Forevernade
2010-09-06, 07:37 PM
Hi everyone,
I am a PT and Fitness Instructor, and Biomedical Engineer. I am fairly new to the Friendly Banter section, but now I am reading through all these threads I am kind of hooked! Everyone is so friendly and supportive, and the discussions are diverse, but are also contextualised by the role-playing environment. :smallsmile:
After reading through Deth Muncher's Trip to a Better Body, I was inspired to write down my philosophies and logics behind how I train people in the gym. I created a new thread here so that I would not be hijacking his log.
If anyone has any questions that they would like to ask in regards to fitness or wellbeing then go right ahead, that is what this thread is for!
Insulin
While weight loss is essentially based on the difference between calories burned and calories taken in, Insulin plays an important role in the macromanagement of calories.
Insulin is what the body uses to channel nutrients (read: glucose) from the blood to the tissues in your body. When the body produces insulin and a muscle has a large supply of blood, then the veins will channel most nutrients into muscle, if there is not a large supply of blood (not exercising) then it will mostly channel nutrients into everything else (read: fat cells). It is therefore important to control when your body makes insulin so that it spikes after you have exercised.
What makes the body produce insulin? Carbohydrates and Lactose (read: milk)
So you want to spike your insulin pre and post workout, so that you avoid putting glucose into fat cells, and you revitalize muscle energy stores.
The Green Faces diet. is an idea, not a strict regime. The idea is to help reduce cravings for carbohydrates by letting you eat as much volume of food as you want without ringing your carb-bell. Then when you no longer crave carbs like sweets, it slowly reintroduces carbs back into your diet. Now you might notice that fruits aren't on the list. Why is that? Fruits have fructose, and fructose is one of the strongest 'cravings' creators the human body can digest. You might feel good about eating fruit for it's vitamins, but until you can control your cravings, they are doing you no favours.
Drink 2L of water a day! Yes 2L! On top of everything else. It will keep you fuller and will help balance out your sodium/potassium concentration levels.
1) If it's a green vegetable, you can eat it.
2) If it had a face, or would've grown up to have a face, you can eat it.
3) If it's not green and didn't have a face, don't eat it
e.g. Week 1 and 2
Column A - The Faces
Bacon
Chicken breast/leg/thigh
Eggs
Ground beef
Lamb
Pork chop/loin
Salmon
Scallop
Shrimp
Steak (any cut)
Tuna
Turkey
Column B - The Greens
Arugala
Asparagus
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Celery
Cucumber
Green beans
Green peas
Green peppers
Kale
Lettuce (any variety)
Okra
Snap peas
Spinach
Zucchini
Just to name a few...
Column V (this list is soy-free :smallsmile:)
Face Replacements for Vegetarians:
Dry edamame nuts
Seitan
Almonds, Walnuts, Flax Meal
Cheese
Eggs (or egg-white powder)
Hemp Protein
Rice Protein
Pea Protein
Pumpkin Seed Flour Protein
Casein
Note: I do not condone the eating of soy products. Soy converts indirectly to estrogens, and estrogens do several bad things: they induce weight gain (for better survival of the baby whilst pregnant), they change women's menstral cycles, and they induce womanly features (physiologically) in men.
As you can see Column V is not very long, because I cannot think of many vegetarian foods which are high in protein, do not spike insulin, and do not have high levels of soy.
If you're still trying to figure out the "One from Column A, one from Column B" method of menu building, here's what a typical day of good eats might look like:
Breakfast:*Big-ass omelet (whole eggs, green pepper, capsicum)
Mid-morning snack:*Canned tuna, celery
Lunch:*Big-ass salad (spinach, Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, cucumber, green peas), grilled chicken
Pre and Peri-Workout: Protein Shake
Dinner:*Plenty of steak, grilled zucchini/asparagus/brocoli/beans/etc
Before bed snack:*A bowl of home made beef Bolognese without the pasta
Week 3+
Reintroduction
After 2 weeks of Green Faces, you should begin to introduce slow digesting carbs and high fibre/carb foods into your diet. Carbs which dawdle around in your system for a while, rather than being burned up or pooped out in a hurry.
Oats e.g. porridge or natural muesli
Multi-grain bread (don't go overboard with this one)
Barley e.g. barley and beef soup
Lentils e.g lentils and indian curry
Basmati or Doongara rice
Flax seeds
Beans
Source: http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-635#green-faces-diet and http://www.precisionnutrition.com/
Making Veges Tasty add a teaspoon of your favourite pesto, and a dash of olive oil, then lightly fry them. You will find eating vegetables much easier now, and the calories did not increase much at all!
Fats are often passed off as bad for you, because they are similar to fat cells, right? Wrong. There are good fats and bad fats. They can be divided into Animal Fats and Plant Fats.
Good = Saturated Plant, Mono Plant, Polyun Plant, Mono Animal, Polyun Animal, Cholestrol (good type)
Bad = Transfats, Saturated Animal, Unknown Fats, Cholestrol (bad type)
For example, a pork rind is an animal saturated fat, and is bad for you, but coconut oil is a plan saturated fat, and is good for you!
Now when is fat bad for you? When your insulin is high! Try to divide your meals into Protein+Fat meals, and Protein+Carb meals. Otherwise you will have fat molecules flushing into your greedy little fat cells.
Milk IS a good post or pre workout drink, chocolate or otherwise. It spikes insulin because it contains lactose.
