrutinizing my programs? Maybe, but it’s the path that I’ll continue to take for the rest of my career.
(Source: mboyle1959.wordpress.com)
Muscle Activation the Same During Lifts on a Swiss Ball or Stable Surface
A recent study out of California State University showed that a chest press or shoulder press done at the same amount of weight on either a Swiss ball (the big ball you usually see at gyms) or a bench activated muscles the same way. I have mentioned before that unstable surface training is, to some extent, an overrated and misused training protocol. Many other studies have shown that muscular force is greatest on stable surfaces, like a bench or floor, and not on unstable surfaces, therefore increasing strength and size. In my experience, unstable surface training should come after an initial phase of core and total body strength training. For example, if a client is working for 4-6 sessions on increasing their single leg strength on the floor, then using a balance board might be an option. In this case, the balance board will activate more of the stabilizer muscles during the exercise, while the prime movers have to stay strong. Starting a strengthening program with unstable surfaces could prove counterproductive.
First, I am finally back into the blogosphere after having taking some time to catch up on some continuing education. It feels good to get back to writing!
Second, I had this thought yesterday during my own workout. I have heard coaches and trainers talk about having to get out of one’s comfort zone in order to see continued fitness improvements. While I do agree with this since the overload principle must be followed within a fitness program, there is a spectrum of what this could mean for people who fall under different fitness categories. Let’s see a few examples.
- The cardio junkie
You already know this person- the person who just has to run everyday because they think that their fitness level will drop if they didn’t. First, this person must realize that aerobic fitness is just one of five different fitness parameters. Once they do that, they will see that adding some sort of cross-training isn’t just necessary, but it takes them out of their aerobic comfort zone. For this person, incorporating some basic strength exercises along with higher intensity, lower duration runs will improve endurance. Remember, all aerobic exercise is “cardio” but not all “cardio” is aerobic! Thanks to Rachel Cosgrove for printing that quote.
- The weight lifting addict
This person is the exact opposite of the above mentioned example. More often than not, people who strength train still use outdated bodybuilding style workout splits, having “back and bi” days, or “leg” days. The only compound lifts you would see in their program are the bench press or the leg press. First, getting out of this comfort zone will have to include a functional training approach. I think the “functional training” term is still equated with exercises seen primarily in a rehab setting. This is short-sighted. The term functional training really comes down to training movements, not muscles as coach Vern Gambetta has said. Exercises like front squats, chinups, lunges, and pushups form the foundation. Functional training is not easy when progressed appropriately. Isolation exercises are rarely used, but results are noticed much faster than a bodybuilding approach to exercise. Second, this person will benefit from some sort of long-term workout plan, rather than just going to the gym and doing the same things over and over. For example, there could be a 3 week cycle of changing the set and rep schemes on certain lifts, like the bench press.
- Week one- 4 sets of 8 reps
- Week two- 2 sets of 20 reps
- Week three- 3 sets of 12 reps
Make sure to pick an appropriate weight for the prescribed reps!
Again, alot of people who exercise really get stuck doing what they find comfortable, myself included. But by changing one, maybe two variables in your training, you can be sure to see continued progress.
NP 2010
