Month: May 2020

Is your goal to get strong? Is your goal to get healthy? (I would argue that strong and healthy are synonymous—more on that later.) Is your goal to look better? (As Dan John suggested in a T-Nation article¹, you “just want to look strong”…”to look good naked”.)

If the goal is to simply look better, you are missing the point and, probably not having much success. You are probably dieting (restricting caloric intake) too much and exercising wrong. As for “looking good naked”? Good luck with that, if you are like the most of us. (And if you look good naked, you probably look pretty average in clothes since the emphasis has likely been on pursuing the ever-elusive “six-pack”.) Personally, (for men, at least) I think, if the goal is to “look strong”, train the neck. The neck is exposed and, no matter, what is under the clothes, a skinny neck looks weak. Strong, however, looks strong no matter what the body composition.

Strong is healthy. While cardiorespiratory endurance (AKA “cardio”) is important, it is rather easy to gain/maintain and, thus, only moderately affects one’s health. Of course, it boosts one immune system and heart health, but try maintaining your aerobic exercise (e.g., running) with ever-decreasing muscular strength. Strong supports the continuation of the activities of daily living (e.g., work and recreation) much more effectively than cardio. Too much time spent doing aerobic exercise relative to strength training exercise may actually contribute to declining health (albeit at a rate much slower than being sedentary) because muscle weakness leads to declining activity (intensity and duration) and to a vicious cycle of increasing frailty.

An early amassing of skeletal muscle (and corresponding bone mineral density) allows for reserve tissue should age-related loss be inevitable. Additionally, maintenance of muscle mass permits the maintenance of physical activity—and thus active living.

I am not suggesting that everyone take up bodybuilding or powerlifting. I am merely suggesting that we prioritize the right goals. I am suggesting that we give at least some greater emphasis of strength training—no matter our age or abilities.

Hypertrophy training necessitates strength training. To get bigger, one has to get stronger. Hypertrophy training requires volume, and strength adds weight to the volume equation (weight x repetitions x sets = volume). So, even if you “just want to look good naked”, you will want to get stronger.

Stronger actually requires less time commitment than hypertrophy (the bodybuilding kind of hypertrophy—high volume sarcoplasmic hypertrophy training). A simple 3-day-per-week 5×5 program involving the ‘basic 5’ (squat, deadlift, bench, row, and overhead press) can be accomplished in sessions that are shorter than 45 minutes. One need not spend hours at the gym. One need only focus on complex movements and progressive overload.

To old? No such thing. Proper technique suggests appropriate overload and proper movement. Progress from where you are with no regard for how you might compare to others. Remember….

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

¹https://biotest.t-nation.com/articles/the-40-day-program?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=article&fbclid=IwAR2RCGucIvd4-H0bMURdckY-_mvds-PfkRnObaZpNk_lVZDcH0iHqY8v2x0

 

I saw a sponsored post on Facebook that read: “I work out, and I’m pretty fit… So why don’t I look like it…?” It probably went on to offer a program that was advertised to be better than what the reader is currently doing. I don’t know. I didn’t take the bait.

This is a question one might currently be asking him/herself. It may be the programming. More than likely, however, the answer falls to effort, genetics, or both. I often quote Per Olof Åstrand, who said something to the effect of “if you want to be an elite athlete choose you parents wisely.” In other words, if we aren’t looking like we work out, it is our parents’ fault. Well, yes, our genetics impacts our body type and response to exercise—and, to a degree, our genes determine the degree to which we are responders or non-responders to exercise, but our genetics are not an excuse for poor health. I can blame my parents for the fact that I don’t have legs like Tom Platz, but it is my fault if I have “chicken legs”. I will never be (nor could I ever have been) a successful bodybuilder. It is harder for me to have six-pack abs (and harder to maintain, if I ever get them), but my genes don’t curse me to be obese—or even over fat. Results don’t come easy, but they come with effort. It requires proper programming, consistency, diet, and effort. So, no blaming the parents if we don’t look like we work out. If we look like we don’t work out, we are doing something wrong.

It is quite okay to not look like the images on the fitness magazines. Reality check: most of us never will. It is okay to be fit and fat—generally, the pairing of these does not equate to obese or overweight. Fit and fat should fall within the healthy range of body fat. (Those shredded bodybuilders are only their leanest for competitions and photo shoots. If they look lean year-around, it is a combination of good genes and consistency of diet and exercise. Their percent body fat is likely in the low healthy range.) If you want to be lean, you have to make sacrifices. You can’t “work out”, be “pretty fit”, and continue to eat a crappy diet and consume more than moderate alcohol, if you want to be lean. You can look your best “fit” and still enjoy food, but not if you “enjoy” food too much. And you especially can’t look fit if you don’t exercise.

If you are dissatisfied with your appearance, do something about it. Have reasonable expectations, but put in the necessary effort. If the necessary effort is too much, alter your expectations—or your commitment.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

Success with exercise requires both overload (in order for a body system to adapt, it has to be stressed to a level greater than that to which it is accustomed) and progression. As beginner/novice weight lifters, overload and progression are easy—provided the motivation is there. In the beginning, really any program will work if it is properly executed—heck, there will be initial progress even if the program isn’t executed properly. Long-term progress, however, will require consistency and, eventually, modification to the program.

