Tag Archives: exercise

Take it Easy: Avoid Injury: Get Better Gains

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At the gym the other day I was doing some bench presses. I wasn’t doing anything too heavy and I was pretty confident I’d be fine. My routine was going to be ten reps and five sets at about 60% of my one rep max. I got about five or six reps into my fourth set and things started getting harder. I wanted to finish out the set, so I pushed myself through the grind and around the ninth rep, I felt my should pop out a bit. I had a spotter and had them reset the weight on the bench for me. I didn’t push anymore. I just packed up and went home. I hadn’t made it anywhere near my full time in the gym.

There was one thing I did right that day and one thing I did wrong. I’ll start with what I did wrong. I pushed myself hard enough to actually aggravate my shoulder. It ended up setting me back a bit because it was sore for three or so days afterward.  Because it was my shoulder, it kept me from doing most upper body workouts for those three days. You don’t need to hit that ‘grind’ every time to see gains. You can very easily see progress just going until your breathing or form change. Stop there and avoid injury.

I was talking with a guy at the gym a few months back and he was telling me about his bench pressing story. He is currently going to the gym to rehab an injury to his elbow. I guess he had been pushing about 400 pounds on his one rep max during his normal routine and was trying to push forward to 405 pounds. He hit the grind at 405 and tried to will himself through it. He ended up ripping the tendon in his elbow from the bone, which set him back significantly. He’s now doing 375 pounds on a bench press, more than three years later.

What I did right: I stopped as soon as I knew I had pushed too far. I didn’t keep going on benches or even any other exercises and that ultimately let me get back into the routine much quicker. I just bailed out, went home, and rested myself. By doing that I was able to stay on track and push my quest for fitness forward.

I’m not saying don’t push yourself. That’s not what this is all about. I’m saying don’t push yourself too hard. Know your body, and be patient. You can’t add five pounds to your one rep max every week. Eventually your gains will slow down or even plateau. Embrace that and be careful while you’re doing it. You could cause yourself a few days, or worse end up in the hospital, if you push too hard. This is about being healthy, not about how much weight you can life, so you can show off to your friends.

Have you ever injured yourself while working out? How bad was it? Did you recover? How long did it set you back? I want to hear your story.

Being Sore After a Workout Isn’t Always a Good Thing

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Some people hold up being incredibly sore after a workout as a trophy of hard work and great gains. “No pain. No Gain.” Right….? No. Abusing your body and being sore will just reduce your overall productivity over the next few days. I’m not saying that ‘soreness’ is bad, but being so sore that you can’t move is. It also means that you pushed hard enough to potentially hurt yourself. The only acceptable time to be that sore after a workout is when you’ve just worked a muscle group that you don’t normally work, and still then: you probably pushed too hard.

There are steps you can take to alleviate soreness both through physical awareness and dietary means. Knowing what ‘good’ movement is when you’re exercising means: good form, controlled actions, and knowing when to quit. Dieting right will give your body what it needs for good strong muscles and make sure the right kinds of nutrients are available to repair them when they need it.

What makes muscles sore?

The medical term for muscle soreness is called DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) in medical communities. Basically when you work hard enough to feel your muscles ‘burn’ they are being damaged by micro-tears that over the next few days will be repaired with any spare protein you’ve accumulated. You shouldn’t feel that for about eight hours. If you don’t feel that burn, you won’t grow new muscle and get stronger.

Some people think that stretching and ‘cool-down’ exercises can prevent muscle soreness, but that’s not true. It has no effect on it, because it isn’t caused by muscle contraction or the presence of lactic acid, so neither action should relieve pain unless you’re suffering from cramps. The reason people thought cool-down exercises worked was because it removes excess lactic acid from the muscles, and lactic acid was though to cause the muscle soreness. That has since been disproved though.

What can you do to prevent muscle soreness?

