Train For Life

I’ve had a pretty good last couple of days in the gym.  This week’s workouts have been fairly intense (for me), they consisted of some heavy deadlifting, partial incline presses in the power rack, heavy walking lunges, weighted pullups, etc.  I didn’t have any workout planned for today but I felt like doing something so i deemed it my ”cardio” day.  The last thing I wanted to do was hop on a treadmill and run sprints, and the bike wasn’t looking too appealing  for interval work either.  The gym was empty so I took advantage of the space but that is not to say you need a ton of space.  These types of workouts can be done in one spot, you just have to get a little creative. I felt like I had to move and kind of give all my joints an “active recovery” workout as well as get my heart beating.  By the way, the following types of workouts are much more effective forms of cardio than walking/jogging on a treadmill.  It’s much more enjoyable as it involves the whole body,  it’s a little more mentally stimulating, and it makes the time go by quicker as well.   Here is what I did, take the concept and give it a try for yourself.

I didn’t plan any of this, I just came in, made a decision and went with it.  I grabbed some equipment, set the clock, and let it fly.

First you have to pick out some moves.  When I’m choosing moves there are  a few things I consider.  Work/Rest ratio,  direction (forward, backward, sideways), runs, hops, jumps, bounding, push, pull, upper body, lower body, trunk.

Here’s the equipment I grabbed; 2 kettlebells, 2 rubber bands, 1 medicine ball, cable unit, jump rope, 12″-14″ step. 

Realize this type of workout can be done without equipment just as easily, and can be done anywhere so there goes two excuses out the window.  They are also fairly quick, you can go hard for 15 minutes, 30 minutes, whatever amount of time you have.  So the third excuse, “I have no time”, is no longer valid either.

I started out with either :30 second intervals, or 1:00 intervals depending on the difficulty of the exercise and I tried to keep the work/rest ratio 1:1.  So if I just performed a :30 second interval, I followed it with a :30 rest interval and went onto the next exercise which could be either a :30 second, or 1:00 interval.  I did this for about 35 mintues straight.  There was no structured order, I just went to whatever station I felt like at the moment but I tried to get equal amounts of time at each station give or take 1 or 2 intervals.  These were the exercises.

Band resisted forward runs- I sprinted 3 or 4 steps, back pedaled, and repeated for 1:00, then rested 1:00

Band resisted backwards run- 1:00 work/1:00 rest.  Understand, you need to work at a pace that you can maintain for 1:00, but not 1:01, get it?

Band resisted side shuffle- 3 or 4 side shuffles out, return under control, explode into the next set.  1:00W/1:00R

 Straddle jumps onto a 12-14″ high step box- straddle the box, jump up on it,  jump back down straddling the box as fast as you can, rebound, and repeat.  :30W/:30R

Jump rope- (ah, the good old fashioned jump rope!) 1:00W/1:00R

Medicine ball slams(12lbs)- simply raise the ball over your head, slam it to the ground, catch it on the way up, and repeat.  Throw it hard, react fast. :30W/:30R

Lateral bound over the step up box- Start on one side standing on the outside leg, jump sideways over the box landing on the outside leg, rebound as fast as you can and repeat.  :30W/:30R 

Kettlebell walks- I grabbed 53lb kettlebells, held them either at should height, or straight overhead and walked around for 1:00. 

Pushups- :30W/:30R

Cable chops- :30 each side/:30 rest 

I ended getting at least 2 rounds of each in, 3 on some.  You could pick 4 exercises, or you could pick 8, doesn’t matter.  If I felt ready to go before my rest time was up, I went, but I never rested longer than the previous work interval.  Remember the whole purpose of this workout was only to get some “cardio” in while getting to move around a bit in all directions and involve the whole body to some extent.  So there was some running in all directions, alot of jumping, some single leg, some double, some straight up, some sideways, some upper body involvement, some abdominal involvement, but not too much of any one thing.  The goal wasn’t to destroy one particular bodypart, just to move everything, get the heart rate up and down, and sweat.  I followed the workout with some foam rolling and stretching.  Take the idea, pick some exercises, pick a work/rest time and ratio that is appropriate for your current level but IS challenging, set the clock, put the headphones on and just go!! Take yourself to that uncomfortable zone.  It’s controlled chaos.  I guarantee you will enjoy it more than just running or biking to nowhere!  Have fun.

I’m venturing out of my comfort zone on this one!

So I’m watching CNN last night and everyone is talking about tonite’s State of the Union speech and what Obama is going to say.  As usual, they had a panel of people…a few from each side discussing what needs to happen, what Obama needs to do, say, his mistakes, etc.  It raised a few thoughts.  Before going any further,  let me say I do not pretend to know much about politics, the political process, the new health care reform bill, etc.  I think I’m in the majority with regards to that.  Unfortunately, many people in the same category as me don’t realize it.   I may be totally off base  (and let me know if I am) but this is how I see it.

First, the panel was discussing the election of Mr. Brown in Massachusetts and why he was elected.  Some on the panel were saying polls indicate it was because the people didn’t want the new health care reform to pass, some were saying it was basically because Mrs. Coakley ran a bad campaign (which is true), some were saying it was a message to Washington saying that the people do not like what the Democrats have done to our country (as if the previous 8 years were just peachy!).  News flash, the deficit didn’t just start 1 year ago!  Anyway…. 

I tend to think the majority of people don’t really know why they really vote the way they do.  I believe most people make their decision based on initial reaction to a candidates presence (their appearance, how they present themselves), or who their friends told them to vote for, and less on what they actually stand for, or can accomplish.  I think that played a large role in Obama’s election even though I voted for him.  As a friend of mine said, “the majority of the electorate in this country is very ignorant of the facts”, and I think that is the way the politicians like it.  I believe most of the people against this health care bill don’t even know what they are complaining about, or what they are against.  Honestly, do you really think you know all the ins and outs of this new health care bill and how it is ultimately going to affect you?  Have you read it? The politicians are always quibbling on TV about what’s in the bill, how it’s going to affect people, the economy, or even what the bill actually is! How are we supposed to even to have a clue?  I tend to think that it’s this way for a reason.  Nothing is made clear, these things are written to be confusing so the average person needs an interpreter to understand it. Most people don’t have the time or patience.  I don’t pretend to know everything about this bill, and if it’s going to work or not.  How can anyone really know?    

