No Bull-Shit Fitness

This is how you get ABS! Right?? And doesn’t he look happy…

I think maybe there are some odd characters at everyone’s gym, but mine in particular, located in the heart of downtown Toronto, is especially prone to letting weirdos join, many of whom are drawn to engaging me in conversation, much to the benefit of this blog (which I feel like, thanks to guys “Dude”, pretty much writes itself these days).

Me: (Doing chin ups)

Dude: (Approaches me, as if to ask to work in with me. Smiles creepily until I acknowledge his presence)

Me: Uhh hey, you need to work in?

Dude: No, I was just admiring what you were doing.

Me: Oh. Thanks… So what are you working on?

Dude: Uhh, my abs.

Me: (inward face-palm) Ok. Cool. What’s your rationale behind that?

Dude: My what?

Me: Why are you working on your abs?

Dude: Uh, I dunno. I have a lot of energy to burn I guess.

Me: Oh ok, well at least you know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Enjoy the rest of your workout.

Dude looks semi-confused. He smiles, then proceeds to the chest press machine while I finish my set of chin ups. He does a set, sits there for a while, watching me creepily as I perform an intense set of eccentric chins to near failure. He then approaches me again.

Dude: Hey wanna go work on abs with me? (motions to the designated “ab” area of our gym, where one will find the most useless machines ever invented)

Me: No thanks, that’s not really my style. But knock yourself out.

Dude: Oh, ok… See ya later.

I feel only a little bad about this conversation. I don’t think he picked up on my sarcasm, and that’s mostly why I feel bad. The rest of that feeling is attributed to the pity I feel for this poor soul who has not yet seen the light. I’m sure he’ll be “working on his abs” until one day his spine is crushed by the weighted abdominal crunch machine. 

But I suppose I shouldn’t be so rough on the guy. At least he’s using his “extra energy”  on something he values to be positive on his health. I just wish he’d use it on something more productive, like improving his squat strength. I wish dude and his abs the best on their quest for happiness.

… To the dude at the gym yesterday who sat on the chest-press machine for an hour, talking on his iphone, doing set after pathetic set, crap form and all, while watching me complete my entire training session in the same amount of time… YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG! 

Don’t make me list the ways. And oh, I could write a list; but the fact that I neither saw him enter or leave the gym, or do more than one exercise, appalls me. Not to mention his um-impressive physique…

But for now, I’ll just say as tactfully as possible, I hope, for his sake, that his phone conversation was mind blowing, for if not, then he just half-assed his social life AND gym time, simultaneously.

Maybe I would have let it slide if he looked like this… 

No caption required for this picture. Squats and dead-lifts make you a winner- in the gym, and at life in general. Do not neglect these two most powerful life-changing forces.

Because I’m feeling poetic, I will try to keep this post as abbreviated as your time spent in the gym should be. If you are consistently spending more than an hour in the gym, more than 5 days a week, doing 30 set workouts, using 10+ exercises per session (especially if they’re all for your biceps) and are NOT training for a specific sport or competition/are an elite athlete, then YOU ARE DOING TOO MUCH. Especially if you look exactly the same as you did since you started training. Hard work is good and all, but if it is not focused, efficient, and you have still have an unimpressive physique to show for it, your blood, sweat and calluses mean nothing.

Short, simple, straight-forward routines are the winner. But don’t be confused: simple doesn’t mean easy. You still must work extremely hard, but by narrowing your focus to a select group of exercises, and doing these same exercises for the full course of a cycle, trying to slightly increase the weight you are lifting each time you repeat an exercise, resisting the urge to change things up too soon or do stupid shit because it’s fun and easy for you, you will see much faster results and progress consistently and linearly over time.

These main exercises* should consist of the primary part of your training routine:

• Bench press
• Overhead press
• Squat
• Dead-lift (conventional, stiff-legged, and Romanian)
• Chin-ups/pull ups
• Row variations 
• Dips 
   *These are multi-joint exercises that use a large amount of musculature and require the use of your core to stabilize you (so no, you don’t need to do thousands of crunches)

Other, non-core, exercises you should probably include, if you’re smart:

• Shoulder external-rotator work
• Lower/middle trapezius work
• Rear Delt Flys
• Glute-activating functional exercises
• Lat pull-downs
• Plank variations

Of course, depending on your body’s particular structure and functional intricacies and imbalances, you should have someone competent in exercise prescription recommend some specific exercises for you to do. 

