Programming strength training for the novice

So you walk into the gym and you are thinking to yourself; what should I do now? With the myriad of machines, barbells, dumbbells, and cardio equipment this can be one of the most daunting tasks in the gym. I would like to give you all a few guidelines which can make this whole process easier and hopefully more productive.


The first thing I would like to do is explain the three main types of exercises. If you know the difference between a compound, simple, and core exercise you can skip this paragraph and move onto the next. A compound exercise is simply an exercise that uses multiple joints to complete the action. Examples of this would be a chest press or bench where both the shoulder and elbow come into play as well as the leg press or squat where the hip, knee, and ankle all work through the motion. A simple or an assistance exercise as it sometimes referred to is something like a curl or a leg extension where only one joint is brought into play. A core exercise is an exercise which uses the muscles of the abdomen and lower back in order to move the torso independent from the legs and arms.


What needs to be done now is to differentiate between an advanced, intermediate, and novice athlete as well as how the workouts should differ. An athlete is not classified by the amount of time they have been working out, how much they lift, how far they can run, or how fast they can run the event. An athlete is classified by how fast they can recover from their workouts and make progress. How fast an individual can recover and their athletic potential varies from person to person which is why set times, speed, or levels of strength simply cannot be used. If you take anything from this blog I want you to take the above piece of information as well as the next statement to heart. Very few people ever reach their potential. If you have the drive and the right direction you can be one of those people.


A novice is classified as someone who is able to make gains from workout to workout. This period can range from anywhere between 4 months and 18 months depending on the person. The novice period can even be several years for people who are just exercising and not really actually training with any sort of goal in mind. The longer you are considered to be a novice the better given that you are making progress the whole time. There is a small caveat to this, you will not make gains session to session on a bicep curl or other accessory exercises the muscle groups are much too small and they don’t make dumbbells in half pound increments. I am talking about exercising large muscle groups using compound exercises. The novices work out should consist of a warm-up followed by a 2-5 compound exercises, maybe one accessory or core exercise, and then a cool down. The reason for the large range in how many compound exercises is based on how many days per week you work out and how well you recover. The more days you work out the less exercises should be done. These exercises should be combined to form a full body exercise. Working out the whole body will yield much faster results than splitting the body up from session to session.


Oftentimes novices are best not doing any accessory exercises or worrying about their core. Accessory and core exercises are used to shore up weak spots in different movements and if you are beginning it is usually very difficult to accurately assess what is weak and what is strong. Often doing the compound exercises alone will iron out this problem much faster with less work. One last note I will leave the novices with is that if you start to stall the solution is usually not to do more work, but to do less. More is not always better and most of the time it isn't when it comes to exercise.


Now I know I didn't give a list of exercises that is because this is dependent on what equipment you have available and what you are trying to get strong for. You will want to pick out a few exercises that you can alternate between exercises sessions. If you use the same exercises consistently it is much easier to become efficient in those movements as well as track where you are so that you can continue to push for more progress each workout. This leads me to my new mission statement which is every article I write; I will attempt to dispel a myth about exercise. This week’s myth will be about muscle confusion. Muscle confusion was created by the fitness industry due to a misinterpretation of the concept of periodization, which I will actually write an article about in the future. I am not saying that you should stick with the same exercises forever but sticking to the same set of exercises for a short span of less than 3 weeks can really hamper progress. Strength is not only a physical attribute but also a skill.


The next article will be about aerobic vs. anaerobic exercise for weight loss. Hope everyone is enjoying the articles and is on their way to better bodies and performance. If anything in the articles seems to be contradictory to what you have learned or doesn't make sense to you I would encourage you to leave a message so that I can give further feedback as well provide further background for the information that I am giving.

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Exercise vs. Diet

Recently I was asked to do an article on how food affects your metabolism. I spent hours searching for and reading scientific journals and found out a few things which may make your quest for better health more productive. I hope that this saves all of you a lot of time and provides some direction as to where your efforts should be going.

There is a certain amount of energy required to keep you warm and keep the organs like your heart, liver, and brain up and running. I know some of us have that crazy second cousin who we wonder if their brains are working but the same applies to them as well. This is referred to as basal metabolism. Basal metabolism is regulated by your nervous system.