With that said, this IS what I do know.  The past 8 years have been atrocious as far as my health care experiences are concerned.  My daughter is now 7 ½.  When she was born we had top tier coverage. It cost a fair amount, but I was fine w/paying it because procedures, tests, and visits were covered.  Each subsequent year our premium increased 20-25%  AND along with each increase came a drop to a lower level of coverage.  How is that a reasonable rate of increase?  That happened for about 3 years in a row until we were at the bottom of the barrel as far as coverage, and paying out the nose for premiums.  It forced us to look for different health insurance.  We found a new provider, gave them a shot and that was still horrible.  We knew what kind of coverage we had, but unfortunately that doesn’t always help when you don’t really know what the hospitals are now charging for certain things.  For example, I needed to get an MRI for my low back to check on some back pain I was having.  The bill came in at $7100  for an MRI!!!  I had a heart attack when I saw that.  First of all, it’s ridiculous that the hospital would even think of charging that much.  The insurance provider assured me it was not $7100 and not to worry.  The next I heard was that the insurance agreed to pay $2,000 and hospital sent me a bill for $5,000, and that was it! Done!  “Oh Mr. Yuhas, you owe us $5000, how would you like to pay?”  Does that sound like a system that is working?  I would have been better off going in and telling them I had no insurance and they most likely would have billed me for $1500-$2,000.  So not only did I end up paying my insurance premiums but I ended up with an even higher bill because of it.  I’m getting the shaft because the private insurance companies are greedy, and the hospital and doctors are afraid of not getting paid for their services.  Who ends up getting the shaft?  Me, the patient, me the customer.  I don’t know if the new health care reform bill will be any better, but I know the current situation isn’t working.  The fact of the matter is, the private insurance companies have no reason to make their rates affordable, or their coverage adequate.  Will competition help?  Who knows, but it’s not working the way things are now.

 Secondly, I can remember hearing from the conservatives during the last year of Bush’s presidency (when shit really started to hit the fan with the economy). The republicans were saying “oh all of this is a result of the Clinton Administration; it has just taken this long to work through the system and show up.  This is all a result of Clinton’s policies”.  Interesting!  Now that Obama has been in office an entire year, they expect everything to be fixed up quickly.  On one side, they say “these things take time (8 yrs) to run through the system before we can really see the effect they are going to have” which is a very convenient way of taking the blame off themselves.  On the other side, Obama inherits a mess like we’ve never seen before, and he is supposed to get everything fixed within a year?  How convenient!  It’s usually much easier to fuck things up, than it is to fix them.  In the fitness world, there is a saying regarding exercise technique.  It goes something like “it takes 100 reps to create a bad habit, and a 1,000 reps to fix it.”  I’m so tired of every Tom, Dick, and Harry spouting all their great ideas about what needs to be done.  Do these people really think they know everything that is involved in all of this? Many things can appears simple on the surface.  Do they really think they are smarter than someone like….. Ben Bernanke for instance.  I don’t have a clue about what is involved in managing the country’s economy, but I’m pretty sure it’s a bit more complicated than the average “expert” on the street could handle.  These are probably the same people who find it challenging to balance out their checkbook,

 Now the actual “health” part.  Honestly, we need to find a new word, something to replace the “health” in Healthcare reform.  The panel on TV was discussing aspects of the new reform and how it was going to affect treatment, prescriptions, etc.  Those things do not involve health, they involve sickness.  People are standing around abusing themselves and then sticking their hands out saying “What about me?” “I can’t afford my meds”, “Who’s going to help me?”  We are a sick, unhealthy nation, and we will never get this healthcare issue under control if we don’t get our health under control.  A main reason why the costs are so high (besides greed) is because we have so many sick people overwhelming the entire system.  Do you know how many billions of dollars are spent every year on drugs for high cholesterol, diabetes, high blood pressure, blood thinners, skin conditions, allergies, inflammation, etc.  Let me tell you…..alot!  A majority of all these issues are firstly, preventable, and secondly, fixable often times without drugs.  Sure, we all get sick sometime regardless of how healthy we are, genetics do play a role in our health, accidents will happen.  But those instances make up a small part of the entire number of health cases seen in this country.  Many…way too many, are caused by decisions we make.  We need to be more responsible for our own health.  We can’t leave something like that up to big business or the government.  It’s not that hard, take control of your and your family’s health!

Let’s be real.  Kids will be kids, kids will make bad food choices, kids don’t have access to good quality food in school, advertisements for processed food products like cereals, snacks, candy, etc are all geared towards children, children are fatter and more inactive than ever.  Because of all these facts it is more important now,  more than ever before, that children get some supplementation to give them a fighting chance. 

Bad nutrition effects their physical health, their emotional health, their immune system,  their intelligence, their ability to focus, their ability to learn, etc.  The quality of food in the supermarkets is so poor that even if they are eating relatively healthy choices, they probably are not even getting close to the proper amount of nutrients they really need.  Having organic food and meat prices as high as they are doesn’t help the situation either. 

Because of this we choose to give our kids some supplements.  Here are the supplements we currently give our children. 

 We start our day off with a kids probiotic to help their immune system.  Fortunately my children have been healthy this winter, have not gotten sick,  and have not had to take any antibiotics for anything.  If they were on antibiotics I would make sure they had a healthy dose of probiotics after finishing up their meds.  That’s where a strong immune system starts, in the colon with healthy bacteria.  Antibiotics do not play favorites, they kill both good and bad bacteria.  You must help reconstitute the colon with the good bacteria.

 A kids multivitamin is next.  Read the labels and make sure there isn’t any additives that shouldn’t be there.  Things like artificial sweeteners, coloring, fillers, etc.  That crap will even make it into vitamins, believe it or not.

Third is a gram or two of lemon flavored fish oil with breakfast, and every meal.  I’ve been over the importance of this in just about every other article I’ve written so I will not  go into too much detail.  Just know that research has shown omega 3’s to have a profound effect on children’s attention levels, memory capabilities, and cognitive abilities resulting in better reading and math scores, etc.  DHA, one of fatty acids found in fish oil in the most abundant type of fat found in the brain.  I recall reading a study done in New Zealand that involved supplementing some children with omega 3 over the course of the school year.  The results were impressive, the children who were supplemented with omega 3 showed an increase in academic scores and a dramatic decrease was seen in disciplinary problems.  The info is out there if you need to be persuaded a bit more.  It’s funny, when I tell people how much fish oil I try to take per day (anywhere from 10-30 grams/day), they think I’m crazy.  “That’s way too much!”  Really?  People won’t think twice about eating a pint of ice cream, or eating a big mac w/large fries, or 6-8 pieces of pizza in ONE meal (all of which contain much, much more unhealthy fat), but that 10-30 grams of healthy “good for you” fat is too much over the course of the whole day.  Interesting!

Fourth,  2,000 iu’s of Vitamin D3 in drop form in their morning drink which is generally water or juice, which we will make.  I’ll generally juice 2 or 3 apples, 3 carrots, 1 celery stalk, 1 cucumber, some spinach if I can sneak it in, and a chunk of ginger to finish it off.  It is delicious,  they love making it, and they love drinking it. Back to Vitamin D3.  More and more research is showing the importance of vitamin D and how deficiencies in this vitamin are being seen in most sickness and disease.  The lack of year round sunshine and the nutritionally deficient foods are a huge culprit, especially for those of us who live in the northeast during the winter.  Again, the info is out there, just do a little research.  The current RDA of vitamin D, 400 iu’s, is believed to be ridiculously low by many doctors and nutritionist.  For adults, i have read anywhere from 2,000-10,000 iu’s per day to get blood levels back up into a more acceptable range over a 3-6 month period.  You can get home test kits for about $70.  I recently had mine tested and I came back in the low-normal range.  I could certainly use a couple more rays of sun.  One more thing, the darker the skin, the lower the ability to synthesis Vit D from the sun.  