If you take one thing out of this post, it should be that you are wasting valuable time in the gym if you are doing bench press, incline bench press, push ups, pec flyes, and 5 kinds of bicep curls as your primary exercises, yet you can barely squat your own body weight on the bar (especially if you are a man who’s been training for more than a year or two). 

Here are some examples of a typical training day in MY life:

Day 1:                                                      Day 2:

Squat                                                       Chin ups              
Rear-delt fly                                            Overhead Press
Seated Cable Row                                   Bent-over barbell row             
Lat Pull-down                                         Dead-lift
Cable shoulder external rotations         Dumbbell shoulder external rotation

As you can see, I don’t usually do more than 5 exercises per training day. Each day has one or two MAIN components, and several supplementary exercises. My major weaknesses I try to address include my rhomboids, shoulder external rotators, lower and mid traps and extremely tight pectorals (from years of ignorance and poor posture). My training program works to correct these issues while gaining strength appropriately. Yours should too. I usually am in and out of the gym within one hour, sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less. You should be too. Don’t worry if you don’t know how to create the perfect split routine- there’s no such thing. Everything works, but nothing works forever. As soon as you stop seeing progress, change something, whether that be taking a de-load week, changing up your exercises, trying a new rep/set scheme, upping the intensity, you name it. Just stick with the basic, main, multi-joint exercises and you can’t do too much wrong. 

 

   

            

 

Different doses of supplemental vitamin D maintain interleukin-5 without altering skeletal muscle strength: a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study in vitamin D sufficient adults.

Follow the above link to find the abstract of a study showing the benefits of vitamin D in aiding the immune system! I’m feeling a little stuffy today, so I thought I’d post this for you guys, and also take a shit load of vitamin D in the hopes it will prevent me from getting any sicker.

It is optimal to take WAY more than the daily recommended dose (we’re talking like, 5000 to 10 000 IUs per day). There are no overdose side effects and it is a dirt cheap supplement that IS ACTUALLY USEFUL. I’ve also read that vitamin D makes you happy! Perhaps I’ll have to follow up on this post with some other links to studies showing some real benefits from select helpful supplements.

The Conclusion of This Study?

After supplementation of either 200 or 4000 IUs daily of vitamin D during the winter season in two groups of young adults, the group who had the higher dosage experienced some elevated  blood serum levels related to muscular strength and immune system function. Though I won’t pretend to understand all of the technical jargon, the main thing you should take out of this study is that the findings “could have a broad physiological importance regarding the ability of vitamin D sufficiency to mediate the immune systems protection against infections”.

So no risks, low price, and all benefits are founded in science-based research… sounds like a no-brainer. Take your vitamin D daily people! Just make sure you are taking a good quality supplement.

Brand I recommend- Truestar’s TrueD (click link for full product info and to purchase at a discounted price). Absolutely the best. 


Stay healthy folks! 

LOOKS PRETTY GOOD, DOESN’T IT?

I saw this on my friend’s facebook page the other day, and had to call him out on his bullshit. Not to say that organic food isn’t great- If I could afford to, I would buy everything organic, but not for the reasons outlined in the above chart.

The chart (which by the way, was published in a gardening catalogue, and not a reputable scientific journal), states that organic produce is “more nutritious” than conventionally grown crops. I hate to break it to you, but this is a big fat myth. 

There is a difference between being “heathier” and “more nutritious”. The term “healthier” is vague, and could be alluding a variety of different factors. I would agree with most in saying that organic foods are, in general, the healthier choice. The main reasons for this being that they are not sprayed with pesticides, no hormones are injected into them, numerous ethical reasons, and not to mention that organic produce and meat tastes delicious. I think I nearly creamed the first time I ate organic, grass-fed beef. 

When it comes to beef, you can clearly see the difference in amount of fat and  just how much less appetizing the non-organic, corn-fed, variety looks. If you can get your hands on some good quality organic beef, do it! I get mine from my good friend’s farm, Stoeckli Organics.

There is, however, no concrete evidence that organic foods have a higher level of nutrients than the conventional variety. So if this is the reason you buy organic produce, you’ve been paying more than you need to for a reason that is not yet founded in science-based research. Yes, you are still benefiting from the fact that you won’t be consuming chemicals and excess hormones, but if nutrition is your prime concern, conventional produce will do just fine.

