Effective Exercise

Hi,

Would you like to make your exercise routine more effective?

If you are like most people, once you get into an exercise routine, you tend to stay with it.

But, your body is very good at adapting.  And what was once an effective exercise – because it was new to your body – has become “ho hum”. 

Actually, it is not the exercise itself.  It is the fact that your body has adapted to the exercise and the weight you are using. 

You can change this by adding more reps, changing the rep speed and adding more weight.  Doing these things will keep your body stimulated. 

Here is something else you can try. 

If you are used to doing total body workouts this will be easy for you.

If you are used to specializing on one or two body parts per workout, then you might have a bit more trouble with this from a mental point of view.  Your body will like it though.

You will be doing three exercises in a tri set and you will be exercising to momentary failure.

This is important.  Momentary failure is when you can’t do one more full rep.

Total failure is when you can’t budge your body or the weight.  You will reach momentary failure for a full rep, but you continue moving the weight for maybe a quarter rep, and eighth rep, and so on until you can’t move the rep even 1/4 of an inch. 

Your exercise routine will be to do a lower body exercise.  Then you do an upper body exercise.  Finally, you do an whole body exercise. 

Of course there will always be some overlap.  For example, squats affect your whole body even though they are considered a lower body exercise.

Here is an example:

So let’s start with squats.  If you are at a gym, use a barbell or dumbbells.  If you are at home, you can use dumbbells or just your body weight.  Do these until you can’t do a full squat any more.

Then immediately move to doing shoulder presses.  Do as many as you can.  You can use a barbell or dumbbells. 

The key is to have everything set up so you can move from exercise to exercise without any wasted time in between.

Finally, let’s do a whole body exercise.  You could do a barbell clean and jerk.   This is simply putting the barbell on the ground, squatting down to pick it up and as you are standing bring the barbell to your shoulders.  Then do a small bend at the knees and push the barbell over your head.  Then set it back down again. 

You can also do this with dumbbells.  Again do as many as you can.

If you have never done this before, then please, please start with extra light weight. 

I will be working on doing a lot more videos in the near future so that you can see the exact exercises I am talking about. 

When you are done with 1 round, then do two more rounds.  After the third round is finished, get on an exercise bike and pedal as fast as you can for 30-60 seconds. 

Then get a drink of water. 

You can then do another round with three different exercises.  Follow with the exercise bike for 30-60 seconds. 

If you are a gluten for punishment do another round with three more exercises.

Three rounds of three should only take you about 15 minutes. 

Try this and you will be burning more body fat, building endurance, and getting stronger all in one shot. 

Your exercise routine will be more effective. 

Thanks 

Hi,

We continue your fitness training posts today talking about continuing your program for life.

We mentioned Tai Chi, walking, Yoga and their is biking, hiking, swimming and dancing to mention a few more.

Once you have picked a program that you feel you can stick to for life this is great.  You will find that you will make more progress and keep that progress easily throughout your life. 

You won’t have to worry about losing and gaining weight again and again.  You won’t have to worry about being fit or having to “get in shape” every again. 

What happens if your circumstances change?

This could be because you find you don’t really like what you chose originally.  It could be because you decide you want to get stronger or that you would like to have 6 pack abs. 

It could also be because of an accident or injury that forces your to stop doing some of your exercises.

This happened to me. 

I loved to do squats.   At my strongest I was able to do 365 for 3 full reps and I did 425 for 3 partials. 

But, my back didn’t like it.  Along with some of the other exercises I was doing. 

Eventually I had to have back surgery.  Did that change my workout routine.  Sure did.

When I started back in the gym again I had to use weights an 8 year old girl could lift. 

And I haven’t done any squats with weight since. 

The main point is that I did go back to the gym and I have set new personal bests in the leg press just a few weeks ago (1125 pounds) and dumbbell curls (75 pounds each). 

So what is the take away here.  Life changes and you will probably have to make adjustments in your fitness training. 

That is okay.  Just remember to keep doing something.  I have made weight lifting part of my routine for life.  And getting stronger is one of my overall goals. 