Two very solid programs for beginners are the StrongLifts 5×5 and the Starting Strength 3×5 (sets x repetitions) programs. These are actually quite similar, overall. They begin with basic exercises—e.g., squat deadlift, bench press, row, and overhead press (the ‘basic 5’, I like to call them). As well, the repetition schemes are easy, 5 repetitions is a moderate and comfortable amount for the beginner to gains strength and muscle mass. The 5×5/3×5 scheme is ideal for the beginner to learn technique. The programs start low and progress quite rapidly. The downside, however, is that the rate of progression is not sustainable. StrongLifts 5×5, for example, calls for squatting 3 days a week. Each session, 5 pounds are added (as long as the 5 sets of 5 reps are completed in proper technique). If a true beginner starts with the 45# bar and adds 5# a session, he/she will be squatting 225# in 12 weeks. Theoretically, the lifter would be squatting 435# in six months, if progression continued at this rate. Of course, it doesn’t. Most likely, progression will slow within the first couple of months. There is nothing wrong with this. It just means that it is time to adjust the program.

From a 5×5/3×5 program, it is time to adjust the goals and, thus, the repetitions. Personally, I think the direction taken depends on the goals.

If strength is the goal, a program like Jim Wendler’s 5-3-1 could be of benefit. Alternatively, simply adjusting the repetitions to 3 for working sets might be warranted. It is no necessary to change the exercises, per se, though some variation of the ‘basic 5’ may be warranted. In general, simply changing to a 5×3 program can provide volume while ramping up the intensity to adapt to increasingly heavy loads. The benefit of the 5-3-1 is that it gets the lifter used to lifting near maximal loads. Progress might be a little slower, but Jim Wendler developed the program for long-term progress. One might prefer to practice 3s with a progression similar to the 5×5—i.e., adding weight each session.

If hypertrophy is a goal, then a shift to higher reps—e.g., 10s—might be warranted. For example, a simple 3×10 plan might be effective. Building off of a 5×5 plan, 10s will develop muscle endurance and provide the high volumes necessary for more substantial hypertrophy. Beginning at 10s can be difficult, because fatigue results in a loss of technique which limits mastery. On the foundation of 5x5s, a base-level endurance and technique masterly is available to extend the repetitions with a little more effort.

One concept behind varying the lifting program over time (i.e., periodization) is “phase potentiation”. Phase potentiation refers to the carry-over of training effect from one training cycle to the next. Hypertrophy, for example, provides a foundation upon which to build strength (i.e., increase the 1-RM). In turn, strength gains permits the lifter to lift higher intensities during a high-volume hypertrophy phase.

I found the 5×5/3×5 approach helped me strengthen my technique—particularly in the squat and deadlift. Being 6’5”, squatting a full range of motion (ROM) for 10+ repetitions was always difficult. I usually cheated myself and limited my range to less than a half squat. I followed this block with about 6 months of 5-3-1. My squat numbers went up. Now, 10-repetition full-ROM squats are a “breeze”. Same goes for the other lifts.

If 5×5/3×5 is stalling for you, try something new. Redistribute the volume: 5×5 » 3×10 » 5×3, etc. Over time, find the programs that work well for you and stick to these. Be careful, however, to bounce too quickly from program to program. A few weeks is rarely enough time to determine a program’s effectiveness, and, certainly, training willy-nilly (non-science for not programming the exercise) will be little to no effectiveness.

Pick a program, practice exceptional technique, progress, and allow adequate recovery. Stick with it until you see a plateau or the program block ends, and change to the next training block. Remember that getting fancy with the movements (i.e., following Instagram) is not going to make for long-term gains. Consistency and hard work are what it takes—coupled with proper programming, including nutrition and sleep.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!

“Justice without love may end in brutality, but love without justice must end in banality. Love empowers justice, and justice embodies love. Keep them both, or get neither.”–John Dominic Crossan

I was motivated to write today’s words in response to a friend’s sharing of protestors in the steps of the Michigan Capital armed with guns. This is not an argument against or for the right to bear arms. Instead, it is a realization of just how damaging the polarization of our nation has become. I noted that we are increasingly led by dividers (NOTE: plural). I also believe we have yielded our personal responsibility to community. A people divided cannot stand.

“We the people…” is a statement of Spirituality. It expresses that the collective needs supersede the needs of the individual. Spiritual well-centeredness recognizes that one is not at the center of the Universe.

We are increasingly divided and separated into “us” and “them”. We are neglectful of the median for the sake of the two to three standard deviations—the extremes.

It is time (passed time) to consider the needs of another ahead of our own. I, personally, believe this is what is meant the statement that “religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” (James 1:27, NIV). Every crisis in society seems to polarize us further. This COVID-19 crisis is just one of many and should be a wake-up call.

I am of the opinion that decisions (at all levels) are being made out of fear and self-interests. (This, of course, is not to say that there are not some who genuinely have the interests of others in mind or to negate the actions of those who are putting their lives and livelihoods on the lines for the welfare as a whole. Unfortunately, the contributions of these—the majority—are diminished by the selfish choices of the extremes.) Leadership must be selfless—other-centered. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) recently reminded Congress that “leadership is courage to lead from the front.” Leadership from the front is leadership from the middle. It is selfless. It is other­-serving. Indeed, it requires courage—and it requires sacrifice. It requires the strength of compassion. Above all, it requires wisdom.

Be your best today; be better tomorrow.

Carpe momento!