Ask yourself if the price and luxury of organic foods is worth it, when you can get the same nutritional value elsewhere. It is easy to get sucked in the trap of thinking you need to buy organic. It can become obsessive. If I had the money, I probably would only buy organic foods. For the people that do have that kind of financial viability, knock yourselves out! The point I am making is, if you DON’T have the funds to buy organic foods, and the supposed necessity to consume them has been instilled in you by some health obsessed, orthorexic do good-er, you don’t need to worry! You can still eat a healthy diet, build muscle, lose fat, and not break the bank. I treat myself to organic foods once in a while, because that’s all I can afford. 

The following are excerpts from a paper I originally wrote a couple years back, and they underscore the mythology behind the mainstream belief that organic food is more nutritious than their conventional counterparts (and my sources are from reputable scientific journals, not a gardening catalogue). Enjoy.

“There is no  way to be sure a particular food on the supermarket shelf has been produced organically, regardless of what the label says, because there are so many different criteria, and most are hard to verify scientifically.” Some allegedly organic meat farmers are permitted to use antibiotics on their livestock once a year, and this would technically disqualify them from the organic label (Ravillious, 2006).

… Agriculture is very inconsistent. “Valid comparison studies between organic and conventionally produced foods require that the plants are cultivated in similar soils, under similar climatic conditions, are sampled at the same time and are analysed using the same validated methods” (Williamson, 2007). Furthermore, genetic variation in plants and animals contribute to differences in product quality and nutritional content, whether it is organic or not (Magkos, 2003).  In fact all foods show a natural variation in nutrient levels which depend on factors such as climate, ripeness, crop variety, freshness and storage conditions (Williamson, 2007). 

Although conventional crops do use pesticides, there is no reason to avoid these foods for that reason. According to a study done by the Pesticide Residues Committee, pesticide residues were found to be absent in about 70% of the tested produce. In the remaining 30%, residues were below the maximum residue levels and therefore pose no health concerns for consumers (Williamson, 2007).

While comparing organic and conventionally produced grains, potatoes and vegetables, there were no major differences in mineral, trace element or B vitamin levels. In vegetables there were no differences found in levels of vitamin A or beta-carotene. (Williamson, 2007). There was however a trend towards higher levels of vitamin C and several other micronutrients in some organic produce in a range of anywhere from 9-42%, however much more research is required to confirm these findings.

Studies on fruits, once again, do not reveal any significant differences in nutrient content between conventional and organic produce. Vitamins B1, B2 and ascorbic acid levels remained similar.  Concentrations of trace minerals and elements such as magnesium, iron and copper were also not found to be significantly different (Magkos, 2003).

In dairy products such as milk and cheese, there were found to be significantly higher levels of alpha-linolenic acid, conjugated-linolenic acid, vitamin E, and beta-carotene in organically fed cows (Williamson, 2007).  It is yet to be determined however, whether these levels are higher because of the changes in diet, or because of the lower milk yield in organic cattle (Williamson, 2007).  There were no significant differences in many other nutrients found in milk, such as calcium, zinc, vitamin B2 or vitamin B12, therefore drinking organic milk is unlikely to make much of a difference in terms of micronutrient intake (Williamson, 2007).  In addition, these findings must be dealt with cautiously when one takes into consideration the natural genetic variation between animals of the same species in product quality (Magkos, 2003). No two cows have the same milk.

 In some organically produced vegetables and legumes, it was found that there was a lower protein content, but higher protein quality, which means a higher proportion of amino acids. (Willaimson, 2007). To determine whether this is healthier than conventional produce also requires further research. Furthermore, because vegetables and potatoes are not a significant source of protein in the average diet, any differences in protein content would only be of importance in the case of extreme vegetarian or vegan diets. (Magkos, 2003) 

Sources: 

Essoussi, L.H., & Zahaf, M (2008). Decision making process of community organic food consumers: An exploratory study. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 25, 95-104.

John Paull. (2006). The Farm as Organism: The Foundational Idea of  Organic Agriculture. Elementals: Journal of Bio-Dynamics Tasmania. 80, 14-18.

Magkos, Faidon, Arvaniti, Fotini, & Zampelas, Antonis (2003). Organic Food: Nutritious Food or Food For Thought? A Review Of The Evidence. International Journal of Food Sciences and Nutrition. 54, 357-371.

Ravilious, K. (2006). Buyer beware: When you shell out for a premium food how do you know you’re getting what you pay for? Kate Ravilious investigates the rise of food fraud. New Scientist.192, 40-44.