We will also usually try to offer them a protein ”milk shake” which is nothing more than whey protein, water, and sometimes a bannana.  If I notice they are having a  meal containing mostly carbs and fat with little protein I will usually try and offer the milk shake to balance things out.  If it’s between meals and they are hungry it’s a piece of fruit and a shake or at least we try to convince them to eat that.  It doesn’t always work, sometimes the goldfish win but at least we make an effort to offer them a healthier option.  One more thing, if you buy whey protein, try and find one without artificial sweeteners like Aspartame or Acesulfame K.  That stuff is horrible, plain & simple! 

Your kids are totally worth the extra effort!  Don’t you agree?

 If you’ve been a regular reader on this site you can probably tell that most of the stuff I write usually originates from my frustrations, and interactions with people at work or from reading something online, usually by someone else who works in the same field.  Today is no different. 

I was browsing around online reading various articles by various authors and I started to feel a little annoyed, a little anxious.   I couldn’t really figure out what I was annoyed with because I didn’t necessarily disagree with what I was reading.  Then I figured out what it was. 

My wife and I have been training people for approximately 15 years and we’ve done our fair share of reading, learning, exercising, and training people.  What I realized was that I was annoyed because after reading a few articles and blogs here and there, day after day, what ends up happening is that I feel like I don’t know what the hell I’m doing anymore.  I feel completely unqualified mainly because every professional out there is saying something different, disagreeing with each other, promoting different kinds of workouts, different kinds of eating plans, different this, different that.  

There are so many fads and so many options out there.  Exercise programs ranging from the ridiculous (like those ab contraptions or some of those other exercise programs you see on tv),  to businesses like “Curves”,  to programs that focus strictly on “functional’ training”.  You’ll see people performing all these crazy exercise that resembles stunts more than exercises.  I really believe we need to simplify sometimes.  I think the attention span of the average person,(especially these days), is so short, that we get bored so easily, and are always looking for another source of stimulation.  Ultimately, we end up never really sticking with anything.  We are willing to give up on something  even if it’s the most effective program, for the sake of trying something new regardless of how effective it is.  I’ve gotten pulled into this same mode over the years.  I went from strictly  “bodybuilding’ type workout programs to what is/was called ”functional” training (which was just getting popular at the time), then it was spinning, and so on.  They were all fun at the time but I didn’t get tremendous results from any one of them.   

There is a something called “Pareto’s law” or “Pareto’s principle”.  Generally it says that 80% of results come from 20% of the means.  Pareto was an economist, but it seems the saying applies to much more than just economics.  In the case of exercise, 80% of your results will usually come from only 20% of the exercises you are performing which means many of us are doing way too many useless things when we are working out and not getting any real results from them.  I really couldn’t agree more. 

Like I mentioned before, people seem to get so bored so easily that they will try anything as long as it looks cool.  For example, the bosu ball, balance work, kickboxing classes, and spinning.  I’ve done most of them myself.  In order to see if something works you usually have to try it, but if something doesn’t work, you have to start questioning its long term efficacy.  Is it you (how you move), was it how you were doing it, how the instructor presented it, or was it  just the product or program that was alot of hype. I’m not saying those specific programs are “all useless” but it does seem to me that for the amount of time and effort people are putting into these activities, the results (as far as strength and/or weight loss) often times are minimal.  I don’t see more people who are in better shape today than in the days prior to all these programs and products.  In fact, it’s quite the opposite, I see more and more people out of shape, overweight, injured, on meds complaining about healthcare.   We have a bosu ball at our gym that i occasionally use, I used to teach spinning, I used to have people perform balance work (and occassionally still do)…but I have never done a kickboxing class, really, I haven’t (but my wife has).  Over the past few years I have generally phased out most of these things when working with clients and with my own workouts.  So what am I suggesting? 

Let’s think in terms of what is natural, what is natural movement. Is it natural to sit on your ass all day in front of a computer or TV?  Is it natural to sit in a car all day?  It’s common, but it’s not natural.  If it was we probably wouldn’t have evolved into creatures that could run and jump and lift.  We would have morphed into some creature with no legs and arms like a T-Rex.  If we go back to the Paleolithic era, which is when the first hand tools were developed and when humans started forming groups, we would see they were very active.   Do you think they sat on their butt all day.  It was natural for them to climb, work for their food, sprint from an animal trying to kill them, sprint to kill an animal, be able to throw a rock to kill their food, carry a kill on their shoulders, etc.  You get the idea.  Sure the world is different and we don’t need to do these things but that is what our bodies were designed to do.  Physically we haven’t evolved much from that era…but that could change if we don’t start changing our habits.

I started thinking in terms of what ”natural” exercises are.  By “natural” I mean, what motions do we perform day in and day out in our world, what do we need strength for especially as we get older.  Let’s start with the basics.  What are my daily activities that require strength.  Well, I’m always picking something off the floor, whether it’s my kids, or whether it’s getting a 40lb bag of dog food at the store, or lifting 60lb trash barrels into my truck.  So that tells me I need to get strong and proficient at lifting off the floor.  OK, that’s a deadlift, and exercise that has been around forever that no one appears to do anymore because of difficulty, fear, and misinformation.  What else…well in terms of strength training; squatting, pushing,  and pulling!  80% of your results will come from performing these very basic exercises.  Sure, there are many variations to them, but don’t get too carried away.  Spend your time getting strong at the basics.  You’ll be surprised at the spillover effect.  They will make everything else easier. 

Take what was 20% of your workout and make it 80% of your workout.  Learn how to deadlift, how to squat, perform your presses and your pulls.  The variations of each of these exercises, and the variation in the reps you perform will be enough to keep your strength increasing and your body from adapting .  Now remember, the more strength you have, the more muscle you can build, and what burns fat?  Yup, you guessed it!!   So if gaining weight is a concern it’s important to remember that  muscle is much denser than fat… it takes up less space.  And for those of you “afraid” of getting “too muscular” realize that muscle is much easier to get rid of than fat…(but that’s a topic for another time)