Protein Good sources of cheap protein are not limited to:
Whey
Eggs
Ground beef
Kangaroo (or local hunted meat)
So you dont have to do the research, they are in order of expensiveness.
It is important to eat a fast digesting protein like whey mid-way though and after workouts. This is because these are the times your body's hormonal profiles are best suited to absorb protein. Insulin also helps channel protein into the muscles, so you want to do this when you have the most blood pumping into your muscle (after a workout!).
Eat slow digesting protein like meat throughout the day, with a natural source of fibre to help slow digestion and increase absorption.
For Vegetarians, good sources of protein are:
Egg-white powder
Hemp Protein
Rice Protein
Pea Protein
Pumpkin Seed Flour Protein
Casein
THE BIG CONCEPT: Carb Loading
So we all agree that carbs are bad for you if you want to loose weight. But they ARE an essential part energy source. Without them you would not be able to move around actively. So what do we do? Instead of spacing carbs out throughout the day, ensuring insulin is high all the time do this: load your muscles with glucose by eating carbs at the end of every work out, or at breakfast. A low GI carb breakfast will kickstart your metabolism and help you burn calories throughout the day. Eating small amounts of 'treat' foods like a sweet, a liter of chocolate milk, a bowl of pasta/rice/starchy vegetable within 30 minutes of a hard workout will mean the insulin will spike at the right time.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm
Why lift heavy weights no matter your goals?
Whether you want to loose fat, gain muscle, or become more fit, you should always lift heavy weights... why?
'"When a biological system experiences a challenge, it modifies itself in order to be able to more easily meet similar challenges in the future."
Now, in my opinion, if you're interested in growing muscle, that statement contains everything you'll ever need to know. Muscle is in fact a biological system, and it grows (or atrophies) in direct proportion to the amount of work it is forced to do. Why should you be interested in muscle growth? Because muscle is one of the greatest fat burning things you can give your body. A body is constantly spending energy to "upkeep" this muscle.
Whatever training system allows you to do the most work per unit of time is what causes muscle to grow in an optimal manner. That is a fact.
"What is work?" And the answer is reflected in the following equation:
Work = Mass * Distance
It makes sense then, that you lift heavy mass, for a long distance, to do lots of work. This is why you should always do the 'full range' when performing any exercise.
Now you might be wondering "why cant I do less weight if I can do it for a longer amount of time, and thus do more work?"
Not all work is the right type of work for building muscle. Your body isn't just made of 'muscle', it is made of 2 different types of muscle: fast-twitch and slow-twitch. Fast muscle is what makes up the largest volume of your make up, up to 80% of your muscular volume! The fibers are twice as big, and thus it burns the most energy by 'just being there'. Slow muscle is what is used when you do cardio or light weight training.
When you force your muscle to move, it will use as little number of fibers as it can to lift the weight. This means when you lift a light weight, only your slow muscles are activated. When you lift heavy weights, both slow AND fast muscles activate, because it needs both of them to lift the weight. That's twice as much muscle tearing (and thus growth) as when you lifted light weights! Just remember no matter how much you use light weights (even if you did 100 reps) you will never activate the fastest twitching muscles, so it is a waste of time.
Training for Size/Fatloss
What causes muscle tearing? The amount of force a muscle produces does proportional damage to the fibers. That is a fact
Force = Mass * Acceleration
Accelerate the weight as fast as you can! A heavy mass, moving fast, requires a large force, but there comes a point where the heavy mass slows down the acceleration so much that the force reduces. So doing slow single reps is not as good as you thought. You should lift weights as heavy as you can without any losing significant amounts of acceleration.
Have I convinced you to lift heavy weights yet? Nope?
According to scientific tests, lifting heavy weights burns more calories AFTER the exercise. Why is this? Because the metabolic response the body has to exercise is directly proportional to the Density of the training.
Work = (F/A) * distance
Density = Work/time
For every rep you do, you are increasing the distance the weight has traveled, so you need to do as many reps as you can within a certain time frame. e.g.6 reps takes 15 seconds
100lb*80%*6reps = 120lb.reps/min
if you can do 110lb*80%*6reps then you have increased your training density by 12lb/min!
Ways to increase your training density:
Add more weight
Do each rep more explosively
Do more reps in the same amount of time
Do the same amount in less time (less rest)
Remember Progression is the most important thing in the gym. If you aren't constantly progressing your training density, then your muscles will not grow!
Sherrington’s Law states that when a muscle contracts, it’s antagonist must relax—otherwise, no movement would occur. Therefore, if the trainee performs a set of leg extensions in between two sets of leg curls, each muscle group recovers faster as a result of the work performed by its antagonist.
Often you will see people doing two separate antagonistic exercises one straight after the other. Why do they do this? It lets them recover the first muscle while they work the second muscle, with the benefit of increasing density:
Lets say you are benching and rowing 100lb for 10 reps each.
(100lb*6)*1min = 600lb/min <- if you did them as separate exercises
(100lb*6 + 100lb*6) = 1200lb/min <- if you did them antagonistically
Antagonistic Pairings:
Biceps/Triceps (pull/push arms)
Quadriceps/Hamstrings (front/back legs)
Pectorals/Latissimus Dorsi (chest/back)
Legs/Shoulders etc
Sources:
1.escalating_density_training
2.anaconda_protocol#3-8211-perfect-rep
3.compound_edt
Strength Training
Ok, so some of you don't want to be 'uuuuge like an orc? You would rather be one of those small wirey kids who can lift a truck, to everyone's surprise? That is always fun!
