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

.

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***

5 Random Sunday Thoughts

I'm bored so I'm posting some random thoughts for you guys.

1. Gaining weight isn't always the answer.  A lot of male athletes want to gain weight because they feel it will help their athletic goals, more often than not its because they want to look good with their shirt off.  But that's another day.  All that is fine, but let's look at the problem without such a narrow scope.  Getting stronger is not as good as getting stronger in relation to your body weight.  A guy at 200 that can squat 400, is in my opinion better than a guy at 215 that can squat 400.  It's simple math, our 200 lb athlete, is stronger in relation to his bodyweight than our 215 lb athlete.  This is why I've ditched body building, "look strong" "get big" program, and done more lifting for strength and power.  I don't want to gain weight, as much as I want to get strong as hell at my current 200 lbs.   

2. If gaining weight is still your goal, because some athletes still need to, whether it be football athletes who just need the extra "meat" to pad themselves from falls and running over guys, or basketball players who need some extra weight to finish in the paint, or hold off an opposing big.  (cough cough Franklin, Mcnay).  Eating More is the key.  I've said it before, and I will say it again because for some reason Skinny Bastards don't seem to listen.  EAT MORE, EAT MORE, EAT MORE.  If you aren't gaining weight, then you aren't eating enough.  Plain and simple.  You may be eating more than a normal person, but you aren't a normal person.  You are trying to gain weight and you must eat accordingly.  During days you are playing, you have to eat more than you would on a day off.  If you aren't as active then you can get away with eating less.  The easiest way to figure out how many calories you are eating is to really measure what you eat as much as you can.  Eat more protein, eat more carbs, eat more fats.  Be systematic, and eat as clean as possible because we want to gain lean body mass (muscle), not fat.  Start off eating about 3000 calories a day, after your first week add an extra 500 calories a day every week until you start gaining weight.  We want to eat lean meat, protein shakes, vegetables, rice, beans, etc.  The less processed the food the better.  What do I mean by processed?  Cookies, cake, McDonald's.  You want limit this crap food as much as you can.  I understand sometimes it may be all you can get your hands on, but your 3000 calories shouldn't come from entire days of eating this crap.  So your eating schedule would look like this:

Week 1: 2500 calories/day

Week 2: 3000 calories/day

Week 3: 3500 calories/day and so on.  More than likely you will see weight gain at 3000-3500 calories a day, because your body hasn't taken in this much food in a while if not ever.  Once you start seeing weight gain don't up the calories anymore, it'll start turning into fat, which like I said before we don't want.  So to sum it up, add 500 calories a day each week until you see weight gain, once you see steady weight gain after a week, stay at that calorie count until you stop gaining or you get to your goal weight.  Let me know how it goes, good luck.

3. Finding an extra 500 calories in a day isn't tough, one normal size chicken breast is about 200 calories.  You do the math.

4. Shoot for 1-1.25 grams of protein for every pound of body weight you have.  So for a 200lb person, thats about 200-250 grams of protein a day.  Protein will help you gain weight, lose weight, and help you recover from exercise.  EAT IT.  Protein has about 4 calories/gram.  So if I consume 200 grams of protein, that's 800 calories from protein.  You always want to maximize the amount of protein you eat because it helps you in so many ways.  In general both men and women don't get enough protein, but my guess is with the way I see women eat these days they are a lot worse off.  SO eat a protein shake or something, JESUS!

5. Girls if you want to look like this....Read #4.  And train hard.  No matter how much you cardio bunnies run and how much fat you lose, if you don't have any muscles, you'll just be a skinnier saggier version of your heavier self.  Simple.  If that is what you want more power to you.  Fortunately, some women are figuring this out.  But for those that haven't figured it out.  Lift Weights, Lift Heavy, Lift like "a man".  You won't get big and muscular, you'll look better.  Possibly closer to Jessica Biel, and not like the walking skeleton Madonna (I need to take a puke break).  Jessica Biel, Jennifer Garner, Cindy Crawford, they all train with weights.  Don't be afraid of them, embrace them, you'll look better for it

5. Eat Breakfast.  If so many people have heard eat breakfast, and how good it is for you, EVERYBODY F*ING skips it.  WHY?  What part of eat breakfast don't people understand.  
"I want to lose weight", "I want to gain weight", "I'm tired at noon".  My answer to all these gripes are, EAT Beakfast.  It kick starts your day and your metabolism to keep you awake.  If you are gaining, losing, or maintaining your weight.  Skipping breakfast is not an option.  EVER, so eat it and stop complaining.

PEACE