When I write a program for someone and send them off on their own, one thing I make them promise me is that they will write every following workout down.  They usually don’t, but nevertheless they should and so should you.  I can’t remember what I ate for breakfast, how am I going to remember how much weight I used for an exercise, how many sets I did, how many reps, how long I rested, if I used a certain tempo, etc.  We should all do this for one main reason, so you will look like a complete dork walking around with a clipboard all workout! You might as well wear black tube socks and a headband to the gym.  Just kidding.  We should do this so we will know what to try and beat (or at least match) during the current workout.  There should always be some kind of improvement over your last workout no matter how miniscule you might think the improvement is (unless you are in a deloading phase or workout which is a topic for another day).  Automatically most people assume I mean they must lift a heavier weight than last time, not necessarily.  That would be ideal but there are many different ways you can improve from you last workout.  I’ll go over a few things here for you to think about during every single workout for the rest of your life.  Keep in mind there are a million “experts” out there, many, many complicated programs, some that work great, some that are way over my head, and some that are pure crap.  This article will involve more basic principles.  This info is not intended for the elite athlete competing at a high level, although many athletes don’t even have the solid foundation they need.  This info is for the average person looking to get in shape and have a plan.  I see a lot of people wasting years in the gym because they either “know it all” already or they are into the latest trend workouts like the “300 workout” or some Crossfit “program”.  I’m not saying those workouts aren’t difficult or ever useful.  They just are rarely appropriate for the people doing them. You should have a sound reason why you are doing the things you are doing.  Doing them because they are “killer” workouts isn’t a good enough reason.  There are usually 4 things people come into the gym to tackle.  They either want to lose fat, work on strength, work on increasing muscle mass, and a few guys want to work on increasing power which is a quality that most people avoid but one that is extremely useful especially if you’re an athlete.  It trumps all the others when considering athletics.

     First, if weight loss is a primary goal, nutrition is second to none.  As a matter of fact, nutrition is a very important aspect of any program regardless of what your goals are.  It influences energy levels, recovery, muscle synthesis, and mental awareness.  It is by far the absolute most important aspect to creating a healthy environment and losing weight.  You can not out train crappy eating. It is 100 times easier to lose weight by eating properly without even exercising than it is to eat terrible and workout.  I’ll leave it at that. 

     The second most important goal of a weight loss program is to have someone make their workouts as dense as they can.  You can either do the same amount of work (wt x reps x sets) as you did last workout and try to do it in less time, or you can try and do more work in the same amount of time it took you to complete your last workout.  Most people really gravitate to this kind of workout because it’s a very clear goal, it’s very attainable, and it’s a challenge. You can achieve this by completing your reps faster (w/proper form), resting less, or increasing the weight slightly and performing the same volume.  It all boils down to more work per unit of time.  Of course you will at some point hit your limit and plateau which is when you want to reevaluate your program.  You just want to be careful not to completely eliminate rest.  Too little rest sometimes leads to poor form, diminishing performance on subsequent sets, lack of concentration, and sometimes injury. One thing I do not like for clients to do is lower their weights from last workout.  The weights used should be constant until you hit your ceiling or you increase the number of reps by 15-20%. At this point, change your rep/set scheme, weight loads, and start again.   

     This brings us to the next topic, reps and sets.  Let me guess, 3 sets of 10 for everything, or is it 2 sets of 12?  Lighter weights get you ripped, and heavy weights get you bigger, right?  If it were only that easy! What qualities are you trying to improve?  Are you trying to improve your strength?  More muscle mass? More power? Improve general work capacity?  These are topics we all need to think about before deciding what we are going to do for our workout.

            Improving power usually entails working in the 1-3 rep range, which means the weights are going to be near maximal, your number of sets should generally be higher, and your rest periods should be longer, usually up to 3 minutes.  Make sure if you are going to work in this rep range that your form is perfect, and all your non-mirror muscles are working correctly and are up to par.  Power work doesn’t result in as much hypertrophy (bigger muscles) compared to strength and hypertrophy rep ranges but it will still result in muscle growth and can also lead to a very dense thick muscle.  You ever see one of those guys who may be normal size but he just looks thick and strong? This kind of high intensity work really exercises (for lack of a better term) your nervous system.  Remember your brain and nerves control your muscle activation, the more high threshold motor units involved, the more forceful the contraction.

            Power (force X speed) work involves using “fast” moves, explosive moves, so speed, or the intention to move with speed, is important.  Some will argue that once rep speed decreases noticeably, then that is the point at which you should stop that set.  I’m not sure but I think I do lean that way.  The exercises most often associated with power lifts are power cleans, snatches, clean & jerk, but you can also incorporate power moves into you regular routine using medicine balls, kettlebells, and bodyweight exercises.  Sometimes it is useful to perform a sub maximal power move just prior your normal strength exercise.  This will help jack up the nervous system leading to better performance during your strength work.  For example, a few jump squats before regular squats. 

            Now, working out for power is not the same as working out to increase muscles mass or strength.  They are two different things. Power is dependent on your strength level and technique.  The lower your strength levels, the less your power output.  This doesn’t mean you can’t perform power work until your happy with your strength, it just means you should focus more on increasing strength levels before focusing your full attention on your power lifts. 

            Gaining muscle mass generally involves using weights that are a lower percentage of your 1 rep max, more volume, some think more time under tension, and slightly shorter rest periods.  Strength involves some of the same criteria, but building strength can also be considered somewhat of a skill. The better you get at performing a motion, the more likely you are to get stronger at it because you will become more efficient.  Strength work does not have to involve completely annihilating a muscle during a workout or alwasys working out to failure.  Strength can also be enhanced through building more muscle mass (hypertrophy).  I find the best strength gains are made when working in the 4-6 rep range, with a slightly higher frequency which means doing it more often. I’ve made my biggest gains in strength when I did fewer sets per workout but performed the workout a bit more frequently than the “once a week” routine that most guys do.  The biggest mistake I see being made is people performing way too many sets and reps during a workout, and then being so sore that they can’t do anything for a week after.  Keep the intensity high, which should result in volume being low to moderate per set, and frequency moderate.  Maybe twice a week or once every 4 or 5 days.   Understand I am not referring to the total number of times you workout in a week, but more specifically the total number of times you workout a specific muscle or exercise.  

            Getting stronger prior to starting a hypertrophy phase will help make it easier to build muscle, and it can also work vice versa. Building more muscle prior to starting a strength phase can also help with improving strength.  Improved strength obviously will also help with your power development.  All these qualities are somewhat interwoven and interdependent on each other, especially the strength and power relationship. Strength and power are also largely influenced by technique. I’m getting off on a tangent here. Let’s get back to basics..

            You can build muscle, put on size and still not be that strong.  I see it all the time.  Guys look like they can lift a house, they strut in w/chest all puffed up, holding watermelons under their arms then……nothing.  They got nothing.  I’m waiting for them to throw 500lbs on the bar and they end up lifting my wife’s weights.  Now of course there are plenty of guys who look strong and are strong, but there are just as many who aren’t strong, and there is nothing wrong with that.  I only bring it up to explain about muscle building.  You can build muscles by using high “time under tension”, or a lot of volume, or both.  For example if you have trouble putting on muscle, one option you have other than using heavier weight is to increase the volume by either doing a few more reps or by making the reps last longer so your muscle is loaded for a longer period of time.  Some trainers and strength coaches don’t believe in the tempo idea but I think it can be very useful.  I like to have as many tools as I can.  Everything is useful at some point.  This (tempo) is especially useful if maybe you’re injured but still want to get a training effect and can not use the weights you usually do.  Instead of using your normal loads, you can lighten the load, go for more time under tension and still get a great workout that will help to build muscle.  It might be hitting a different muscle fiber type but at least you’re still getting a workout.    