Williamson, C.S. (2007).Is Organic Food Better For Our Health?                     Nutrition Bulletin. 32, 104-108. 

 

Let’s start this post off right- Check out this hot chick doing a snatch. 

NOW- Assuming you actually HAVE a fitness goal…

 If you don’t have a specific, quantifiable, measurable and reasonable goal, then you’re wasting valuable time. You say, “Oh I just want to look BETTER”, “I just want ABS”, or as one of my clients told me, “I just wanna get TONED”. Horse-shit. Those are all vague terms that don’t have a measurable, reachable, end-point. What does better mean to you? You already have abs, but what about that layer of fat they’re hidden under? Do you even know what the physiological term for tone means?

Ok, so now that you’re ready to set some actual goals, you need to use the proper language to describe them, and that language is numeric. You need to say, “My waist will be ‘x’ inches by ‘specific date’”. Or something along those lines. If you just tell yourself, “I’ll do it ASAP”, that again, is a vague term that does not promote an adequate sense of urgency. 

Now if you have your measurable goals written down (and you should definitely write them down), you need to find what motivates you to take action. For me, it was the fact that I needed to be on stage practically naked within a 6 week time frame, and my (highly judgemental) parents were going to see me perform in this particular show. It scared the shit out of me. 

The most effective motivation induction technique is to plan to put yourself in a future situation where if you are not at your fitness goal, you will feel like you want to die of embarrassment. 

That’s what worked for me anyway. This might mean stepping way outside your comfort zone. I had no choice, so I got it done. Give yourself no choice but to succeed.

Moving along. I’ve ranted enough for one post, so without further adieu, here are some useful resources, full of No BS approved information, inspiration, and tools to achieve your goals and track your progress (don’t make me smack you for not keeping track of your progress…)

Fitocracy- It’s like a social network/game for people who wanna get jacked! Warning: Highly addictive. I had to stop using it or it would have taken over my life.

Truestar- Get profiled for free by a panel of experts for customized meal plans, exercise plans, sleep tips, attitude tips and tons of free information (p.s. I can get you a discount on their professional supplement line).

Fitness Black Book- One of my favourite fitness blogs out there, by Rusty Moore. SO much information, and highly entertaining. 

Exercise Routines Blog- Want to switch up your routine or get inspiration for new exercises? This is an awesome source for new training info.

 Leangains- Definitely No BS approved content on this site, if you can get through the technical jargon. If you’re interested in learning more about intermittent fasting and abbreviated training routines, this is the place to look.

Protein Power- Tired of post-work out protein shakes? Find fun, high protein recipes, using protein powder, here!

Adonis Index- Training system for ideal proportions for men.

Venus Index- Training system for ideal proportions for women.

Ok, thats enough for now. Happy training!

Hey peeps. Check out my contest page for your chance to compete in one of two (or both!) challenges I’ve posted about. This is your chance to win prizes by accomplishing your fitness goals. Talk about positive reinforcement! All the deets are on the contest page, so check ‘er out. 

Stay tuned for more posts on fun topics such as:

-The Shortcomings of Primarily Cardio-Based Exercise Programs 

-Dietary Supplementation: Don’t be Retarded 

-How a Personal Trainer Can Benefit You

-The Fastest Way to do Chin-ups

-The Main Exercises Your Training Routines Must Include for Optimal Results

AND MORE! 

Drop me a line if you have any burning issues (er…) you would like me to address in upcoming posts.


 

I recently sustained a rather unpleasant hamstring strain which has put my dance career on hiatus for the past month and a half. By the way, i recommend you avoid injuring this muscle group at ALL COSTS because it takes way too long to heal. My injury is especially fun because, not only is the muscle damaged, but I also have symptoms of ischial bursitis and sciatica secondary to the strain. So, in light of this recent experience, I figured it might be useful for you guys to explain HOW I injured myself, what YOU can do to prevent this from happening to you, and the mental and physical toll major injuries like this can place on you.

The hamstrings group. I was lucky enough to injure all three.