This is really tough to do, especially when you’re trying to bulk up. The first thing you can do is not challenge yourself. This is the easy way out. If you don’t challenge yourself, you won’t gain muscle, which may not be aligned very well with your overall goals. Then next best thing you can do is not push too hard, but challenge yourself enough to cause muscle growth.

There is no proven bullet-proof way to prevent it if you’re working yourself hard, especially when you’re starting a routine or working a new group of muscles. There is anectdotal evidence (not hard evidence) that warming up, gentle stretching, ice baths, and sports massages work. You can also try taking anti-inflammatory medicine. Remember not to work out while your muscles are sore. Give them time to recover.

What are your remedies?

Preventing and curing muscle soreness is elusive like hangover cures. Everyone has different methods that work for them and there isn’t a while lot of scientific data to back any one system up. What do you do?

Interview: Mike T Nelson

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Mike Nelson runs ExtremeHumanPerformance.com and has some great insights on metabolic flexibility and health in general. Here’s an interview I did with him:

Background

Mike is a PHD Candidate for Exercise Science and Kinesiology. His research topic is metabolic flexibility.

He was working for a BA of Natural Science and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, MN. He only got the BA of Natural Science before moving on to Michigan Tech, where he did two years of post graduate work in Mechanical Engineering. He later went to graduate school there and received a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering after 8 years. Most of his classwork was in biomechanics engineering.

From college he went to work for a medical device company, which would pay for additional college courses after he was there a couple years. Mike took classes in exercise physiology because it was interesting to him (even his vacations). He ended up joining their PhD program about 6 years ago in bio-mechanical engineering.

Metabolic Flexibility

Your metabolism should be flexible. Certain people may be flexible or inflexible to certain nutrients like carbohydrates or fats.  When you’re flexible towards carbohydrates, you’re more likely to consume carbohydrates more easily as an energy source.  The same goes for fats. Outside of a lab, you can test your flexibility with carbohydrates by consuming large amounts of carbohydrates and seeing how you feel afterward.  You can do the same with fats.

Great Questions

Minimal Effective Amount: What is the minimal amount you can do to get the maximum effect?

If you’re really healthy, shouldn’t you be able to take more abuse in terms of foods, odors, and germs instead of the other way around?

Working with Pain

Make minor movements in the injured part of your body to where you feel resistance, but not pain.  Pay attention to your range of motion and gains over time. Your brain will learn again over time that moving in that way shouldn’t be painful, and it won’t be. When you start getting a larger range of motion back without pain, start adding speed and weight to the motion to increase the intensity of the movement.

Biofeedback

The most common way of biofeedback during exercise is the range of motion test where you reach for your knees and stop when you feel strain. I’ve done a post on that here. High quality movement will allow your body to move better. Doing exercises that improve your mobility, in general, will perform better and give you better gains.  You should test your range of motion between each exercise every day because your body changes every day.

Personal Records Every Day (#PREveryDay)

There are three metrics affected by exercise.  Those are: volume, density, and intensity. Volume is the total number of pounds you pushed during your workout. Density is just that volume divided by the amount of time you spent doing it. Intensity is the percentage of your one rep maximum. You should strive to set a personal record in your exercises every day.

Measuring Body Fat

The most accurate way to test your body fat is using a Bod Pod. There are other ways to measure your body fat like skin caliper readings, hydrostatic weight, waist/arm measurements, and taking pictures. Taking pictures and waist/arm are the most effective for people trying to casually lose weight or look better because those are more in line with their actual goals anyways.  You’d be surprised at the changes you’ll see in your physique when you actually document it.

Thank You

Thank you for reading or listening, or both. What did you think? If you enjoyed this interview, show your support by subscribing via email or RSS. You can leave a comment below as well.

Officially Weigh in Once a Week Maximum

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Weighing yourself on a weekly basis can give you a good idea of the progress you’re making.  It will help motivate you if you’re making gains or motivate you even more if you didn’t make your mark that week.  Weight also fluctuates naturally over time, so you’ll want to maintain a consistent schedule. Remember too, that you won’t see the results of today’s diet and workout until 4-24 hours later, so if you weigh in ever day, it’s most likely you won’t see today’s results until tomorrow.