Before I start I would like everyone to know if you get strong you will not necessarily get big, but it will become easier to become big later down the track.
First, power training is less about training specific muscles, and is more concerned with using the whole body to perform a movement. Rather than trying to get bigger, you will want to teach your body to use all your joints together in harmony. You will have 'big' exercises that cater for a plane of movement, and muscle isolation exercises (accessory exercises) that address the 'weak link' for that plane of movement. The big exercises should be performed using 3-5reps, and the isolation exercises using 5-12reps.
Power training emphasizes different things to density training. Instead of training density, you want to improve power frequency. Power frequency is how often you lift powerfully over a long period of time.
Where as improving density means doing more work one training session, improving frequency means doing more work in one cycle. A cycle can be a week, a fortnight, a month, a year! Doesn't really matter. I find that it is easiest to keep track of strength progression every month.
The most popular 'big' movements are
Vertical Legs:
Squat
Deadlift
Horizontal Upper Body:
Bench Press
Row
Verticle Upper Body:
Power Clean
Pull Up.
Ways you can progress training frequency:
increase the number of sets of an exercise in one session
increase the number of sessions you do in one cycle
increase the weight of an exercise
Variation is another key to progressing in the gym. Adaptation will not occur if your body is used to performing the same things in the gym every week for a year. A last piece of advice is to either follow a periodized program, or keep changing programs every 6-8 weeks, but not less.
Further reading for beginners in density training:
Escalating Density Training by Charles Staley
Further reading for beginners in strength training:
Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki
List of credible training programs to progress toward:
Density:
Bill Star's 5x5
I, Bodybuilder by Christian Thibaedeau
German Volume rewritten by Charles Poliquin
Strength:
Sheiko by Boris Sheiko, translations found on EliteFTS
5/3/1 by Jim Wendler
Westside for Skinny Bastards 3 by Joe DeFranco
Further Reading on program design
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/program_design_101
Ramping
"Every rep and set you do has two specific effects on performance:
•Activation/potentiation: which increases performance potential
• [Work]/Fatigue: which decreases performance potential"
Whenever you read the prescribed number of sets and reps, those sets are the prescribed Fatigue sets. You will lift most optimally if you perform Activation sets beforehand.
"Start with a weight that is roughly 50-60% of your 1RM [Rep Max].
•Perform many sets of the prescribed rep amount, each one being progressively heavier, until you hit the maximum weight you will use.
•You don't have to only use sets of 3 reps, it can be done with any number of reps, although it works best when the rep number is 8 or less.
The last [activation] set is really not a warm-up at all; it's a gateway set that ushers in the first work set. It should feel, in terms of load and execution, very much like another work-set. "
Example: 1RM is 450, so you:
135 x several reps, just to warm-up the muscles and lubricate the joints.
225 x 3, which is called a "feeler set" and essentially burns no energy (45% of max).
Then start the ramp, going up roughly 20-30lbs per set.
300lbs x 3
325lbs x 3
350lbs x 3
375lbs x 3
400lbs x 3
425lbs x 3
450lbs x 3
Using that approach, the 450 will be much easier; in fact, our lifter might even be able to do one more heavier set after that.
Source: http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-639
Random Advice
Random Advice:
Time of day: the experts you train most optimally at least 2 hours after you wake up.
Napping: even if your aim is weight loss, napping is good for you as it reduced drowsiness, so you are more likely to be active in your waking hours, also it reduces cortisol, which means you will be less stressed and will recover muscle much more quickly, and for some people it also suppresses appetite.
Diet Soda: even though there are zero calories, my own experience shows that the artificial sweeteners slow down metabolism, which is counterproductive to fat-loss. There is no conclusive research to support this.
Supplements: the supplement business is crazy with opinions, facts, and exaggeration. A supplement will almost always do what it says it is supposed to do, but with a diminished effect compared to what it is advertised to do, and usually only under certain conditions. Supplement companies do not need to publish the conditions under when it works and when it doesn't.
The most basic supplements that have been around for years, tested and retested for their effects, are proven to work 99.9% of the time:
Whey is just a refined macronutrient: protein with a bit of lactose and some other rubbish. It is good because it increases your protein intake, no fancy chemicals. Cheap flavourless or natural flavoured whey is usually found to be the cheapest source of protein by a large margin (compared to buying eggs, meat or any real food).
Fish Oil is a source of omega 3, which is not found in many foods. Omega 3 helps lubricate your joints, upkeep your vital organs, and is used throughout your entire body. It is a wonder why we don't eat more omega 3 foods... because they are expensive? That's OK though, fish oil tabs are not! Inflammation from training is vital for muscle growth, (fishoil) omega 3's are anti-inflammatory, so take them with your breakfast and another time block furthest away from your workout.
Creatine is found naturally in your muscles, so creatine monohydrate is one of the most popular non-caloric 'energy' supplements. It does not give you a buzz, but instead restores the energy in your muscles. The good news is creatine monohydrate is fairly cheap.
Axillary Supplements:
Gymnema Sylvestre is a plant dubbed "sugar destroyer". It can actually eliminate the ability to taste sugar in your mouth, thereby reducing your cravings for sugar.