The Tragic Story of my Hamstring Strain:

The main point I want you to take out of this post, is that you need to listen to your body! Dancers are retarded, mainly for the reason that we push ourselves through pain when we shouldn’t. Which is why almost all of us have at least 2 or 3 minor and, sometimes one major, injury per year. One exceptionally persistent friend of mine managed to perform a show every night for a week through chronic shin-splints, a sprained ankle, torn knee cartilage and a lower back injury. What a champ. And though I refer to her as a “champ”, don’t do what she did (though she performed beautifully, you couldn’t even tell she was in pain. Just don’t ask how many pain killers she took before going on stage). It IS possible to take the no pain no gain mindset too far. Dancers and athletes generally have high pain tolerances and we tend to think that the smart thing to do is to “push through the pain”. While this may be acceptable for high level athletes who NEED to perform well on the day, for the average fitness enthusiast, when you feel BAD pain you need to stop doing what you’re doing!

In my case, my chronic hamstring tendinitis should have been a warning sign, but I pushed through 4 months of mild pain until one day, in Jazz class, while pushing into a split I felt a “snapping” sensation and fell to the ground. I’ve been out of commission since, and this all could have been avoided had I listened to my body four months prior and taken it easy. There is a difference between bad pain, and good pain, and you need to get to know your body and find out what each feels like. Anything that is a pinching, crunching, shooting, tingling, or sharp pain is probably bad. Moderate muscle soreness can be considered to be a good pain, but it is different depending on the individual.

The mental toll of not being able to perform my art has been crippling. For a person like myself who loves to be move, it is a feeling of helplessness I would not wish upon my worst enemy. So please learn from my mistakes. One week’s rest could have prevented an injury that FORCED me to take 2 months off.

                      

 

This is the best picture I could find to demonstrate the position I was doing at the time of my acute injury. I was pushing into a split way farther than I should have, knowing very well that I was already experiencing discomfort in the affected muscles, and without an adequate warm-up.

How to Avoid a Serious Injury:

In addition to these tips below, check out this article by Charles Poliquin on the topic, specific to hamstring injuries.

1. Warm-up. You must warm-up prior to the bulk of your training session! I cannot stress this enough. Not only does a brief (minimum 5 minutes) warm-up make your muscles less susceptible to injury, but it reduces heart irregularities associated with sudden exercise and primes the nervous system by heightening coordination and mental preparedness for rigorous training (McRobert, 1998). Skip, jog, cycle or row for 5 to 10 minutes at an intensity that makes you work up a sweat. If your training session includes weight lifting, warm-up that specific lift at a lighter weight as well. At the time my injury took place, was not properly warmed up to perform the feat I was attempting (which was an over-split, not something I recommend trying, warm or not). Had I taken the time to warm-up sufficiently, I may have been able to delay the injury. I say delay, rather than avoid, because due to the nature of my chronic tendinitis, if I did not stop to take adequate rest the very day I was injured, my body would have stopped me at some point eventually, and the longer you wait to take cautionary measures, the longer if will take you to recover from the injury.
   
   
2. Use proper form. If you learned how to do a particular exercise by watching some one else in the gym do it, chances are, you’re doing it wrong. Using proper form is an absolute requirement if you are going to doing any kind of resistance training routine, or even if you are starting a running program. I would go so far as to say that 95% of gym goers are using incorrect form, and are putting themselves at risk for injury. Even many personal trainers are not sufficiently knowledgeable of exercise technique, and so you must be very particular about who you ask for advice from. Doing the same exercise with poor bio-mechanics, over and over, especially with a heavy weight, puts unnecessary strain on the joints and ligaments, and if you do not stop doing this, your body, eventually, will make you stop. Weight lifting is one of THE MOST DANGEROUS activities you can do, IF you are doing it wrong.
   
   
3. Increase weight increments slowly and progressively. Even if you are, using excellent form, with the wrong weight on the bar, you WILL hurt yourself. If you use a weight that your body can’t handle, your form will break down and crumble under a weight you can’t lift to save yourself. This is especially dangerous when bench-pressing, squatting or overhead pressing, when the risk is that you could actually be crushed under the very weight you are lifting. If you insist on lifting things that are too heavy for you, at least use a spotter (another post soon to come on how to be a good spotter).
   
   
4. Listen to your body and take extra time to recover when it is needed.
   At the first observance of any of the bad pain symptoms I listed above, stop what you’re doing and evaluate the situation. You need to become your body’s best friend, and friends look out for each other. Friends don’t push their friends to do things they don’t want to do. When your body experiences bad pain, it is because it does not want to do what you are trying to make it do. SO DON’T DO IT! Chronic pain can also be equally dangerous. In my case, when I first noticed the tendinitis in my hamstring (which only felt like a mild discomfort) I should have toned down the intensity and maybe taken some time off until it felt better. Unfortunately, since the nature of my field of study required me to perform on stage regardless of any injuries I had at the time, I chose to ignore the warning signs. I am now plagued with a badly strained hamstring, the healing of which has been hindered due to the bursitis that could have also been prevented had I listened to my body. In general, it is recommended to take 24-72 hours of recovery time between lifting sessions to prevent over training, but everyone is different so you MUST get to know your body.
   