             Again, you can use lighter weights, increase time under tension, increase muscle size and still not gain that much strength.  You can get stronger by using power exercises and not gain muscle size, or you can do all of the above.  Get stronger, get more muscle size, and more power. So the question is “What do you want to work for?”

            This brings us to all the variables we have at our disposal that most don’t think of considering. So the first is the most obvious; weight loads.  More weight makes for a more intense workout. Higher loads can lead to more strength, more size, more power, more of a workout for the central nervous system (CNS).  Very simple. The more weight you use, the less reps you perform, the more sets should/can be performed, and more rest between sets.

            Now reps are really what determine what kind of training effect you get and dictate other things like sets and rest.  To keep it simple, strength (usually without gaining much muscle size) is gained in the lower rep ranges (1-4). As the rep ranges increase there is more of a shift towards hypertrophy than strength.  This shift can usually go up to the 12-15 rep range.  Anything above that gets into strength/endurance, then endurance. This doesn’t mean you pick up a 15lb dumbbell which you could do for 30 reps, but instead you do sets of 6 and you’ll get stronger.  NO, you find a weight that will only allow you to get the desired rep range.  Once the reps start to increase, then you increase the weight so you are only able to do 6 reps again.  That is one way to get stronger. As I mentioned before, the less reps performed, the more sets can be performed.  For example, 2 x 15, 3×10-12, 4×8, 5×6, 8×4, 10×3.  As you can see they all add up to about the same number of total reps (30-32) but all have a different effect because of the loads being used and the rest being taken.

     Again, the higher the weights, the lower the reps, the more rest between sets is needed before working the same muscle/movement.  Those 3 reps sets might require up to 3 minutes for full recovery, but those 12 reps sets may only need between 30-90 seconds recovery. A couple other things that effect rest periods are the kind of exercise being performed, and the size of the muscle group being used.  They sort of go hand in hand.  Exercises like the squat or deadlift require a lot of coordination among bodyparts, involve many different types of muscles (prime movers, stabilizers) and involve many large muscles.  This is why a longer recovery is usually needed especially if you are using heavier loads.  If you are only doing bodyweight squats than you are not going to need as long a recovery as you would when lifting 315lbs.  The smaller the muscles and the simpler the exercises/movements will not require as much rest.  So arm curls will not require the same recovery as a deadlift. Keep track of your recovery periods.  If that is consistent, then you will have a much better idea if you are improving. Most people are in the gym to lose weight but yet they will do a set of something, walk around and talk for 5 minutes, then do another set.  Remember density?!

            The following are some methods you should consider when trying to increase the intensity of your workouts.  I’ll list three, but there are many, many more out there. These are probably some of the more common methods being used.  These methods are “supersets”, “compound sets”, and “complex exercises”.  These are 3 very valuable methods that everyone should make use of.

            Supersets are when you perform 2 different exercises back to back with little or no rest.  The 2 exercise should be for different body parts, opposing body parts, or opposing movement patterns.  For example you can superset and upper body exercise with a lower body exercise, a chest exercise with a back exercise, or a pushing exercise with a pulling exercise like pullups and overhead presses.  When one exercise is being performed, the opposite muscle group is getting rest but you are still working. It’s a great way to increase the density of your workouts. 

            Compound sets are when you perform 2 or more sets of different exercises for the same body part.  It’s a great way to increase volume, or bring up a lagging body part.  For example, deadlifts w/front squats, pull-ups with rear delt flyes, or incline bench press w/ dips.  One disadvantage of compound sets is the higher risk of overloading a joint or soft tissue because of the high volume and/or load on one area. If you concentrate on good technique and stop before form suffers then you will decrease the risks.

            Using a complex exercise is a favorite of mine with weight loss clients. It is usually better for someone trying to lose weight, fire up the metabolism a bit, or even can be used as a form of cardio, a very, very brutal form of cardio. A “complex” is when you combine 2 or more exercises into one exercise.  For example, a barbell complex might involve performing a deadlift into a clean to the shoulders into a front squat into a shoulder press.  That’s 4 exercises in one.  Now you can perform a single rep of each and continue until you get a certain number of reps (5 or 6) or you could perform all of one exercise then move onto the next without putting down the bar. The disadvantage of the first method is that you are limited by your weakest exercise so you may not get challenged too much with some of the other exercises in the complex. For example you will always be able to front squat more than you can overhead press, so your front squats won’t be that challenging. You will still get your heart rate up, but not much work on your leg muscles.  I prefer the latter because this way you’re not as restricted by your weakest move.  Using the second method, you could perform 12 front squats, 12 deadlifts, but maybe only get 4 overhead presses but that’s Ok because each move is getting a more intense workout and the whole body workout is enough to make you have to lay down and question whether or not you want to even think about doing another set.

            So before trying the latest greatest new workout fads, pay some attention to your program design.  Are you using the correct rep ranges?  The correct rest periods?  Have you tried implementing supersets or compound sets in your present workout yet.  You’ll be surprised how these simple combinations can affect your workout.  Good luck.

     New Years has come and gone, congratulations on making it through another year of life.  Well, we’ve seen our New Years rush here at the gym, hopefully some of these “resolution-ers” will stick around for more than 2 weeks this year and realize some of their goals.  Even though I exercise year round I always try to improve on something as well when New Years rolls around.  This year is no different.  I wanted to go over some things that I’ll be focusing on and maybe it’ll provide some info for you to apply to your workouts and eating habits

     Lately I’ve been avoiding spending time focusing on my weak links.  Most people do the same, probably because it’s boring, it’s not impressing anyone, and/or we don’t want to spend time on things they are not good at which is usually why they become our weak(er) areas.  One of the simplest ways to improve your overall health and strength is too strengthen your weaknesses.  You’ve heard it before ” a chain is only as strong as it’s weakest link”.  Usually the exercises you despise the most are the one’s you need to work on.  Just make sure you have someone check out your technique before you dive in head first. 

     My first resolution is to spend about 15 minutes addressing what I think are my weak areas.  I’ll be working on things like  improving grip strength, shoulder girdle function, hamstring/calf dynamic flexibility, overhead squat flexibility, more anterior core work, and work capacity. 

    My second resolution is to work out 4-5x’s per week and to work on a specific program for 4 weeks at a time.  Currently I’ve been getting 2 or 3 workouts in during the week, not enough for me. For one reason or another my workouts have been kind of haphazard with no real direction as far as performance goals go for the past year.  It’s much easier going to the gym and getting a productive workout in when you have an actual written plan.  You can spend your time focusing on performing the exercises with intensity instead of wasting time walking around figuring out what to do next. 