Gymnema Sylvestre has shown promising results in safely controlling blood sugar levels in diabetics, while helping with weight loss, hypoglycemia, high cholesterol, anemia and digestion problems.
Cardio and it's place in fat loss
Cardio does not replace lifting heavy weights, but it certainly does compliment it. If you are performing cardio as well as lifting, assume your progress lifting weights will be decelerated.
ACSM recommends that people with a low capacity to perform excercise do shorter exercise sessions of 3-5 minutes several times throughout the day.
As fitness improves, one to two sessions are appropriate before moving to longer 20-30min sessions 3-6 days a week. Like Power training, frequency is oft the most effective when it comes to fat loss. I urge most people to accumulate at least 30 minutes of 'active movement' throughout their day on top of their cardio.
Average inactive people take 2000-4000 steps a day, moderately active people take 5000-7000 steps per day, and active people take approximately 10,000 steps a day! Using a pedometer can increase your awareness of how many steps you take every day. You can find pedometers quite cheaply, and even sometimes for free in cereal packs.
Remember if you are not warm/hot from walking, you aren't walking fast enough! It isn't the sweat that makes you lose weight, but sweat is a good indication for how hard you are working.
Sometimes I come across people who have knee problems, or get shin splints. I recommend to these people swimming, using the cross-trainer, or using a bike instead.
Selecting the right Exercises
"The human body has a limited capacity to adapt to physical stress. As a result, it's important to know which exercises can give you the most 'bang for your buck'. Including too many isolation exercises in hope of covering all bases is a problem. Sure, on paper it makes sense to include exercises for every single muscular structure in the body; however, in real life it just doesn't work. This leads to a lowered capacity to adapt to the training regimen, and as a result, limited progress.
"It's a much better methodology to go for a minimalist approach when training." -CT
List of multi-joint bar-bell exercises:
Deadlift
Squat
Clean
Jerk
Bench Press
Military Press
Chin/Pull up
Row
Turkish Getup
You can replace any of these barbell exercises with dumbells, with the exception of the deadlift.
Ask a Human Movement specialist or a Personal Trainer with a background in either Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Crossfit, or any major sport and they should be able to help guide you through these movements.
Some things to look out for... If the trainer performs a:
1/4 squat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLiR4eo2WAc&feature=related)
Power Rack Curls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLx0lyY3Tcs&feature=related)
Kipping chinups (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAZaHzd6qAY&feature=related)
Diesel Weasel Deadlift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnp5DyrtKY&feature=related)
THEY'RE DOIN IT WRONG!
If you need help, just ask someone who looks like they know! Most people are more friendly than you would expect.
Recovery
If there is a single investment you should make in your recovery, other than maybe buying whey, I recommend buying a foam roller (http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=foam+roller), and a tennis ball. With those two items you can give yourself a massage for almost every muscle in the body.
1. Foam rolling, as done according to the NASM protocols, call for a "scanning" with the foam roller, finding the most extremely tight (read: painful, haha) locus, and pushing as freaking hard on it as possible, as much as pain tolerance will allow, for 30 seconds. An alternate to this is holding the same spot for 90 seconds far below your pain threshold.*
What this does is relaxes the muscle fibers to which that hyper-irritable locus belongs. I don't want to write it all out, but this is accomplished via a reflex mechanism through the Golgi-tendon organs (and theoretically muscle spindles). This is neurological relaxation, not simply due to the mechanics of tenderizing your muscles (although that plays a part) This also means that it will NOT relax the entire muscle, simply the fibers innervated by the same motor unit. For instance, if you foam roll your later calve, it will relax most of the hyper-active fibers, and less so the rest of your calve, leaving you to use them as normal.*
2. As a lot of the best manual therapist (DCs, PTs, some ATCs) will tell you, it is useless doing soft-tissue work (like foam rolling) without following it by active-isolated stretching. If you don't do this, you are teaching your body to set the length and tension of the muscle you just treated to the same "settings" as before. SO, foam roll it, then stretch it.*
3. Then, you need to activate muscles which are underactive synergists. For instance, it is no use foam rolling your ITB/TFL if you don't tell the glute complex to fire, allowing it to relax, neurologically. Because these two muscle groups need to work together to control lateral stability of the hip, dominance of some muscle groups will take over others, such as the glutes turning off and the ITB/TFL turning on.*
4. Next, you need to integrate it into a movement pattern you use, like a squat. This one should be obvious, but whatever muscles you worked on need to be used in the way you want them to in order to be capable of doing it right. They don't have to be prime movers, just be active as stabilizers.*
5. Do all of this BEFORE your workout, so that your motor patterns are correct and your system is integrating the movements correctly before you start.*
RECAP:*
1. Foam roll obviously tight muscles and spots*
2. Stretch the same muscles, and others that need it*
3. Isolate and activate the under-active synergists*
4. integrate it all into a movement that is low resistance and proper in movement pattern*
5. DO it all as a WARMUP, once you get it down quick, you will be done in 15 minutes and breaking a sweat, ready to go heavy*
Got it? Good.
You can also use a tennis ball in the same way. Tape them together to make a double-ball and lie on top of it, to massage your spine. Stand on it and roll it around to massage the bottom of your foot if you have calf or foot pain. etc etc.