   
5. Select appropriate exercises. Even if you are using good form and lifting an appropriate yet challenging weight, you can still hurt yourself if you are selecting the wrong exercises for YOU. Not everyone should do the same exercises based on the inherent structure of their body and various muscular imbalances they might have. For example, though the squat is an excellent exercise, which I encourage everyone to do IF THEY CAN DO IT PROPERLY, not everyone has the body-type that will allow them to perform it safely, and in this case, perhaps the leg press would be better suited to them. Exercise selection alone can make the difference between training success and failure.
   
   
6. Don’t do stupid shit. Like this:
   
   

   

   
   
    Don’t put yourself in stupid situations that have high risk and minimal benefits. This includes things like using a thumb-less grip while bench-pressing (also called the suicide grip), not using a spotter to do heavy squats to failure, and behind the neck lat pull-downs. When in doubt, don’t do it. By the way, the number one cause of gym deaths is the bench press, performed unsafely.
   
   
7. Keep focused on the task at hand and don’t let you mind wander. Leave all your issues at the door when you enter the gym. For the time you are there, you must not succumb to distractions. Do not feel guilty about avoiding conversations with other gym members, get the job done and then you can socialize. This is especially important if you are trying to set a new personal best for a lift. Do not think about anything else but what you are presently doing. You must become your training set. Not only will this prevent you from using improper form, but you’ll benefit from faster strength development.
   
   
8. Knowledge is power. Injuries arise from ignorance. My hamstring injury could have been avoided. It was not “bad luck” that hurt me, it was a lack of knowing when to slow down and focus on reducing intensity. It goes without saying that knowledge of proper exercise technique cannot be stressed enough. If you don’t know something, do not be afraid to ask. Remember, the only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask. Especially when it comes to your own safety.
   
   
9. Never train when you are sick. Even if it’s a minor cold, training when not 100% healthy can cause your illness to worsen to a further extent than it normally would have, had you taken the appropriate rest. Also, if you decide to hit the gym, or participate in your sport while you’re still sick, chances are your mind won’t be where it needs to be, and lack of mental focus combined with low energy can put you in a very dangerous position, especially if you are lifting heavy things above your head. Not to mention you risk passing your illness along to others, so PLEASE take this excuse to have a lazy day and stay home.
   
   
10. Become more flexible. Yes, stretching is boring. If there is one component of my training sessions I tend to skip, it is the stretching portion. However, do not neglect this important aspect of your workout. By stretching regularly, you will be able to increase the range of motion around the joint and release built up tension in the muscle, which, if left untended, can contribute to chronic pain, and then injury. That being said, it is not a smart idea to perform intense, static stretching BEFORE exercising, especially weight training. Stretching may actually weaken the muscle you are about to use. If you stretch immediately before a heavy lifting session, participating in a sport (or a dance class perhaps…) or going for a jog, you are now classified under the group of people who do stupid, dangerous shit. Dancers are notorious for stretching INTENSELY before taking a class. Yes, I realize that I just called myself stupid. At least I can acknowledge it. What’s your excuse?

So what to do if you take all the precautionary measures, but you still injure yourself? Don’t dwell on past mistakes. Use the time off as an opportunity to better yourself in other aspects of life, whether intellectually or physically. For example, though I can no longer use my legs, I have taken the time to focus on my upper-body strength, and now, for the first time in my life, I can complete 2 consecutive dead-hang chin ups. This may not seem like much, but it is an accomplishment for me, and for most women. I’ve also taken this time to really focus on my nutrition. Not being able to exercise means that I mustn’t consume the same amount of calories as I normally would, unless I want to gain fat. It’s kind of a drag, but really it is a blessing in disguise, for it is giving me the time to apply my energy to different aspects of my life. I believe it is crucial to keep positive while in recovery.

It is also a good idea, when the injury is severe, or if you are an athlete, to seek professional attention in the form of physiotherapy, chiropractic, or massage therapy.