You get to decide what it is that you want to do.  Maybe getting stronger isn’t one of your goals.  Maybe flexibilty and movement are more important to you.  Then maybe Yoga is just what you need. 

What ever it is, just make sure that it is something that you want to do for the rest of your life.  And that it is something you can do for the rest of your life.

Now maybe I won’t always be able to get stronger as I get into my 90′s and 100′s.  But, that is okay.  I will still be strong and still be fit. 

Hopefully your fitness training will help your reach and keep those goals throughout life.

Thanks 

Hi,

In the previous 2 posts on how to pick your fitness goals, we went from writing down what you want and why you want it.

Then we did some analysis to determine how to get what you want.

Once you know how to get it then you actually have to do it.

I recommended that you do it for 36 days.  For example, I mentioned that if you say you are going to do weight training 3 times per week then you would do this for 5 weeks + 1 day. 

This does two things.  It lets you analyze whether the weight training program is working for you.

The second is it instills a habit.

Now I know common wisdom is that it takes 21 days to establish a habit.  I never found that to hold for me.

And I couldn’t find any research supporting the 21 days.

I did find an interesting study about astronauts though.

This study was developed to help astronauts get oriented to being in a weightless environment.

Since the astronauts are upside down a lot in a weightless environment, the experiment was to wear glasses that inverted the images they saw. 

They had to keep these glasses on 24/7. 

Imagine you were looking through these glasses and everything was upside down.  That is what they had to go through.

Well, a funny thing happend to all the astronauts in the study.  On days 34-36 the images reinverted. 

So even though they were still wearing the glasses that inverted the images, the brain reinverted the images by the 36th day. 

So now the brain took the inverted image and made it the original image again. 

This is an actual physiological change. 

So putting my crazy brain to work, it just seemed to me that it would make sense that for a habit to take effect (an actual physiological change) it would take 36 days.

Now this is just my brain talking.  I have no proof of this and I know of no studies that have used this experiment and habits.

But, it makes sense to me. 

Anyhow, give it a try.

Write down what you want.  Write down why you want it.  Find the common elements in those things you want.

Take those things and figure out how to get them.  Write down your plan on how to get them.  Then do them.

Continue doing them for 36 days.  If it is working for you and it is helping your get what you want, then you now have a good habit.

If it is not working for you, you now know that and can try something else, or tweak your program a bit. 

This is one of the areas a coach can help you.  For example, if you are doing an exercise wrong, a coach can see this and help you correct it before you get hurt. 

One of my goals is to be able to offer a coaching program online.  It is something I am working on. 

So when you need help to pick your fitness goals, just stay tuned to this blog.

Thanks

Hi,

In our last post we learned how to pick your fitness goals.

You write down what you want and why.  Your why’s will lead you to the real things that you want. 

After you have these 1 or 2 things that are most important to you, then you will need to move on to the next step. 

That is what do you do next?

Okay, so let’s go back to the example we used in the last post.  There were 3 – you will lose body fat.

Now you have to ask yourself some questions and then write down a concrete plan based upon the answers you get.

So, how do you go about losing body fat?

Obviously there are several ways to do this.  In the interests of keeping this post shorter than the encyclopedia let’s just use weight training as an answer.

You can lose body fat by engaging in weight training.  Now ask yourself how can you get started with weight training?

You could read a book on weight lifting and follow along.  

You could look on You Tube at weight lifting videos and follow along.

You could go to the gym and hire a personal trainer and start training.  Or you could just get a friend to help you get started and start training with them.

Notice that each answer has 2 parts.  The first is what to do.  The second is to do it.

Why did I bold the above.  Because that is the key to succeeding in anything in life.

If you just research what to do, that is okay, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. 

You only succeed when you actually do something.  In this case it is weight lifting. 

You have to actually do weight lifting.  This will help you achieve your overall goal of losing body fat. 

There is no other way.  You can’t just read or research about weight lifting.  You can’t pay someone to do it for you.  You can’t ask your friends to do it for you. 

You have to do it.  You use your research (the what to do) to figure out how often you need to weight lift.  How to do the exercises.  How much weight to lift.

Then you put your plan together with all the above criteria.  Then you go do it. 