There are a few studies which show that a calorie restricted diet leads to a down shifting in the nervous system namely the sympathetic nervous system which regulates heart rate and blood pressure. This is the reasons that after a certain amount of dieting people just start spinning their wheels. Well, no worries there is something that you can do to keep the progress going. Exercise has been shown to increase nervous system activity and metabolism. Activity has been shown to represent up to 50 percent of the calories used by active people in comparison to the 15 percent of calories used by sedentary people. The caveat to keep in mind is that working off a 273 calorie Snickers bar takes a lot more work and time than just avoiding eating it in the first place.

Unfortunately, the magic of exercise is somewhat short lived. The increase in metabolism lasts about 48 hours and this depends greatly on the mode of exercise. This means that consistency is the key here. Some exercise such as slow paced aerobic workouts do not have the 2 day period of increased metabolism, it is much shorter. The longest period of increased metabolism were noted in individuals after weight lifting and other anaerobic workouts. I know for some of you this will bring to mind the question; well doesn’t aerobic exercise burn more fat? The short answer is no. This is a misconception that I will address in the near future, so stick around.

I would like to leave you with this. If your dieting stalls and you are still interested in losing weight, cutting more calories may not be the appropriate action. Including more activity into your day is a sure fire way to increase your calorie deficit and keep that metabolism burning like a furnace to help you lose that unwanted fat. Diet and exercise should be used together for the most effective weight loss program; one without the other is half an effort, which usually leads to frustration and disappointment. Best of luck to you in your efforts to live a healthier and happier lifestyle. Keep the questions coming and I will keep the articles coming!

References:

Effect of chronic food restriction on energy balance, thermogenic capacity, and brown-adipose-tissue activity in the rat, Nancy J. Rockwell and Michael J. Stock

Reflex control of the circulation during exercise: chemoreflexes and mechanoreflexes,

L. B. Rowell and D. S. O'Leary

Physical activity – a neat solution to an impending crisis

Alison M. McManus
Institute of Human Performance, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

A Single Bout of Concentric Resistance Exercise Increases Basal Metabolic Rate 48 Hours After Exercise in Healthy 59–77-year-old Men, David L. Williamson and John P. Kirwan

The Real Deal On Flat Abs

The hot question these days is “how can I have tighter abs?” .Well, I am going to dispel some myths that have somehow gained popularity in the fitness industry as well as point you in the right direction towards a rock hard mid-section.

One of the things that drives me crazy that I see on infomercials is the claim that the device, drug, routine, etc. will burn belly fat. There is not a single shred of evidence that abdominal fat or any other fat can be targeted for reduction, believe me I have looked. Now that I have broken every one's heart let’s get to what you can do.

The abdomen is made up of several different muscles with a few distinct purposes namely rotation, holding the spine in place, forced expiration (breathing out) and pulling the upper body towards the hips. So why is this information important in developing flatter abs? Well, I want to encourage you to think about which of these actions will give the appearance of the smallest waist line. If the answer to this question hasn't popped in to your head I want you to hunch forward right now and take a look at your stomach, now sit back up and blow out the air out of your lungs as hard as possible. I think the answer will be quite clear to you at this point. If not, the muscle used to push the air out of your lungs is what you are looking to tighten up.

There is only one muscle responsible for this action. In order to tighten this muscle you will need to put stress on it. The way this is done is by a maneuver called "drawing in" all this means is that you pull your belly button towards your spine. This is similar to sucking in except you do not need to hold your breath to do this. This can be done anywhere, anytime, and needs no equipment to do. There are two different positions this works from; an upright position or from the plank position (seen below) if you are laying down on your back gravity is doing the work for you. Since you cannot do it lying on your back because gravity is doing the work for you the opposite is true in that if you do it from a plank it will be more difficult (which means more effective in most cases). Aim for 30 seconds at a time to start with, if this is too easy increase the time 15 seconds per workout. Once you get to 1:30 add a little weight on your butt. Start light this will make it worlds harder to complete. You can do these 2-4 times at the end of your workout. If these are too difficult try doing them from your knees instead of your toes initially and follow the same sort of progression.