I am a PT and Fitness Instructor, and Biomedical Engineer. I am fairly new to the Friendly Banter section, but now I am reading through all these threads I am kind of hooked! Everyone is so friendly and supportive, and the discussions are diverse, but are also contextualised by the role-playing environment. :smallsmile:
After reading through Deth Muncher's Trip to a Better Body, I was inspired to write down my philosophies and logics behind how I train people in the gym. I created a new thread here so that I would not be hijacking his log.
If anyone has any questions that they would like to ask in regards to fitness or wellbeing then go right ahead, that is what this thread is for!
Insulin
While weight loss is essentially based on the difference between calories burned and calories taken in, Insulin plays an important role in the macromanagement of calories.
Insulin is what the body uses to channel nutrients (read: glucose) from the blood to the tissues in your body. When the body produces insulin and a muscle has a large supply of blood, then the veins will channel most nutrients into muscle, if there is not a large supply of blood (not exercising) then it will mostly channel nutrients into everything else (read: fat cells). It is therefore important to control when your body makes insulin so that it spikes after you have exercised.
What makes the body produce insulin? Carbohydrates and Lactose (read: milk)
So you want to spike your insulin pre and post workout, so that you avoid putting glucose into fat cells, and you revitalize muscle energy stores.
The Green Faces diet. is an idea, not a strict regime. The idea is to help reduce cravings for carbohydrates by letting you eat as much volume of food as you want without ringing your carb-bell. Then when you no longer crave carbs like sweets, it slowly reintroduces carbs back into your diet. Now you might notice that fruits aren't on the list. Why is that? Fruits have fructose, and fructose is one of the strongest 'cravings' creators the human body can digest. You might feel good about eating fruit for it's vitamins, but until you can control your cravings, they are doing you no favours.
Drink 2L of water a day! Yes 2L! On top of everything else. It will keep you fuller and will help balance out your sodium/potassium concentration levels.
1) If it's a green vegetable, you can eat it.
2) If it had a face, or would've grown up to have a face, you can eat it.
3) If it's not green and didn't have a face, don't eat it
e.g. Week 1 and 2
Column A - The Faces
Bacon
Chicken breast/leg/thigh
Eggs
Ground beef
Lamb
Pork chop/loin
Salmon
Scallop
Shrimp
Steak (any cut)
Tuna
Turkey
Column B - The Greens
Arugala
Asparagus
Broccoli
Brussels sprouts
Celery
Cucumber
Green beans
Green peas
Green peppers
Kale
Lettuce (any variety)
Okra
Snap peas
Spinach
Zucchini
Just to name a few...
Column V (this list is soy-free :smallsmile:)
Face Replacements for Vegetarians:
Dry edamame nuts
Seitan
Almonds, Walnuts, Flax Meal
Cheese
Eggs (or egg-white powder)
Hemp Protein
Rice Protein
Pea Protein
Pumpkin Seed Flour Protein
Casein
Note: I do not condone the eating of soy products. Soy converts indirectly to estrogens, and estrogens do several bad things: they induce weight gain (for better survival of the baby whilst pregnant), they change women's menstral cycles, and they induce womanly features (physiologically) in men.
As you can see Column V is not very long, because I cannot think of many vegetarian foods which are high in protein, do not spike insulin, and do not have high levels of soy.
If you're still trying to figure out the "One from Column A, one from Column B" method of menu building, here's what a typical day of good eats might look like:
Breakfast:*Big-ass omelet (whole eggs, green pepper, capsicum)
Mid-morning snack:*Canned tuna, celery
Lunch:*Big-ass salad (spinach, Romaine lettuce, Boston lettuce, cucumber, green peas), grilled chicken
Pre and Peri-Workout: Protein Shake
Dinner:*Plenty of steak, grilled zucchini/asparagus/brocoli/beans/etc
Before bed snack:*A bowl of home made beef Bolognese without the pasta
Week 3+
Reintroduction
After 2 weeks of Green Faces, you should begin to introduce slow digesting carbs and high fibre/carb foods into your diet. Carbs which dawdle around in your system for a while, rather than being burned up or pooped out in a hurry.
Oats e.g. porridge or natural muesli
Multi-grain bread (don't go overboard with this one)
Barley e.g. barley and beef soup
Lentils e.g lentils and indian curry
Basmati or Doongara rice
Flax seeds
Beans
Source: http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-635#green-faces-diet and http://www.precisionnutrition.com/
Making Veges Tasty add a teaspoon of your favourite pesto, and a dash of olive oil, then lightly fry them. You will find eating vegetables much easier now, and the calories did not increase much at all!
Fats are often passed off as bad for you, because they are similar to fat cells, right? Wrong. There are good fats and bad fats. They can be divided into Animal Fats and Plant Fats.
Good = Saturated Plant, Mono Plant, Polyun Plant, Mono Animal, Polyun Animal, Cholestrol (good type)
Bad = Transfats, Saturated Animal, Unknown Fats, Cholestrol (bad type)
For example, a pork rind is an animal saturated fat, and is bad for you, but coconut oil is a plan saturated fat, and is good for you!
Now when is fat bad for you? When your insulin is high! Try to divide your meals into Protein+Fat meals, and Protein+Carb meals. Otherwise you will have fat molecules flushing into your greedy little fat cells.
Milk IS a good post or pre workout drink, chocolate or otherwise. It spikes insulin because it contains lactose.
Protein Good sources of cheap protein are not limited to:
Whey
Eggs
Ground beef
Kangaroo (or local hunted meat)
So you dont have to do the research, they are in order of expensiveness.