For example your action plan might be that you weight train 3 days a week.  You pick a weight you can lift for 10 times and train with that to start.  You ask someone (trainer, friend, video, book, pictures) to find out how to do the exercises. 

Then you do it.  Your overall goal is to lose body fat.  You do that with weight lifting.  You learn how and plan how to do the weight lifting.

Then all that is left is to do it. 

Now here is another key.  Whatever your weight lifting routine is, do it for 36 days.  That means if you decide to weight lift for 3 days a week, you do this for at least 36 days (5 weeks = 35 days + 1 day into the 6th week).

This does 2 things.  It gives you enough time to evaluate whether weight lifting is helping you lose body fat.  (Evaluation is another thing the goal gurus forgot.)

The second thing the 36 days does we will talk about in the next post on how to pick your fitness goals. 

Thanks

Hi,

I have gotten a few questions about steroid use on comments section and thought I would address the issue.

First of all, the use of steroids in the US is illegal.  Now whether that is right or wrong is a matter of opinion and there are valid points on both sides.

But, bottom line they are illegal. 

Do they work?  Yes, they work. 

Most people will never get to the size of professional bodybuilders without some kind of extra help. 

And many bodybuilders (and other athletes) still use them.  That is why many bodybuilding events have drug testing. 

Before, there were bodybuilding events.  Now there are natural or drug free bodybuilding events and other non tested bodybuilding events. 

Steroid use will help you get bigger and sometimes stronger.  But, for the average person trying to become a bodybuilder they will never reach the size of some of these men and women champions.

You need the genetics before anything else.  Then you need a diet specific for gaining weight.  Then you need a great training program based on building muscle.

Then you need to use supplements to build muscle and to burn body fat.  Then you need the steroids.

All of that to reach the pinnacle of success in the bodybuilding world.

Most people won’t do what it takes to reach that level.  That is why there are only a few champions.  It takes a lot of hard work – with or without the steroids.

But, there is another reason that we need to talk about steroid use and training.

To become as fit as you can be involves dedication and your involvment.  Your involvement in your training.  Your involvement in your nutriton.  Your involvement in your health.

In other words, just having bigger muscles just means you have big muscles.  It does not mean you are extra strong, that you are fit, that your are healthy or that you even live a healthy lifestyle.

All of that is necessary to get the benefits of fitness and health. 

Steroids will not help you get healthier or fitter. 

They will help you get bigger.  But, there is a problem here also. 

You can use weight training to get bigger.  There are many people with big muscles in the gym and most do not use steroids. 

There are many professional bodybuilders who do not use steroids.  And they have huge muscles and very little body fat. 

Even they admit that steroid use is tempting.  Because it is a shortcut to getting bigger. 

But, is it as satisfying?   I don’t think so. 

To me, working and accomplishing something worthwhile is what life is all about. 

To be healthy and fit is a worthwhile goal for me.  That means I have to exercise.  That means I have to eat right.  That means I have to do a lot of things to make sure I stay on the path.

And occasionally I will have a cheat meal.  That is okay.  But, occasionally is not 2-3 times a week. 

I do this to make sure I stay healthy and fit my whole life. 

Do I have big muscles?   No.  As some of you have commented I am a “skinny noob”. 

You should have seen me when I was much younger.  I look like Arnold now, compared to then. 

But, I am very fit and in better shape than most people that go to the gyms. 

Bottom line, if your goal is to become a professional bodybuilder, then steroid use is something that you will have to deal with.

For everyone else, stay on the healthy and fit path and forget about them.  And don’t worry, you can build bigger muscles if you use the right training programs and eat correctly. 

Keep tuned for more on this.

Thanks

Hi,

How much time in the gym?  Are you one of those people that likes to go to the gym to socialize? 

If so then 1-2 hours will be your usual time there. 

Now, I like to be efficient and I am usually very busy.  So I need to spend as little time in the gym as possible. 

That might sound sort of weird coming from someone who has a blog on fitness and health.

But, really, spending too much time in the gym becomes counter productive.

After about 45 minutes your body starts rebelling.  You might not notice it, but your body starts making changes.  Your hormone levels start rebelling.