     Third, as always, is eating healthier.  Now I’m not going to be unrealistic and say “I’m giving up…!”  It never works.  I know I will not give up beer, or entirely give up coffee, or give up my Friday night pizza.  Instead adopt an eating plan that allows for a cheat meal here and there.  That doesn’t mean you get to eat a cheat meal everyday, that will not work.  You need to go at least 2 or 3 days at a time, eating very clean, every meal, no shit.  Once you accomplish that, then give yourself “a little freedom” on that 4th day.  I said “A LITTLE” freedom.  Try eating a normal amount of carbs throughout the day, a normal portion size every meal.  It doesn’t mean getting shit faced and ingesting an entire pizza.  I believe if you are overweight/overfat and trying to lose a substantial amount you need to ELIMINATE  the bad stuff from you diet ENTIRELY for a while!!  Stop telling yourself “oh, I’ll just have this one piece”.  If you keep giving your body these “treats” it’s going to continue along on it’s usual mode of operation.  I believe it needs just a little of what it’s used to getting in order to keep it’s current way of functioning.  You need a hard core approach where it gets nothing that is bad for it for at least a month.  It needs a “shock”, it needs a drastic dietary change to change the way its functioning.  I’m sure you all heard it before but how many of you have actually accomplished this for 1 month straight.  You can’t knock it until you try it.  This is one of those “I can’t prove it, but it’s what I believe nonetheless”.  Some suggest 1 cheat meal allowed for every 15-20 consecutive healthy meals, that’s sounds too difficult to me. I’m sure you would get amazing results doing that but I don’t think the average person would be able to accomplish it.  As I mentioned above, try going totally clean (very low carb, 50-75grams to start) for 2 or 3 days and then have a cheat day where you eat normal portions of carbs and fats.  Now the most important thing is that you make sure your “healthy meals” are healthy.  Many people don’t know what healthy is anymore.  “Low fat”, “sugar free” are generally not healthier choices.  Other things commonly mistaken for healthy are “whole wheat” bread, pasta, etc.  Wheat has a high GI index score, almost as high as table sugar, plus most of the population is intolerant or allergic to wheat, or wheat gluten.  The first thing most of us need to do is eliminate the carbs, increase high quality protein, introduce a whey protein shake, take some omega 3 supplements, a probiotic, a fiber supplement, eat more vegetables, and select fruits that have a lower score on the gi index, or have a low “gi load”.  You can’t be healthy on the outside if you’re not healthy on the inside.  It’s that simple. 

     If you are strict w/yourself, you’re honestly eating well, exercising hard, harder than ever before, and getting nowhere, then you may have some underlying medical conditions that may warrant a checkup or possibly some blood work.  For example, if your liver isn’t functioning well,  you’ll find it more difficult to lose fat since the liver is the main “fat burning organ”.  If it’s not working right or working too hard dealing with alcohol, medicines, processed foods, etc. it will impact how you metabolize food among other things.

Many people like saying “everything in moderation”.  Well, if real weight loss is your goal, eating “moderately” well will get you moderate, or even less than moderate results.  I believe in moderation for some things, but not for fat loss.  You’ve probably experienced this already.  Hard core dietary changes with some supplementation, and exercising with  intensity and determination is what will produce results.  Sorry, I don’t make up the rules, it’s just what I’ve seen over the years.  Good Luck.

I was online reading yesterday and somehow came across a link that led me to a site that was bad mouthing someone else who’s website,  books, and info I enjoy reading.  I often try to practice some of the advice I read from this person.  I decided to read why this other person referred to him as a “quack”.  The person doing the badmouthing was a doctor, obviously highly educated and successful in his own right.   He was basically saying that since what this other person was saying was not scientifically proven with methods he believed in, and that this person wasn’t a licensed doctor  of western medicine, than what he was saying couldn’t possibly be considered valid or true.  So, if something isn’t medically proven or researched than it essentially couldn’t be correct, useful, or even exist.  Give me a break!  There are a billion “things” out there that “exist’ in some way that have not been proven by science or maybe can’t be proven but it doesn’t mean “it” doesn’t exist or can be useful.  What it probably means is that “we” aren’t smart enough to prove it exists.  I’m not against western medicine by any means.  Trust me, if I get cancer, I’m going to an Oncologist, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to throw all my other options out the window.  I would still research homeopathic remedies, address my nutrition, stress, etc.  I love the idea of complimentary medicine.  OK, I’m going off on a tangent here, let me get back on track.  What annoyed me wasn’t the fact that this doctor disagreed or had a different point of view, but it was the way he went about it, as if he was omnipotent, what he knew was the only correct option.  Very narrow minded if you ask me.  This annoys me to no end and I come across stuff like this all the time.  One expert says this, the other expert says that, and their way is the only way.  What or who are we to believe? 

People seem to have the need to associate themselves with one belief, or one method and tend to distance or separate themselves from some other possibly very effective alternatives.  Why is this? 

In the health and exercise field, there are many “experts”, especially now with the internet at everyones fingertips.    The reason why I’m writing about this is because even though everyone is so smart, none of them seem smart enough to realize that there is no one perfect type or correct way to exercise all the time, or no one perfect supplement, or no one perfect form of medicine.    Everyday I’ll go online and do some reading and sure enough there is some new “expert” ranting about his new miracle exercise program and how useless or ineffective everyone else’s methods are.  I believe in trying to keep an open mind when it comes to my health.  Most everything will be effective at some point, but nothing will be effective all the time.  You will adapt and need to change something.

 I change the way I exercise all the time.  What seems like a ineffective method at one point will come in very handy at some other point.  I will go a year w/out using a certain piece of equipment or exercise and then suddenly realize that it would be a good option for my current routine or situation.  I will try certain programs that I wouldn’t have thought were useful in the past. I may hear someone speak at a seminar, and not really be sure if I agree with what they are saying, but it doesn’t mean I completely disregard their info and experiences.  At some point I may realize their info, method, or program will be applicable and useful.  There are currently many different  arguments in the field of exercise; working out your whole body in one session versus splitting up your body into parts and working separate parts on separate days, or the idea of using certain tempos while you perform a rep, some say it’s useful, some say it’s useless.  Other topics up for discussion involve exercising the core directly or indirectly, aerobic versus interval, isolating muscles versus using whole body movement, supplements or no supplements, yoga or pilates, etc.  The list goes on and on and on……and each proponent has had success with their method which is why they believe in it.   Unfortunately some will get on “that train” and all of a sudden they “know” what is the “most” effective program for “everyone” all the time….yeah, until it stops working. 

Basically what I’m getting at is not to pigeon hole yourself into one belief, or someone else’s belief, or one activity, or one way of doing something, espeicially when it comes to your health.  If you enjoy doing something that is fine, but it’s effectiveness will diminish as some point and you will have to make a change.  This is why you’ll ocassionally hear me rant about those people who come in and get on the treadmill and walk nowhere for an hour, month after month, year after year.  Does this mean I do not think anyone should use the treadmill?  No, like I said everything can be useful or needed at some point.  Just keep all your options and your mind open all the time.  There are many smart people out their with their own conclusions but it doesn’t mean that you have to pick one over the other.   We all have different experiences and different result from the same things.  What works for you right now might not work in 6 months and you will have to make a change and find something else that works until it doesn’t work anymore and so on.  Remember,  ”The most constant thing is change!”