Weight Fluctuates Greatly Over Time

Weight can fluctuate throughout the day or week.  Depending on your current weight, it might fluctuate up to five pounds or more.  Things like bowel movements, hydration, and food intake can all affect your overall weight. It can be off-putting to work hard and eat right, only to gain 2 lbs. because you’re more hydrated and feel better than you were last time you weighed in.

Weighing yourself at the same time on the same day each week will remove a lot of the variables mentioned above.  I prefer to weigh myself on Wednesday mornings before my morning shower.  This is before I’ve eaten, but after I’ve gone to the bathroom.  This mean’s I’ll be the lightest I can be, only weighing my natural body weight. I also avoid the unpredictable nature of weekend meals.

By all means, weigh yourself on Sunday evening after you’ve eaten. It’s all about consistency. If you weigh yourself at the same relative time, you’ll be able to get accurate relative results. When selecting the time you weigh yourself try to select the time of week with the least variability in your diet and water intake.  You won’t be doing yourself any favors if you weigh yourself today when you’re lightest and then tomorrow after a big dinner.

Results from Today’s Exercise Won’t be Visible Right Away

Whether you’re trying to gain muscle or lose fat, it doesn’t hop on or jump off as you’re exercising.  Sure it might look like you lose weight after an exercise because you didn’t drink any water and sweated out 3 pounds, but that isn’t real.  It can play the opposite way too.  Maybe you sweat out 1 pound and drink 2.  That means you just gained a pound that won’t stick around.

As your body synthesizes protein during muscle repair and burns fat for energy your weight will change.  That doesn’t happen during the workout for the most part. It happens in the 4-24 hours afterward when you go to the bathroom.  You’ll also want to give your body some time to normalize it’s water balance after a workout. If you’re anything like me, you’ll drink upwards of 60 ounces of water during your routine.

Stay Motivated with Consistent Returns

If you don’t know where your weight really is it’s hard to know if you’re gaining or losing.  Giving yourself consistency during weigh-ins gives you a really good idea of if you’re gaining or losing ground in your efforts.

If you don’t know where you are, it’s hard to feel good about the results.  If you don’t feel good about your results, there is a good chance you’ll slip. When you meet your goals, celebrate in a healthy way, and when you don’t, try harder for next week.  You only have seven days to meet your mark.

TREKDZ76Y2QR

Aerobic Stamina is Key to Your Success

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Stamina is really just a combination of energy, physical endurance, and mental tolerance. Having a large amount of stamina will allow you to work out longer, more often.  If you can exercise more, you’ll see better gains in your fitness – especially as you start to see the diminishing returns losing weight and gaining muscle.

It really plays a large part in most aerobic exercise.  The single biggest muscle in your body that affects stamina is your heart. Have a healthy heart, and you’ll see tremendous gains and feel amazing too. You’ll also be protecting yourself from illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure.

Energy

Consuming energy producing nutrients in the few hours before exercise will boost your energy. Consume foods high in electrolytes and carbohydrates.  A turkey sandwich on whole wheat bread with veggies on the side. Have a nice tall glass of milk with that too.  I prefer skim milk myself.

The best place for electrolytes is not a drink by the way.  Get some real vegetables or something that has a lot of flour in it. Don’t get conned into the Gatoraid thing – although that is also a decent place to get them, it’s not the ONLY place.

Physical Endurance

Your physical endurance is affected things like the health of your heart and muscles. It also includes things like injuries or physical condition. What do I mean by physical condition? Fore example: are you dehydrated? If you’re low on water, you’ll perform miserably and probably quit early.

The only way to improve your physical endurance is to challenge yourself daily and increase the health of your heart and muscles. Observe good habits that keep your body feeling good too, like a healthy diet.