On a side-note, and changing gears completely from the topic of this post, I now have a small quantity of Truestar supplements in stock. If you are interested in getting some free samples and live in the GTA send me a message! You can also order online, have them shipped directly to you, and get them at 15% off through the link on the Truestar page of this blog.

Take it easy and stay safe!

Check out this hot chick dead-lifting. Oh yeah.

I’m currently working on a rather lengthy article about injury prevention, inspired by my recent hamstring injury, which has required me to modify my training routine, and forced me to stop dancing for the past month and a half. Fortunately for you, this has left me with a lot of time to learn, think and write, and so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes.

But anywho, in the mean time, I would like to leave you with some practical tips on building strength from Stuart McRobert’s book, Beyond Brawn. This book is an excellent resource if you want to learn more about safe, effective and no BS approved training philosophy.

1. When adding poundage to the bar, use smaller rather than larger increments.
2. Take an extra day or two between workouts when you do not feel 100% recovered.
3. Take the extra week or longer to add the next pound or 2 on the bar. Give your body time to build strength. Try to rush your progress and all you will get is sloppy form and, eventually, an injury.
4. Lots of little bits over half a year add up to far more than a couple of much bigger jumps over less than a month.
5. To paraphrase a cliche, Rome was not built in a few months or a year or two, and neither will you be.
6. Take more time to learn perfect form before piling on the weight.
7. Make time to study about sensible training methods
8. Find the time to develop a flexible body and then maintain it. (I talk more about the potential benefits of adding yoga to a weight training routine in THIS POST)
9. If in doubt, perform extra warm-up work, but keep the reps low.
10. Do less training, but do it perfectly. Less done properly is always better than more done improperly
11. Learn from your mistakes and unproductive training practices. Do not keep repeating the same errors in the hope that more of the same will eventually work.
12. Do not ignore signs of protest from your body- aches and pains. If you push too much, your body will stop you, eventually. (More about this in my upcoming post)
13. When you are feeling especially energetic, resist the temptation to add more than your usual small poundage increment. Otherwise, you will be unlikely to cope with that weight the following workout.
14. Haste truly makes waste, and encourages the use of steroids because of the hurry to have big results immediately.
15. The names of the game are effort and progressive poundages, but the effort MUST manifest itself in terms of progressive poundages. If you are driving yourself very hard in the gym, but continue to use the same poundages, then the effort is being wasted.
    
    McRobert, Stuart. Beyond Brawn. Second Edition. CS Publishing LTD, 1998. Print.
    
    
    
    

Looks like she’s having TOO much fun on that swiss ball…

Why might that be? Check out this interesting article:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/243153.php

Any of you ladies ever have an orgasm while exercising? I wouldn’t go so far as to have experienced “sexual pleasure” while training, per se… BUT I can see how it could happen…I guess. So at least us women have an excuse to be doing 100 sets of “abs”. Men, stop fucking around already!

On that note, take the “Fuckarounditis” test over at Martin Berkhan’s blog Leangains.com. If you are doing too many things on his list, please stop, now. Or I will laugh at you in the gym for doing stupid shit. 

That’s all for now. 

WEIGHT LIFTING: THE YANG TO YOGA’S YIN?

Could a resistance training program be combined with a yoga practice to create an optimal mind-body-spirit balance ? (And a sexy bod too).

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“Physical strength is the most important thing in life. This is true whether we want it to be or not. A weak man is not as happy as the same man would be if he were strong. This reality is offensive to some people who would like the intellectual or spiritual to take precedence. It is instructive to see what happens to these very people as their squat strength goes up.”

~Mark Rippetoe (quoted from Starting Strength- A book I highly reccommend to anyone wanting to start a no BS approved basic strength training program)
 

Although there is no doubt that pursuing spirituality can make you a happier person, the above quote is the bang-the-fuck on. Look at it this way: Imagine the yoga master who has attained an enlightened state of perpetual bliss. Now what if that same yogi could also dead-lift 600 pounds? I don’t think we’ll ever know the answer to this question, not because it is impossible for a yoga master to be that strong, or because it is impossible for a power-lifter to be that flexible (actually, yoga, in the true sense, has little to do with flexibility), but because I don’t think such a person even exists. If they do, I would like to meet him (or her). Based on personal observation, people tend to either get into one stream or the other, but not both, though I have read of several female fitness competitors who pursue yoga quite seriously. 