By far the main reason why most people don’t succeed in meeting their goals is simply being consistent.  The people who I have seen succeed in meeting their goals all have one thing in common and many things not in common.  Among the uncommon things, they all performed different workouts, worked out at different times of the day, some worked out 1/2 hr/day, some 1 1/2 hrs/day, some used heavy weights and basic exercises, some bodyweight exercises, some ran on the treadmill, some used a bike.  So you can see all of the things they did differently.  The one thing they all did the same was consistently workout w/intensity.  Regardless of how much weight they wanted to lose, how fast they wanted to lose it, what kind of workout they were doing, etc., they all were consistent and went the distance, and they are still going.   

The million dollar questions I continue to ask myself are; Why do a majority of people fail to meet their goals? “Why do people have such an incredibly difficult time with being consistent?   How come people are not concerned, passionate, or even interested in being in charge of their health?  Do they believe they have no control over it?  We know if you eat at McDonalds every meal you will become unhealthy, I don’t think anyone would argue that.  If that’s true, then why is it so hard to believe that if you did the opposite (eat healthy) you could become healthier and avoid or decrease your chances of illness or disease?

I was having this conversation with a client and I was asking her some of these questions.  She comes to the gym often, and works very hard and she is consistent in the gym.  Unfortunatley it’s outside of the gym where her problems lie.  We were talking about it and trying to figure out what it is that causes people to just give in and succumb to the bad food choices, alchohol, etc. 

Why aren’t we more proactive in our health?  Honestly, do you even know?  Is it laziness, fear, intimidation, lack of knowledge, lack of confidence?  Do you think your health is fine and it’s something you don’t need to be concerned with until you start becoming sick? Are you addicted to bad food, alcohol, sugar? 

There are a total of 168 hours in a week.  4 hours per week of exercise  is 2.4% of  the week.  Too much.  Ok, how about 4 intense 1/2 workouts  a week?  That’s 1.2% of your week.   In 2007, the average time men spent watching TV per day was over 4 hours, women over 5 hours, and children over 3 hours.  With the advancements in gaming, I can only imagine the children averages have gone up significantly.   I know, you worked all day, your tired, but guess what?  So is everyone else.  That’s life.  I have never heard anyone  in 15 years after finishing a workout say “oh, I wish I didn’t come to the gym” or “I wish I hadn’t just worked out”.

Having 2 kids, I do understand being tired and choosing the easier option.  I’ve fallen victim myself, and still occassionally do, I get it. I also understand being tired after work, but is that it?  Are people just too tired?  I may have a day or two where I’m not motivated and I make bad choices but after a while it just gets really boring, I feel like shit, I’m irritable, etc.  I start to eat better, get some exercise and my mood and general feeling is 100x better. Do you realize that if you ate healthier food you would have more energy?  That’s how simple it is.  Do you realize if you eat healthier food, you wouldn’t feel hungry all the time therefore you would eat less.  Craving are most often a sign of  a couple things..addiction and/or lack of nutrition.  Addiction to sugar, addiction to alcohol being the two most common that throw a wrench into your eating plan.  Lack of nutrition comes from eating processed “fake” foods.  You can stuff yourself with processed carbs, chemicals, fast foods, etc., but you will still feel hungry in no time because even though you just ingested a huge amount of calories, those calories were nutritionally deficient.  Your body is craving proper nutrition so it sends the signal “i’m still hungry, you haven’t given me what I really need”.  So you have all these nutritionally deficient calories, your body wants more and you’re not exercising these calories away because you have no energy.  It’s a vicious cycle.

Over 30 % of americans are considered obese, not just overweight, but obese.  I’m willing to bet that more than 1/2 the US population is overweight.  I’m also willing to bet that a majority of the 50% of remaining population who aren’t considered overweight are overfat, or “skinny fat”.  Just because the number on the scale is low doesn’t mean you don’t have fat. Most likely it means you have little muscles and declining bone density.  All of which are fixable through natural methods that you are fully capable of applying, but the key is applying them consistently.

This article is written for the teacher, coach or parent who is involved with young athletes (or non-athletes for that matter) on the elementary or high school level, and can also be applied to the young college athletes as well.  It’s been my experience that most coaches and/or parents aren’t familiar with the current trends and research when it comes to conditioning their athletes, especially their young athletes.  Many hours are wasted on ineffective training programs, and ineffective and potentially unsafe exercises that don’t really focus on what the athletes current needs really are.  Their are many cookie cutter programs that are blindly applied to teams with no regard of individual needs or the age and experience of the athlete performing them.  To just assign weights and reps and expect the athletes to just be able to perform the program as written is not a very effective way to go about it.  There are many variables that need to be considered especially with the elementary and high school athletes. 

In today’s world things are very different compared to when I was a child.  These differences are having an enormous impact on our children, their activity level, their attention span, and their motivation.  My wife and I volunteered at our local high school years ago to help out one of the sports teams.  We were working with varsity level athletes and were quite surprised with what we found.  The fitness levels and movement skill of these athletes was much lower than what we expected.  The ability to perform a squat or pushup correctly wasn’t there.  The ability to control their body and react wasn’t there.  The power to explode from a position, the ability to change direction, to jump, or land correctly from a jump wasn’t there.  There may have been a few athletes that were relatively solid but I’d estimate 90% of the athletes needed to improve on the most basic movements. 

The numbers that I was hearing in regard to squat  and bench press poundages being used were quite inflated.  There was more of a focus on lifting as much weight as possible with much less concern on technique and control of the lift which is the absolute perfect recipe for injury, not to mention creating incorrect movement patterns which usually leads to …you guessed it, injury.  Injury in a young athlete should be the number one concern and this can be addressed in the weight room through proper programing and exercise selection.

Now, I work mostly with adults who are looking to just  improve their strength and health, but I have worked with quite a few high school athletes over the past 15 years.  Unfortunately, it seems, the overall fitness levels of kids have progressively gotten worse as the years have gone by.  The lack of general activity in our kids these days is astounding.  More time is spent watching TV, sitting in front of a computer, or playing video games than ever before.  Then the season starts and the kids are expected to just jump in and run 2 miles, bench 225, squat 315 in their first week.  The following are a few things that I feel need to be addressed more than ever.  

1)  Coaches and parents need to think about an off season program to improve the general work capacity of our children not only for sport but more importantly for their overall health.  There are way too many fat kids today.  Children should not be fat, it’s that simple.  Most people attribute it to the their “genes”.  Well, their parents most likely weren’t overweight as children, and they didn’t become overweight because they were genetically predisposed.  They’re predisposed because of all the crap they’re shoving in their mouth.  As a child I distinctly remember only two children in my class of 30 being overweight and that was pretty much the average in all the classes back then.  I’d go out on a limb today and say that it’s probably closer to a 50/50 split.  We become fat because of bad choices that accumulate over a lifetime.  Get those kids off their asses, away from the tv, and give them a plan, get them involved in a physical activity, it doesn’t have to be a school sport either.  For those who are involved in a school sport, they should, at the bare minimum, have a 4 week exercise/conditioning program before the start of their season, 6 weeks being even better.  The first 2-3 weeks should be focused on bringing up the weak areas, acclimating the body to the stresses, learning technique, and the last 3-4 could be more focused on increasing strength levels, and work capacity.  Off season training programing is an entire article by itself so I’m not going to get into it here, maybe I’ll tackle that at a later date.   I just wanted to state the importance of keeping our athletes/children active during the off season, during the summer, and especially during the preseason.