Don’t overdo the physical challenge. If something is just beyond your reach, dial your routine back a bit. If you’re running, run slow (don’t run less, just run slower). If you’re walking at an incline, shallow it out a bit. You will have good days and bad days.  Listen to your body and perform at your maximum for that day.

Mental Tolerance

When exercising, there are two mental roadblocks that rear their head.  They are: boredom and the pain of real gains. The only way to truly overcome them is to attack them head on and use willpower to get through.

You can help stave off boredom a little bit by watching TV or listening to music while you work out, but ultimately that just distracts you and will affect your performance. You know when you’re driving and don’t really remember the last few minutes even though you know you were awake? Go for that kind of autonomy during an aerobic workout.  You might not want to check out during strength training though.

Bringing it Together

Actively work towards increasing the performance of those three facets of your stamina and you’ll see gains.  When you increase your stamina overall, you’ll see an acceleration in your overall fitness gains. Be careful you don’t overdo it and be safe while you’re training. Are there other ways you work to increase your stamina? Let me know in the comments.

Looking Back: 7 Articles from This Blog

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I was just reading over at John is Fit and came across a reference to a post that Darren Rowse of ProBlogger wrote called: 7 Links for Bloggers. Basically you look at 7 posts that you’ve written that fit into 7 categories and talk about them in a summary post. It’s a great way to feature some of your best and popular work.  It’s also a great time to reflect about what you’re writing. So, here’s what I came up with:

The First Post

Getting into a Fit Mindset

This was the first post. I wrote this specific one, because I was starting my journey and I needed to do exactly what I was writing.  You see, this blog isn’t about what I’ve done.  It’s about what I need to do.  I follow every bit of advice that I write here.  I may not excel at it, but I’m trying. I wrote that and followed every word.  Looking back: it worked.

The Post I Enjoyed Writing the Most

Pros and Cons of Vegan, Vegetarian, and Omnivorous Diets

This post really started off as a quest to find out the answer to which diet I should have.  I did a ton of research while I was writing it and I just couldn’t stop writing.  Ultimately I found out that I’d be just fine as an omnivore – as long as I could control myself.  I thought I could and I did.  I’m still going strong. I still find myself referring back to this all the time.

A Post that had Great Discussion

Synthesizing Protein Build Muscle

This blog is fairly new, so discussion is a bit sparse.  Still, this post got two comments and is thus the most discussed.  People were able give me additional information that I could research, and it ultimately lead to a few more post ideas.  I hope to get more discussion in the future, but this is a start!

A Post that had a Title I was Proud of

Weight Loss Isn’t Everything

Not only did I like the title of this post, I really enjoyed reading it.  I wrote it after a female friend of mine was talking about how she lost 27 pounds in 3 weeks.  That’s just not healthy. She was starving herself and didn’t feel very good a lot of the time.  She was getting sick a lot too. Weight loss really isn’t everything. Being fit is everything.

A Post on Someone Else’s Blog I Wish I Had Written First

How to Wake Up Inspired

Think Simple Now is a relatively new blog to me.  I started reading about two months ago.  Inspiration and motivation are really the backbone of being fit and I realize that more and more every day.  This post really just hit home for me.  I wish I had thought of it first, let alone writing it first.  Very, very inspirational words here.

A Post I Wish More People had Read

11 Simple Tips to be More Fit

This post really sums up how to be successful in your fitness goals.  It came during a lull in readership, but I really think its gold.  It sums up everything you need to do, and I always go back to it to stay motivated and on track.  As a matter of fact it also inspired many of the posts that followed it, including one great one that’s coming up soon.

The Most Visited Post Ever

Supplemental Reading: Great Fitness Blogs

This post easily received twice the traffic that the next most visited post, but I think that’s for a few reasons: 1) it’s the latest post and I’ve grown quite a bit since the beginning of this blog, 2) it featured other people who in turn sent their readers here, and 3) it’s really a great post to launch from.  I think a lot of people are recommending it.