                                        Plank                              

(note: you can have both arms down)

So we have talked about slimming the waist line through exercise, but it does not address actually improving muscle tone as the muscle used for drawing in is a deep muscle and is not visible. The muscle that is responsible for the elusive six pack pulls your torso towards your hips. This can be done one of two ways for maximum effect. You can either do the planks as discussed above which will be killing two birds with one stone or do crunches in addition to these. There is no reason to do full sit-ups because the abdominal muscles are only working until the point when your lower back starts to lift off the floor, a different muscle is responsible for this and for most people does not need the extra stimulation.

The last portion of the mid-section that I will address is the obliques. Not sure why they are called love handles since everyone seems to get rid of them. There are two very effective ways to work your obliques. You can either do Russian twists which is a variation of the sit up (shown below) where you go to about a ninety degree angle and then twist your torso back and forth or what are known as one-handed farmers walks. If the Russian twist is a little too difficult the farmers walks are the best place to start and will actually help with you posture as well. The farmer walk is performed by grabbing a dumbbell in one hand and walking a set distance with it. Pretty simple right? All that needs to be done to vary the intensity is to either grab a larger dumbbell or make the distance further.

One last thing I want to leave you with is that you won't want to do all of these on every workout. This will take away from the other work you can do. No matter how much you strengthen those muscles it will not be a replacement for dropping excess body fat which is best done through compound exercises using the larger muscle groups of the body. To avoid making this too long winded I will not go in to depth on proper progression for these exercises and I will write a future article on progression specifically which should be a quick read which should take your exercise routine to the next level. Hope you enjoyed the article and good luck on your pursuit of a better body and better fitness.

Feel free to post your questions below!

Don't Look Like a Slacker

   
As I work with people and observe others around me I notice that the number one issue people seem to have is poor posture and the pains that go along with it. It seems every day people are spending more time at computers, driving, or watching t.v.. These daily tasks which are becoming more prevalent in today's society wreak havoc on your posture. This breakdown of posture can cause shoulder, lower back, and neck pain. If you are suffering from any of these pains that afflict over 80% of the American population I may have the solution for you.



First we need to understand why these activities do the harm they do. These activities deteriorate posture by shortening the anterior muscles or the muscles of the front of the body and over lengthening the posterior muscles or the muscles of the backside of the body. There are a few things you can do that will improve these muscular dysfunctions.



Stretching is the number one addition to your lifestyle to improve fitness. Flexibility is the most quickly improved aspect of a person's health. In addition to being the easiest to improve, it’s like money it is hard to have too much of. The muscles you will want to focus on stretching are the muscles of the chest and shoulders.



To begin I want you to stand next to a wall raise your arm out to your side with your elbow at a 90 degree angle. Once you are in position place your forearm against the wall and turn away from the wall (as shown in the picture below). You should feel a moderate stretch in your chest, now hold this position for 20-30 seconds and repeat two more times. An easy way to save time on this stretch is to do it in a corner and stretch both sides at the same time.

The next stretch we are going to talk about is called a shoulder dislocation. Relax; you are not actually going to dislocate your shoulder. What you will need for this stretch is a broom handle, pvc pipe, or some sort of dowel. You will grab the stick out towards the end while in front of you and then raise the stick up over your head and lower it back down behind you. The more narrow the spacing of your hands the harder this will be. If unable to do this with your original hand spacing just take a hold a little further out. As your flexibility improves gradually shift your hands in closer each time you do this. These stretches are going to help lengthen the overly tight muscles which are main culprits behind poor posture.

So now that we have covered some stretches for the muscles of the chest and shoulders we should talk a little about strengthening the muscles of the back in order to improve your posture and decrease the risk of injury. I will just be giving a few examples of exercises which can be performed to strengthen these muscles without going into great detail on how to perform them. The muscle I want to first address is your rhomboids this muscle is right between your shoulder blades and can be strengthened through a number of exercises but the number one exercise for this muscle will be a bent over row. You’ll want to make sure you are focusing on pulling your shoulders back like you are pinching someone’s hand between your shoulder blades. A few other great exercises are the front squat, the deadlift, as well as the reverse fly. I hope this article gave you a little insight on how you can improve your posture and potentially eliminate the source of those nagging aches.