It is important to eat a fast digesting protein like whey mid-way though and after workouts. This is because these are the times your body's hormonal profiles are best suited to absorb protein. Insulin also helps channel protein into the muscles, so you want to do this when you have the most blood pumping into your muscle (after a workout!).
Eat slow digesting protein like meat throughout the day, with a natural source of fibre to help slow digestion and increase absorption.
For Vegetarians, good sources of protein are:
Egg-white powder
Hemp Protein
Rice Protein
Pea Protein
Pumpkin Seed Flour Protein
Casein
THE BIG CONCEPT: Carb Loading
So we all agree that carbs are bad for you if you want to loose weight. But they ARE an essential part energy source. Without them you would not be able to move around actively. So what do we do? Instead of spacing carbs out throughout the day, ensuring insulin is high all the time do this: load your muscles with glucose by eating carbs at the end of every work out, or at breakfast. A low GI carb breakfast will kickstart your metabolism and help you burn calories throughout the day. Eating small amounts of 'treat' foods like a sweet, a liter of chocolate milk, a bowl of pasta/rice/starchy vegetable within 30 minutes of a hard workout will mean the insulin will spike at the right time.
7 Habits of Highly Effective Nutritional Programs
http://www.johnberardi.com/articles/nutrition/7habits.htm
Why lift heavy weights no matter your goals?
Whether you want to loose fat, gain muscle, or become more fit, you should always lift heavy weights... why?
'"When a biological system experiences a challenge, it modifies itself in order to be able to more easily meet similar challenges in the future."
Now, in my opinion, if you're interested in growing muscle, that statement contains everything you'll ever need to know. Muscle is in fact a biological system, and it grows (or atrophies) in direct proportion to the amount of work it is forced to do. Why should you be interested in muscle growth? Because muscle is one of the greatest fat burning things you can give your body. A body is constantly spending energy to "upkeep" this muscle.
Whatever training system allows you to do the most work per unit of time is what causes muscle to grow in an optimal manner. That is a fact.
"What is work?" And the answer is reflected in the following equation:
Work = Mass * Distance
It makes sense then, that you lift heavy mass, for a long distance, to do lots of work. This is why you should always do the 'full range' when performing any exercise.
Now you might be wondering "why cant I do less weight if I can do it for a longer amount of time, and thus do more work?"
Not all work is the right type of work for building muscle. Your body isn't just made of 'muscle', it is made of 2 different types of muscle: fast-twitch and slow-twitch. Fast muscle is what makes up the largest volume of your make up, up to 80% of your muscular volume! The fibers are twice as big, and thus it burns the most energy by 'just being there'. Slow muscle is what is used when you do cardio or light weight training.
When you force your muscle to move, it will use as little number of fibers as it can to lift the weight. This means when you lift a light weight, only your slow muscles are activated. When you lift heavy weights, both slow AND fast muscles activate, because it needs both of them to lift the weight. That's twice as much muscle tearing (and thus growth) as when you lifted light weights! Just remember no matter how much you use light weights (even if you did 100 reps) you will never activate the fastest twitching muscles, so it is a waste of time.
Training for Size/Fatloss
What causes muscle tearing? The amount of force a muscle produces does proportional damage to the fibers. That is a fact
Force = Mass * Acceleration
Accelerate the weight as fast as you can! A heavy mass, moving fast, requires a large force, but there comes a point where the heavy mass slows down the acceleration so much that the force reduces. So doing slow single reps is not as good as you thought. You should lift weights as heavy as you can without any losing significant amounts of acceleration.
Have I convinced you to lift heavy weights yet? Nope?
According to scientific tests, lifting heavy weights burns more calories AFTER the exercise. Why is this? Because the metabolic response the body has to exercise is directly proportional to the Density of the training.
Work = (F/A) * distance
Density = Work/time
For every rep you do, you are increasing the distance the weight has traveled, so you need to do as many reps as you can within a certain time frame. e.g.6 reps takes 15 seconds
100lb*80%*6reps = 120lb.reps/min
if you can do 110lb*80%*6reps then you have increased your training density by 12lb/min!
Ways to increase your training density:
Add more weight
Do each rep more explosively
Do more reps in the same amount of time
Do the same amount in less time (less rest)
Remember Progression is the most important thing in the gym. If you aren't constantly progressing your training density, then your muscles will not grow!
Sherrington’s Law states that when a muscle contracts, it’s antagonist must relax—otherwise, no movement would occur. Therefore, if the trainee performs a set of leg extensions in between two sets of leg curls, each muscle group recovers faster as a result of the work performed by its antagonist.
Often you will see people doing two separate antagonistic exercises one straight after the other. Why do they do this? It lets them recover the first muscle while they work the second muscle, with the benefit of increasing density:
Lets say you are benching and rowing 100lb for 10 reps each.
(100lb*6)*1min = 600lb/min <- if you did them as separate exercises
(100lb*6 + 100lb*6) = 1200lb/min <- if you did them antagonistically
Antagonistic Pairings:
Biceps/Triceps (pull/push arms)
Quadriceps/Hamstrings (front/back legs)
Pectorals/Latissimus Dorsi (chest/back)
Legs/Shoulders etc
Sources:
1.escalating_density_training
2.anaconda_protocol#3-8211-perfect-rep
3.compound_edt
Strength Training
Ok, so some of you don't want to be 'uuuuge like an orc? You would rather be one of those small wirey kids who can lift a truck, to everyone's surprise? That is always fun!