Give it a Shot

If you do a 7 link challenge post in the fitness realm, I’ll link it up here.  I’ll also be posting other ones I find.  It’s really a great way to get a cross-section of someone’s blog fairly quickly.  It’s also a blast to write, so hit me up with what you’ve got.

TREKDZ76Y2QR

Supplemental Reading: Great Fitness Blogs

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On my journey to discover more about how to be fit myself, I’ve discovered some great places out there for material.  Being fit encompasses a whole gamut of things, like eating healthy, exercising, and staying motivated.  There are also places with great stories and overall fitness tips from people sharing their journey.

Extreme Human Performance

Mike T Nelson runs a blog that taps into an amazing group of people.  They are concerned with reaching perfection and perpetual progress with muscle building exercise.  Through them I found out about #PREveryDay, which stands for “Personal Records Every Day.” They do a ton of videos on the proper way to do specific exercises, which are extremely useful.  Through this blog I found out biofeedback, which I’ve talked about before. Mike really knows what he’s talking about.

John is Fit

This guy John is documenting his journey to lose weight.  He started at almost 300 pounds and worked is way to just above 260 pounds, but it looks like he’s been slipping a bit lately. I’ve only been following the blog for a short time, but I’m addicted to going back and reading old posts.

I’m really routing for this guy and hoping he can pull through.  Hey John, if you’re reading this, maybe we can help each other get more fit. He’s been sporadic about posting, but it’s been at least once a month since he started and he often posts daily.

FitBuff

Brandon has an amazing story.  He was never overweight, but he’s just been rocking his health since a young age.  Although I wouldn’t consider him an expert, he’s walked the walk.  He’s had some brushes with medical issues that just killed his fitness, but he always bounced back.  His approach is total mind and body fitness, which ultimately leads to success. Brandon posts almost every day with intensely awesome, in depth content.

Josef Brandenburg

Josef runs a great blog and the recipes and food advice are amazing.  He is really knowledgeable about food and health in general. Whenever you’re feeling like you need a pick-me-up for your next meal, hit up his blog first.  He posts every couple days, so there is plenty to absorb out there!

Think Simple Now

75% of good solid fitness is motivation.  The blog was started by Tina Su and is run by her and a slew of other contributors.  The entire blog is about personal motivation in every aspect of life: happiness, finance, health, etc. This is the perfect supplement to your diet and exercise routing because it will bring you success in those and every other aspect of your life as well.  They post one or two times a week, so you won’t have too much information overload either.

Thoughts?

I’m loving the data from “John is Fit” too.  John, you deserve a little extra recognition for that because I’m a geek. What fitness blogs do you read?  I’m really interested in absorbing as much as I can about getting healthier, so throw some info at me.

11 Simple Tips to be More Fit

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Looking back at what’s been done so far, I thought I’d give you ten easy tips that will help you be more fit:

  1. Be in the right mindset. Getting your mental game together will go a long way in improving your physical performance.  If you’re not where you need to be, identify the problem and neutralize it.  You mind can be the biggest hurdle in making yourself better.
  2. Drink enough water. Water is the thing that gives all things life.  It cleanses your system of toxins and allows you to extract energy from your food.  If you’re dehydrated, you’ll feel horrible and perform even worse.
  3. Work out. Really? Exercise is the basis of being fit coupled with a good diet. Get into a routine of working out at least three times a week for at least a half hour.  That’s a minimum.  If you can do more, do it. If you don’t exercise, you’ll never gain muscle and always be low on energy.  Don’t just exercise your body either.  Make sure you exercise your mind daily.
  4. Only eat carbs for energy and don’t over-do it. Having too many carbs will promote fat growth, but having too little will leave you starved for energy during your workouts.  You need carbs to build muscle.
  5. Use biofeedback to get the most out of your workout. Listening to your body is the best way to increase gains when you’re working out. Do range of motion tests before each exercise in your workout and you’ll get maximum results.
  6. Pick a diet that works for you. I’m talking about vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous diets here. That whole South Beach, Atkins, Peanuts Only thing is just a gimmick.  Pick the one that fits your lifestyle and is the easiest for you.  I’m an omnivore myself.
  7. Eat high protein foods before and after you work out to build muscle. Get those proteins three hours before you work out and three to four hours afterward.  You’ll get maximum synthesis then and see excellent gains in muscle growth.  Of course only do it if that’s what you’re going for.
  8. Vary your workout to give tired muscles time to rest. If you give tired muscle groups that time to rest you can keep your heart rate up and give them some R&R at the same time. That will maximize your time to gain ratio.
  9. Don’t just worry about weight loss. Keep your mind on fitness, not weight loss.  Unhealthy weight loss can cause health problems later. Don’t sweat it out or starve it out.  Earn it.
  10. Cut out the alcohol. This is the single easiest way to lose weight and feel better. Alcohol dehydrates you and adds a ton of extra carbs and calories to you body that you don’t need.
  11. Strive for perfection and perpetual progress. This is the most important point.  Striving for daily perfection is what will keep you going forever. This will keep you from slipping back into your old habits. When applied to other facets of your life, you’ll only see positive things.

If you exercise (hah, see what I did there) those ten tips every day you will be well on your way to becoming more fit.  What tips do you have?

Weight Loss Isn’t Everything

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If you’re only on a fitness kick to lose some weight to look good for the summer, then your thinking is deeply flawed.  Being superficial about your health and wellness and doing it to look good will only get you so far. I will admit though: that’s better than not caring at all.

There is so much more to fitness than the finite goal of losing 5 or 10 or 100 pounds.  If you only strive to reach that goal you have a pretty good chance of falling back into old habits and losing everything you gained.  You need to get into the mindset of caring about your body and going beyond visible results.

Building Muscle

Building muscle will actually make you weigh more, but has added long-lasting effects beyond shedding fat.  You will feel better and have more energy, which if you haven’t heard – is a good thing.  Having more muscle also increases your metabolism, allowing you to enjoy those tasty foods you enjoy.  Don’t go overboard though.

Focusing on losing weight only could also come in the form of losing muscle, which you don’t want.  Reducing your body fat should be the only way you lose weight, otherwise you should be gaining weight in the form of muscle growth.  If you’re overweight now, don’t focus on that.  Focus on being healthy and growing muscle.  Everything else will fall into place.

Unhealthy Weight Loss

Losing too much weight too fast can have detrimental effects on your health.  Sweating out pounds or fasting for extended periods of time deprives your body of much needed nutrients and will cause health problems later. I always feel sorry for those Mixed Martial Arts fighters that have to sweat out pounds to meet their weight.  Couldn’t we just promote healthy sports?

Losing 25 pounds in 2 weeks isn’t something to be proud of if you only weight 150 pounds to begin with. A lot of that was probably water or muscle, and now you’re dehydrated and weak, leaving you susceptible to illness or worse. Being emaciated and tired isn’t what life is all about.

Christian Bale in the Machinist - Being emaciated and tired isn't what life is all about.

Let’s face it: if losing weight was all that mattered, we could all just pick up a nice healthy heroine habit and the pounds would just fall off.  Yeah.  That’s good for you.  If you didn’t pick up on the sarcasm there, I’m sorry.

Perfection in Both Mind and Body

Fitness isn’t just about a flat stomach.  It’s about striving for perfection both in mind and body.  Every time you reach your goal, set a new, more ambitious one.  Reach that goal too.  Getting into the mindset of perpetual progress will keep you healthy for years to come and spill over into other facets of your life in a positive way!

Striving for perfection is no easy task, but continuous growth will only lead to great things.  What seems hard now will be a breeze when you look back at it.  Remember when you couldn’t bench press the bar? Now you’re doing 265 pounds?! What?!

Please: tell me what your goals are.  Don’t just limit them to your own health and wellness.  Let’s talk ambitious life goals too!