Growth hormone levels go down.  Cortisol – or the so called muscle destroyer hormone – goes up. 

If you haven’t been drinking enough water – and most people don’t – you become dehydrated.  Just a 5-10% loss in water has a very negative effect on your energy levels. 

A loss in your water levels usually means your percentage of sodium goes up.  This can lead to muscle cramps.

I could go on and on, but you get the picture.

So how much time should you be in the gym?  Long enough to accomplish your goals.

And no, this is not going to be a treatise on goal writing.  Goals can be great, but they are not necessary.

However, you should have a general idea of what you are trying to accomplish when you go to the gym.

And it doesn’t have to be the same thing every time.  For example, you might want to concentrate on burning fat at one workout. 

This workout might consist of some intense aerobics or several body weight circuit exercises.

Another time you might want to build strength.  You can use your body weight for this, but to get really strong you will need to use weights. 

Many researchers believe that you don’t even need aerobics and that weight lifting will burn much more body fat. 

There is a slight problem with this though.  Go to any gym in the country and you will those with really big muscles.  Most of them will have really big guts also. 

In order to get into the best shape of your life, you need to mix it up.  You do need to have strong muscles.  You do need to have a strong heart.  You do need to have some flexibility.  You do need core strength.  You do need to have endurance.  You do need to affect your hormones.  You do need…. Ok, there I am going on and on again. 

You can incorporate all of the above in one workout, but that will take more time.  For me, that is too much time.

I like to break it down into smaller segments.  Right now, I do an upper body workout for strength.  I do a lower body workout for strength.

I do a total body workout for fitness and to burn fat.  I do 2 intense cardio sessions a week.  I do one longer low intensity cardio session per week. 

Each one is on a different day.  The only session that goes over 30 minutes is leg strength day.  That is because of changing the plates between sets.  That takes time. 

Sometimes I will do a weight day and cardio day on the same day. 

Most of the sessions are 20 minutes. 

Now we come to the point of what can you do in 20 minutes that will make how much time in the gym productive?

Stay tuned.

Can you keep your metabolism high throughout life?

If you are like most people you believe that your metabolism declines with age. 

That means you are not burning the same number of calories per day as you did when you were younger.

But, is it the fact that your metabolism is declining because of your increasing age or is there something else at work here.

There is no doubt that most peoples metabolism does decrease as they age. 

I would tend to guess that while age is a factor, your lifestyle is much more of a factor. 

When you are younger you are on the go all the time.  You got to work or to school and then you go out with your friends. 

Even if the going out is not exercise related, it is usually doing something.  Some kind of movement.

It could be shopping (lots of walking, trying on clothes, etc.), dancing at a club or going to the beach or pool (swimming).

Even if it is just going to a movie, you go home, shower, get dressed, drive to the theater, walk to the ticket booth, watch the movie, walk back to the car and drive home.

And let’s not forget about some extra fooling around.  Fooling around is a great calorie burner and most younger people do it a lot more often.

Now fast forward 10 years.  You have a sit down job, you drive back and forth to work, you sit at the computer or watch tv when you get home and then you go to bed.

Your family becomes your life and going out on the town usually is a once a month thing if it ever happens any more.  Going out almost always means getting something to eat. 

Even if you get some fooling around, it isn’t as often and usually not as long – got to get up early in the morning. 

So maybe, it isn;t so much your age that causes a decrease in your metabolism as it is a decrease in your activity levels.

Even if you do get to the gym a few times a week it isn’t enough.

Doing 2-3 20-30 minute exercise sessions does not counter balance hours and hours of sitting every week.

It is a good start, but you need more.  And by more, I don’t just mean add an extra session.  You need different types of exercise every day.  Doing even 4-5 moderate to low intensity exercise for even 60 minutes a day is not going to do it.

You need to push your self.  Add some high intensity bursts of exercise during one or two of your sessions. 

Add some extra walking every day.  Simple things like parking down the street from your work and using the stairs instead of the elevator will burn a ton of extra calories over a years period of time. 

So keep your metabolism working with you and fight the old age myths.