Before I start I would like everyone to know if you get strong you will not necessarily get big, but it will become easier to become big later down the track.
First, power training is less about training specific muscles, and is more concerned with using the whole body to perform a movement. Rather than trying to get bigger, you will want to teach your body to use all your joints together in harmony. You will have 'big' exercises that cater for a plane of movement, and muscle isolation exercises (accessory exercises) that address the 'weak link' for that plane of movement. The big exercises should be performed using 3-5reps, and the isolation exercises using 5-12reps.
Power training emphasizes different things to density training. Instead of training density, you want to improve power frequency. Power frequency is how often you lift powerfully over a long period of time.
Where as improving density means doing more work one training session, improving frequency means doing more work in one cycle. A cycle can be a week, a fortnight, a month, a year! Doesn't really matter. I find that it is easiest to keep track of strength progression every month.
The most popular 'big' movements are
Vertical Legs:
Squat
Deadlift
Horizontal Upper Body:
Bench Press
Row
Verticle Upper Body:
Power Clean
Pull Up.
Ways you can progress training frequency:
increase the number of sets of an exercise in one session
increase the number of sessions you do in one cycle
increase the weight of an exercise
Variation is another key to progressing in the gym. Adaptation will not occur if your body is used to performing the same things in the gym every week for a year. A last piece of advice is to either follow a periodized program, or keep changing programs every 6-8 weeks, but not less.
Further reading for beginners in density training:
Escalating Density Training by Charles Staley
Further reading for beginners in strength training:
Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe
http://startingstrength.wikia.com/wiki/Starting_Strength_Wiki
List of credible training programs to progress toward:
Density:
Bill Star's 5x5
I, Bodybuilder by Christian Thibaedeau
German Volume rewritten by Charles Poliquin
Strength:
Sheiko by Boris Sheiko, translations found on EliteFTS
5/3/1 by Jim Wendler
Westside for Skinny Bastards 3 by Joe DeFranco
Further Reading on program design
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/sports_body_training_performance/program_design_101
Ramping
"Every rep and set you do has two specific effects on performance:
•Activation/potentiation: which increases performance potential
• [Work]/Fatigue: which decreases performance potential"
Whenever you read the prescribed number of sets and reps, those sets are the prescribed Fatigue sets. You will lift most optimally if you perform Activation sets beforehand.
"Start with a weight that is roughly 50-60% of your 1RM [Rep Max].
•Perform many sets of the prescribed rep amount, each one being progressively heavier, until you hit the maximum weight you will use.
•You don't have to only use sets of 3 reps, it can be done with any number of reps, although it works best when the rep number is 8 or less.
The last [activation] set is really not a warm-up at all; it's a gateway set that ushers in the first work set. It should feel, in terms of load and execution, very much like another work-set. "
Example: 1RM is 450, so you:
135 x several reps, just to warm-up the muscles and lubricate the joints.
225 x 3, which is called a "feeler set" and essentially burns no energy (45% of max).
Then start the ramp, going up roughly 20-30lbs per set.
300lbs x 3
325lbs x 3
350lbs x 3
375lbs x 3
400lbs x 3
425lbs x 3
450lbs x 3
Using that approach, the 450 will be much easier; in fact, our lifter might even be able to do one more heavier set after that.
Source: http://www.t-nation.com/testosterone-magazine-639
Random Advice
Random Advice:
Time of day: the experts you train most optimally at least 2 hours after you wake up.
Napping: even if your aim is weight loss, napping is good for you as it reduced drowsiness, so you are more likely to be active in your waking hours, also it reduces cortisol, which means you will be less stressed and will recover muscle much more quickly, and for some people it also suppresses appetite.
Diet Soda: even though there are zero calories, my own experience shows that the artificial sweeteners slow down metabolism, which is counterproductive to fat-loss. There is no conclusive research to support this.
Supplements: the supplement business is crazy with opinions, facts, and exaggeration. A supplement will almost always do what it says it is supposed to do, but with a diminished effect compared to what it is advertised to do, and usually only under certain conditions. Supplement companies do not need to publish the conditions under when it works and when it doesn't.
The most basic supplements that have been around for years, tested and retested for their effects, are proven to work 99.9% of the time:
Whey is just a refined macronutrient: protein with a bit of lactose and some other rubbish. It is good because it increases your protein intake, no fancy chemicals. Cheap flavourless or natural flavoured whey is usually found to be the cheapest source of protein by a large margin (compared to buying eggs, meat or any real food).
Fish Oil is a source of omega 3, which is not found in many foods. Omega 3 helps lubricate your joints, upkeep your vital organs, and is used throughout your entire body. It is a wonder why we don't eat more omega 3 foods... because they are expensive? That's OK though, fish oil tabs are not! Inflammation from training is vital for muscle growth, (fishoil) omega 3's are anti-inflammatory, so take them with your breakfast and another time block furthest away from your workout.
Creatine is found naturally in your muscles, so creatine monohydrate is one of the most popular non-caloric 'energy' supplements. It does not give you a buzz, but instead restores the energy in your muscles. The good news is creatine monohydrate is fairly cheap.
Axillary Supplements:
Gymnema Sylvestre is a plant dubbed "sugar destroyer". It can actually eliminate the ability to taste sugar in your mouth, thereby reducing your cravings for sugar.