I have a friend who is a highly accomplished yogi that spent almost half his life living in an ashram in India. He’s an extremely happy guy. Or I guess i should say “content”, because according to yogic philosophy, being content is the only thing we should be striving for in life. This level of contentedness does not fule the desire to go to a gym and lift heavy things up and down. Perhaps he sees weight training as something that only serves to display one’s ego, which I fully understand. However, for others, the gym is our ashram, and heavy squats and dead-lifts are our meditation practice. I would argue that summoning the mental grit required to push through a high intensity training session is comparable to the same grit (though grit maybe isn’t the best word here) necessary to meditate for half an hour or longer (and believe me, I’ve been through both).

So if your goal is an optimal body composition, positive outlook on life and increased strength and flexibility, here’s my theory as to how a no bull-shit periodized program combining relatively heavy and intense weight lifting 3-4 days a weeks, a yoga practice that puts high value in spirituality (such as the Sivananda style), along with a sensible moderate cardiovascular regime would be highly successful . I would go so far as to say nix any sort of extra cardio other than walking, if strength is your main goal (so ladies, please stop running for hours and hours, you know who you are, I used to be one of you).

Key theory concepts:

• Heavy weight lifting is superior for fat loss than excessive caridio for 3 reasons:

1. Higher, longer duration EPOC (excess post-exercise oxgyen consumption). Basicly, higher metabolism, which means more fat burning.
2. Weight lifting builds muscle, muscle requires more energy to maintain than fat. Fat is extra energy, stored. Muscles can use this extra energy. Thus the more muscle you have, the more fat you burn at rest due to a higher basal metabolic rate.
3. Lifting heaving weights, or at high intersities relative to your 1 rep max, releases more testosterone and human growth hormone, anabolic hormones that burn fat and assist in myogenesis, or building muscle.

• Yoga can assist with:

1. Enhancing enjoyment of life through spiritual enlightenment. Yep. Corny, but true
2. Improving flexibility. 
3. Reducing stress and muscle tension.
4. Re-enforcing healthy, mindful eating patterns.

• Why it is optimal to do BOTH weight training AND yoga, rather than just one or the other (or neither, i guess):

1. Reduce risk of gym-induced “douche” ego.
2. Weight lifting shortens muscles, yoga lengthens them. For athletes especially, it is optimal to progress in strength and flexibility simultaneously to not incur any muscle imbalances and to prevent risk of injury.
3.  Depending on your individual body structure, you may need to focus on strengthening specific muscle groups more than others. Yoga provides an outlet to explore your body’s unique structure, heightening your awareness, recruiting more neural control and thus increasing the rate at which your body will functionally adapt and be able to increase it’s strength. 
4. One must be able to relax for optimal recovery from heavy weight training. Yoga provides this time to relax, which can be carried into daily life.
5. Regular meditation improves mental focus in the gym, which provides one with the mental focus necessary in the gym for high intensity weight lifting.
6. When one practices only yoga without any sort of resistance training, their flexibility-to-strength ratio becomes highly imbalanced, increasing the risk of injury associated with ligamentous laxity.
7. Further, when one practices only yoga and expects to lose a significant amount of fat, that person needs a reality check. The only way yoga will assist in fat loss is INDIRECTLY due to the fact that doing yoga makes you less likely to over eat for several psychological and physiological reasons (whereas cardio makes you feel hungrier…but maybe I’ll post about that another time). 

Summary of key concepts

• Weight lifting is essential for improved body composition.
• Yoga is an excellent tool for improved attitude, relaxation and flexibility.
• Combined, yoga and weight lifting can help you create an optimal body composition (lower body fat, higher muscle definition), while screening for muscle imbalances, reducing risk of injury, improving flexibility, strength, muscle size, mental focus and ability to recover. 

I guess in the end what I’m TRYING to say is, any yogi could make their body, mind and soul healthier and happier by adding some strength training; and any bodybuilding could do the same by adding in some yoga. Try it, let me know how it goes. But in the end, this is just my advice. To quote the great Twin Muscle Workout brothers, you can do whatever the FUCK you wanna do. Now enjoy one of their enlightening videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh9p9h1UI5E

Notes:

There are too many well meaning, but poorly trained yoga teachers. Make sure you find a reputable one to avoid being injured by an incompetent instructor.  Check out this article from the NY Times about how yoga might be “wrecking our bodies”.

One MUST also follow a sensible eating plan. If you don’t know how to eat properly, you will not ever be able “see your abs”. You can use this site to create custom meal plans by getting profiled by a panel of experts. Next best thing to seeing a nutritionist, minus the cost.