2)  Too much weight on the bar -  The second problem I see with most elementary and high school sport conditioning programs is too much focus on the amount of weight being lifted and not nearly enough on teaching these kids how to move and control their own bodies before adding external resistance.  One of my favorite statements was made by Gray Cook who developed the Functional Movement Screen.  He states “You can’t build fitness on dysfunction.”  These young athletes can’t perform even the simplest most primitive moves correctly, yet coaches are throwing weight on their shoulders or in their hands.  Learning the basics doesn’t take very long, but impatience is getting the best of our coaches and children.  Everyone wants instant gratification in todays world of texting and email.  Preventing injury and creating strong, agile athletes should be the goal.  What is the point of measuring each child’s bench press preseason, and then not measuring it at any other point?  What does that do?  It doesn’t tell you if he is a good athlete or in better shape.  I know plenty of guys who can bench press alot more than me who are completely uncoordinated and unhealthy. The only thing a strong bench press indicates is that the individual is a strong bench presser.   Think about it, the best athletes on any team are usually the one’s that move the best, have the best agility and the greatest ability to control their bodies.   Give an athlete control of his body, then he can use that control and apply that to strength.  Don’t get me wrong, once an athlete can control his body and is proficient at bodyweight exercises, then they should be challenged with more resistance and a variety of exercises.  However, this needs to be implemented in a progressive manner after the basics have been mastered.  This is where the importance of proper exercise programing comes in.

3)  Nutrition – kids eat horribly!!  Parents and coaches need to be more involved in educating children about  healthy food choices.  This means parents and coaches need to learn as much as possible  about  healthy food choices.  Combine lack of activity with poor food choices and you get what we have today…overweight unhealthy children and adults.  We can’t leave this entirely up to the children, they need guidance and it needs to be made easier for them.  If there is bad food in the house, kids are going to eat it.  They are not going to go out and buy healthier food.  The food choices that children have at school is another topic that absolutely drives me crazy!  Having soda machines and vending machines in school is just plain stupid.  The school lunch menus aren’t usually anything to brag about either…tater tots and ketchup are not adequate choices for vegetables!!!  We are sabotaging our children, we are not making it easier for them.  Our apathy is only making it more difficult for them in school, and at home.   I’m not going to get into this too much because I understand school budgets and curriculum influence all the decisions made in schools on what kids eat and what classes are offered etc., but the fact that teaching “real health” to our children is not on top of the list is irresponsible at best.  If you have ever been or are in a situation where your child’s health is compromised or at risk, I feel for you.  I can’t imagine anything worse. If you have not ever been in that situation (thank god I have not), think about how you would feel if your child was severely ill?  We have to do everything we can to keep our children and ourselves healthy.  Nothing is guaranteed but we can certainly reduce the risks through our actions.

      “I don’t have enough time.”   We’ve all said it, we’ve all heard it.  Sure we’re all busy with work, kids, housework, etc, but I have a hard time believing that someone can not find ½ hour in their day, 3 days a week to do some kind of exercise. That is 1.5 hours out of 168 hours per week, less than 1%.  How much time do you spend in front of the TV or computer? How much time do you spend on Facebook?  If you can’t make it to the gym, then do it at home, in front of your TV, on your porch, in your backyard, at a playground, anywhere will do. Who cares how you look or what other people think when they see you.  I’ll guarantee when they see you banging out pushups, jump squats, maybe even pull-ups they will look at you in another light.  I guarantee when they see you at the beach they’ll wish they had been doing what you were doing while they hide under their umbrella and beach blanket.

      Loosen up your schedule to allow for 20 minutes.  What is more important than your own health?  Many wait until something happens then we start hearing “why is this happening to me”.  Partly because you’ve been lazy and apathetic when it comes to managing your health, that’s why! With that all said, there is always enough time to do something. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes, doesn’t matter.  You can get a great workout in any amount of time as long as you keep them dense and intense.

      “Intensity”, in the weight room, is often used to describe the % of your 1 rep max. The higher the % (of your 1 rep max weight being used,) the more intense the workout.  I’m not using it in that way for this article.  Intensity is simply being used to describe how hard you are pushing yourself as far as your effort goes.

      If you only have 10 minutes, pick two unrelated exercises in terms of what muscle groups they work.  It could be an upper body/lower body pairing, or a push/pull pairing, lower body/trunk pairing, or a combination exercise where you do 2 or 3 exercises all together like a clean, squat, and press.  If you’re limited to 10 minutes do a set of reverse lunges for a certain number of reps or time (:30-1:00) then without resting move onto the upper body exercise like pushups, pull-ups, etc.  Keep alternating between the two exercises until 10 minutes is up without resting.  That’s a dense 10 minutes.  While your legs are resting your upper body is working and vice versa. Meanwhile your heart hasn’t stopped pumping in ten minutes.  If you have more time than ten minutes than you could use a little heavier weights with your exercises, lower your set time or reps and put in a :30 second rest in between exercises.  This way your legs will actually get 1:30 rest if your work/rest periods are :30 but your respiratory system will only get :30 rest (legs for :30, rest :30, upper body for :30, rest :30, repeat). Or you can do two 10 minute pairings. It’s not easy but it’s only 20 minutes and best of all you can do this type of stuff anywhere.  If bodyweight squats are too easy, try 1 ¼ squats, single leg squats, walking lunges around a park, try pushups with your feet up on a bench, try pausing at the beginning or ending of a movement every rep, etc.  All these tips can make your 10 – 20 minute extremely effective and you don’t need equipment, or 15 minutes to drive to the gym, 5 minutes in the locker, 60 to workout, then drive home.

     The same goes for cardio.  Instead of doing 45 steady minutes on a treadmill or bike, try 20 minutes filled with :30 second sprints, and 1:30 active recovery periods. That’ll give you 10 sprints and you’ll be done in half the time of your normal cardio workout.  Trust me you will not want to do a minute more if your work intervals are intense. Another bonus of these types of workouts is that they ramp up your metabolism for hours after your workout.  This “afterburn” is really what you’re after.  It’s much more important than calories burned during the exercise. Just think about how many people you know or see at the gym year after year pounding away slow miles on the treadmill.  Do most of them look any different than they did 5 years ago?  If it didn’t work the first time, odds are it’s not going to work the second time.  

     So suck it up, find 10-20 minutes and keep it dense.  You don’t have to make your workouts longer to be more effective.  Density and Intensity!