Next post we’ll look at some other simple ways to keep your metabolism fired up!

woman shoulder press

Here are a couple of more ways to use negative rep training when you are training by yourself.

The first one you can only use if you are using dumbbells. You have to have one hand free and you simply use your free hand to help on the positive part of the exercise.

Then let go with the free hand and do the negative rep by itself. Then use your free hand to help with the positive again. Do this for 4-5 reps.

Another way is to decrease the weight and take even longer to lower the weight. Instead of 6 seconds, take 12-15 seconds to lower the weight. This one really burns.

Another way is to do what I call pulsing. When you are finished with your normal reps, then do 1/2 reps until you can’t do them any longer.

Then do 1/4 reps, 1/8th reps, 1/16th reps. Do this until you can’t budge the weights at all.

This really increases the time under tension both on the positive and negative sides. This will really amp up the muscle trauma.

And remember, more muscle trauma = more muscle fiber tears which means more muscle repair activity which takes more energy which burns more fat.

Try this negative rep training techniques and watch your muscles grow and your fat burning increase. Just don’t over do them, otherwise you will get in an overtrained condition and you won’t get any positive benefits out of the negative training.

woman shoulder press

How can you do negative rep training by yourself? Last post we talked about negative rep training with a partner.

While that will help you to use heavier weights, sometimes it can create a safety issue.

You can avoid the safety issues and still get the benefits of negative reps.

Remember that part of the benefits of using negative reps comes from the increased time under tension.

So let’s see how we can use this info.

Start out with the normal weight you would use. Again, let’s use the example of bicep curls with dumbbells.

Do your normal amount of sets less 1 set. On this last set, decrease the weight 10%. Then curl the weight quickly – but under control – for the positive portion. For the negative try to take 6-7 seconds on the way down.

Now here is a little trick to get even more from the exercise.

Most people would just stop the weight and then do the next rep.

That is okay, but there is a better way that will explode your results even more.

When you get almost to the bottom of the negative portion, stop for just a split second. Then go all the way to the bottom and start your positive motion again.

It is almost like a twitch at the bottom. You stop just before the bottom, lower to the bottom and immediately come back up again for the next positive rep. (I promise I will do a video of this soon.)

This little action activates what is called the myotatic reflex. This has been shown to activate even more growth and more muscle fibers being activated.

More activated muscle fibers equals more damage equals more strength, more repair and more fat burning.

Just remember that you are keeping the weight under your control during this whole process.

Do 4-5 of these negative reps to finish off the set. Do not try to do more even if you feel that you can.

Negative reps take more out of you even if it doesn’t feel like it at first. So don’t overdo it and only use them every few workouts at the most.

One more negative rep training technique in the next post.

woman cable pull

Yesterday’s post talked about how negative rep training can help you build more strength and burn body fat at the same time.

However, this is a very stressful type of training and should not be used all the time. Once every few workouts is plenty.

There are several ways to do negative training. One of them is to have a partner help you.

You would use your partner if you are going to increase the weight to do your negatives. You can usually use more weight on a negative than on a positive.

The problem is how do you get into the positive position so that you can start doing the negative.

The answer is use a partner. The partner helps your do the positive portion and then lets you do the negative on your own.

The concept is okay, it is the execution that is the problem. Most people don’t have a partner that can help them all the time.

So they rely on the nearest person. Well, the nearest person can actually hurt more than help if they don’t know what they are doing.

And even if they don’t hurt you, they might help too much. They might do most of the lifting on the positive part of the rep. This negates much of the muscle building and time under tension effect.

The other problem is, when you first start using negatives, you don’t know how much weight to use. If you use too heavy a weight you could strain yourself or hurt yourself when the partner lets you do the negative by yourself.

A good rule of thumb, is increase the weight around 10%. If you can easily handle the negative part of that, then go up another 5%.

Keep going up in small increments until you can barely lower the weight for 6 seconds. Only do 2-3 reps of negatives. I usually do them on my last set and on a Friday. That gives me a couple of days off to recuperate.

Remember, negative rep training is way more stressful and you need time to recover from it.

Next post will include a couple of different ways to do negatives if you don’t have a partner to help you.