Gymnema Sylvestre has shown promising results in safely controlling blood sugar levels in diabetics, while helping with weight loss, hypoglycemia, high cholesterol, anemia and digestion problems.
Cardio and it's place in fat loss
Cardio does not replace lifting heavy weights, but it certainly does compliment it. If you are performing cardio as well as lifting, assume your progress lifting weights will be decelerated.
ACSM recommends that people with a low capacity to perform excercise do shorter exercise sessions of 3-5 minutes several times throughout the day.
As fitness improves, one to two sessions are appropriate before moving to longer 20-30min sessions 3-6 days a week. Like Power training, frequency is oft the most effective when it comes to fat loss. I urge most people to accumulate at least 30 minutes of 'active movement' throughout their day on top of their cardio.
Average inactive people take 2000-4000 steps a day, moderately active people take 5000-7000 steps per day, and active people take approximately 10,000 steps a day! Using a pedometer can increase your awareness of how many steps you take every day. You can find pedometers quite cheaply, and even sometimes for free in cereal packs.
Remember if you are not warm/hot from walking, you aren't walking fast enough! It isn't the sweat that makes you lose weight, but sweat is a good indication for how hard you are working.
Sometimes I come across people who have knee problems, or get shin splints. I recommend to these people swimming, using the cross-trainer, or using a bike instead.
Selecting the right Exercises
"The human body has a limited capacity to adapt to physical stress. As a result, it's important to know which exercises can give you the most 'bang for your buck'. Including too many isolation exercises in hope of covering all bases is a problem. Sure, on paper it makes sense to include exercises for every single muscular structure in the body; however, in real life it just doesn't work. This leads to a lowered capacity to adapt to the training regimen, and as a result, limited progress.
"It's a much better methodology to go for a minimalist approach when training." -CT
List of multi-joint bar-bell exercises:
Deadlift
Squat
Clean
Jerk
Bench Press
Military Press
Chin/Pull up
Row
Turkish Getup
You can replace any of these barbell exercises with dumbells, with the exception of the deadlift.
Ask a Human Movement specialist or a Personal Trainer with a background in either Olympic Lifting, Powerlifting, Crossfit, or any major sport and they should be able to help guide you through these movements.
Some things to look out for... If the trainer performs a:
1/4 squat (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLiR4eo2WAc&feature=related)
Power Rack Curls (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLx0lyY3Tcs&feature=related)
Kipping chinups (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAZaHzd6qAY&feature=related)
Diesel Weasel Deadlift (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFnp5DyrtKY&feature=related)
THEY'RE DOIN IT WRONG!
If you need help, just ask someone who looks like they know! Most people are more friendly than you would expect.
Recovery
If there is a single investment you should make in your recovery, other than maybe buying whey, I recommend buying a foam roller (http://www.lmgtfy.com/?q=foam+roller), and a tennis ball. With those two items you can give yourself a massage for almost every muscle in the body.
1. Foam rolling, as done according to the NASM protocols, call for a "scanning" with the foam roller, finding the most extremely tight (read: painful, haha) locus, and pushing as freaking hard on it as possible, as much as pain tolerance will allow, for 30 seconds. An alternate to this is holding the same spot for 90 seconds far below your pain threshold.*
What this does is relaxes the muscle fibers to which that hyper-irritable locus belongs. I don't want to write it all out, but this is accomplished via a reflex mechanism through the Golgi-tendon organs (and theoretically muscle spindles). This is neurological relaxation, not simply due to the mechanics of tenderizing your muscles (although that plays a part) This also means that it will NOT relax the entire muscle, simply the fibers innervated by the same motor unit. For instance, if you foam roll your later calve, it will relax most of the hyper-active fibers, and less so the rest of your calve, leaving you to use them as normal.*
2. As a lot of the best manual therapist (DCs, PTs, some ATCs) will tell you, it is useless doing soft-tissue work (like foam rolling) without following it by active-isolated stretching. If you don't do this, you are teaching your body to set the length and tension of the muscle you just treated to the same "settings" as before. SO, foam roll it, then stretch it.*
3. Then, you need to activate muscles which are underactive synergists. For instance, it is no use foam rolling your ITB/TFL if you don't tell the glute complex to fire, allowing it to relax, neurologically. Because these two muscle groups need to work together to control lateral stability of the hip, dominance of some muscle groups will take over others, such as the glutes turning off and the ITB/TFL turning on.*
4. Next, you need to integrate it into a movement pattern you use, like a squat. This one should be obvious, but whatever muscles you worked on need to be used in the way you want them to in order to be capable of doing it right. They don't have to be prime movers, just be active as stabilizers.*
5. Do all of this BEFORE your workout, so that your motor patterns are correct and your system is integrating the movements correctly before you start.*
RECAP:*
1. Foam roll obviously tight muscles and spots*
2. Stretch the same muscles, and others that need it*
3. Isolate and activate the under-active synergists*
4. integrate it all into a movement that is low resistance and proper in movement pattern*
5. DO it all as a WARMUP, once you get it down quick, you will be done in 15 minutes and breaking a sweat, ready to go heavy*
Got it? Good.
You can also use a tennis ball in the same way. Tape them together to make a double-ball and lie on top of it, to massage your spine. Stand on it and roll it around to massage the bottom of your foot if you have calf or foot pain. etc etc.