5 More Random Thoughts

Simplified Weight Loss-

After sitting in a certification orientation all day today I realized that weight loss may be more simple than I recently considered it to be. At the end of the day, if calories that you eat are lower than calories that you burn you will lose weight. I am by no means telling people who barely eat to eat even less, but just be conscience of the amount of calories you take in on a daily basis. If you have eaten 2000 calories in the past and you eat 1500 calories for a few weeks you will lose weight. Even if that 1500 calories is big macs (3 big macs is about 1700 calories), you would still lose weight. However, chances are with the big macs your bodyfat % would go up making you look even fatter than you did before you started dieting. So in the end eating quality food, and less calories is your best route to the body you want. However, if you have been on calorie restriction, or low calorie diets for a long time, in my research I have found its best to eat more, as well as more often to give yourself the energy to complete your lifting programs

Why 4-6 meals a day

I am sure a lot of people have heard eat 6 small meals a day as opposed to 3 large meals when dieting. I think a lot of people follow it blindly without really knowing the reason why. This diet advice to eat small more frequent meals is another very simple change to your diet to maintain your daily energy, and help you lose bodyfat. Your body adapts to what you do on a daily basis very quickly. Our ancestors were built to survive long periods of time between meals, since it was so hard to get food in the stone age. Their bodies adapted by storing body fat which gave their bodies energy in between bouts of taking down a wooly mammoth for food. Because this is engrained in our DNA our bodies do the same thing, so when we eat 3 large meals a day, in between those meals our brain tells our body to store bodyfat because it doesn't "know" when it is going to eat again. When nutritionists tell us to eat small meals every few hours, we are telling our brain that, "it's ok you are going to eat again soon". Which our brain then tells our body that it doesn't have to store the bodyfat, like our cavemen cousins did.

Machine Exercises-

I am a "functional training" type of guy. I believe that most exercises should be done standing, you should be doing heavy lifting, etc. I also believe that free weights are far superior to machine exercises. I have believed that for a while now. I say that they are far superior, however when I look at the big picture not everyone I will train in my lifetime is going to be an athlete, young, healthy, or a lifting veteran. So in some situations, I think machines will be something that I use for people who have just started training, or just getting back into lifting again. I know in the future I may regret saying it, but it may be something that I use in the future just to give my clients a training effect while I slowly teach them the free weight exercises that I will use to take them to the next level. Never, will I tell an athlete to use a machine unless it is a row, or face pull like exercises. So for the athletes that may read this, disregard this message.

Progressive Overload-

Change up your workout/cardio/diet routine. I said above your body gets used to what you do, and eventually what you are doing stops working. If it ever worked in the first place! So depending on your goals you should change your routine up a bit. You can change it up in a few simple ways. You can do more sets and reps, but the real change will come when you add weight, or change your rest periods. So if you have been doing 2 sets of 15 reps of an exercise for a set, with 40 pounds. Next time you workout try dropping the weight to 8-10 reps, and lift 50-60 pounds for the sets. The stronger you are, the faster your metabolism will be from the new muscle you have added, the more weight you will lose/gain. By changing your rest periods from 2 minutes to 1 minute, you will be doing more work in a smaller amount of time, again increasing your metabolism. This is why complexes, and supersets are becoming popular in today's weight training programs.

Crunches Suck-

Your lumbar spine (lower back) was made to be in a stable, neutral position. Not in flexion. Our core was built to stablize our lumbar spine, and maintain its neutral position. When many get back pain, trainers that really know what they are doing will never have them do crunches because it puts even more pressure on their lower backs. So when people first thought of doing crunches to get a six pack they had it all wrong. Crunches shorten our Rectus Abdominus (abs), pulling us into a hunchback position, and putting more undue stress on our lower backs

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Not attractive.

Because our core was built to stabilize our spine, which will reduce our back pain, replace your cruches, with planks.

***Images courtesy of Nick Tumminello, and Geico.com***