Archive for February, 2010
If it weren’t for dead guys, we’d probably never have started doing crunches. That’s because for years, much of our knowledge of the way muscles work was based on the study of human cadavers. By looking at the anatomy of corpses, modern scientists figured that the function of our abdominal muscles must be to flex the spine. Which is exactly what you do when you perform a crunch, a situp, or any other move that requires you to round your lower back. As a result, these exercises were popularized as the best way to work your abs.
But the reality is that your abs have a more critical function than flexing your spine: Their main job is to stabilize it. In fact, your midsection muscles are the reason your torso stays upright instead of falling forward due to gravity. So your abs and lower back actually prevent your spine from flexing.
The upshot is that if you want better results from your core workout, you need to train your abs for stability.
The future of abdominal training is a focus on dynamic stabilization – not movement.
Our new DVD – Ultimate Core Training – 21st Century Torso Training is now available.
This DVD contains a multitude of exercises and progressions and non-traditional core training.
Pick it up here => Ultimate Core
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AC
Guest blog by Michael Boyle
The other day I was thinking about some of my former interns who I never see at conferences. Sadly, there are far too many. I often ask them if they are going to attend a particular conference that I am excited about and the response is almost always the same. “I have workouts scheduled that day so I’m not going to be able to go”. These men and women are the ones that come to mind when I say “no time to get better”. Most of these coaches are doing the same workouts they were doing ten years ago and consistently use the excuse that they are too busy to attend conferences. In fact, they are actually too busy to get better. They are so busy trying to be dedicated to their athletes that they are in fact failing them. I believe many of these coaches have the best of intentions. They view an educational day off as a step back for their athletes rather than a step forward.
I hate to tell anyone but, we are not nearly as indispensable as we think. If our athletes work out for one day without us, the world will not end. If the head coach sees you are not there for one workout he probably won’t fire you. Tell him or her that you need to take the time to get better. Think of it as practice.
Ask yourself how many conferences you go to per year? If it is one or less, you are too busy to get better. Ask yourself how many books you read a year in the field. If the answer is less than ten, perhaps you are too busy to get better. How many DVD’s have you purchased and watched this year? No time to get better?
Time spent coaching is one thing. I think that is what most of us like to do best. However if you are always too busy coaching to practice the fine art of self-improvement eventually your coaching will suffer.
Business experts and business coaches often talk about the difference between working in your business and working on your business. If you are always working in your business, you are no more than another employee. You need to spend time working on your business for your business to thrive. In coaching it is the same principle. If you are always coaching but never trying to learn, you eventually fall behind. It’s like playing game after game with no practice.
Don’t be too busy to get better. Set goals for yourself. Set a goal for the number of seminars you want to attend this year. Set a goal for the number of books you will read and DVD’s you will buy. Maybe even set a goal for the number of other coaches you intend to visit this year. I attend a lot of seminars as a speaker and ask anyone, I also sit and listen to the lectures. In addition I set a goal of attending at least one seminar a year as a participant, not as a speaker. Ask yourself honestly “have I been too busy to get better?”.
Q: I hate cardio. But I also hate being fat. Do I have to do cardio to get lean?
A: No you don’t have to. But it makes the whole process a lot tougher. Nothing magical happens when doing cardiovascular exercise – it just burns calories. High intensity ‘cardio’ burns more calories than low intensity ‘cardio’. And low intensity burns more calories than no cardio.
But remember – cardio is really a generic term to describe exercise that targets the cardiovascular system. That covers a lot of different things from steady state aerobic work to interval training to complexes and circuits.
I think most people don’t like walking on a treadmill and being completely bored. I understand that. But if it’s traditional cardio that you dislike – you can do some “non-traditional” cardio (as featured in the Metabolic Acceleration DVD) and burn even more calories.
If you are dieting down for a show or a photo-shoot and have a lot of time, I don’t usually add in any type of energy system work in the beginning – we work on creating a caloric deficit through diet only – adding in more calorie burning in the later stages. However if you need to drop fat as fast as possible – some extra energy system work is nesessary (we currently use the metabolic acceleration programs, or kettlebells and TRX routines).
But at the end of the day — is going for a walk for 30 mins each day really all that bad? Get your Ipod on, some good music or an audio book and head out the door.
Cardio is just a tool to burn calories when you’re trying to get lean. It makes no real difference in terms of fat loss whether you burn the calories off, or don’t eat them in the first place.
Q: Any new fat loss or cardio programs out there (my goal is fat loss)?
Besides the Metabolic Acceleration DVD we’ve been using the TRX and kettlebells to great use in our facility. The TRX is a great tool.
You can set up a simple metabolic circuit using a combination of bodyweight, the TRX and kettlebells. On Monday I did a countdown circuit of KB swings paired with burpees, starting at twenty reps of each and dropping one rep each round (so round two is 19 reps of each, round three is 18 reps of each), all the way down to one rep of each. It adds up to 40 sets and 210 total reps.
For more on the science of fat loss – (when you understand this – you can design your own fat loss programs – check out Fat Loss University )
I was talking to Chris Frankel ( a lecturer and PhD candidate at the University of New Mexico) recently about the massive difference in terms of results between a resistance training program and a cardio based program in terms of fat loss, despite calories burned supposedly being equal.
Chris pointed out that most of the ways to quantify caloric burn from weight training and other anaerobic activites are estimates and have significant amount of error built in. On the other hand, it is really straight forward to measure energy expenditure as calories during steady state exercise. The problem has come when we have tried to use that measurement of caloric burn during aerobic work and apply it to resistance training or circuit training. Quite simply – that method of figuring out the calories just doesn’t work.
I also read some recent work from the University of Southern Maine that used a more accurate method to estimate caloric burn from weight training than had been used previously.
These researchers pointed out that a weight training circuit burned 71% more calories than originally thought. In fact 8 minutes of weight training burned somewhere between 159 and 231 calories. That’s 20-28 calories per minute! And this was a very basic program – not one designed for fat loss – to really maximize caloric burn.
Coaches and trainers have known for years that resistance training is a superior method of exercise in fat loss programs. Up until very recently, we really didn’t know why — as just comparing estimated calories burned did not account for the difference. However – now we know that resistance training burns more calories while you are doing it (using more accurate measurements), and when you factor in any post workout increases in metabolism, and any increases in muscle over 12-16 weeks of the program, the metabolic advantages are even bigger.
Action step: make resistance training the cornerstone of your fat loss and general fitness programs.
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AC
Timing Protein Intake Increases Energy Expenditure 24 Hours Post-Resistance Training.
Hackney KJ, Bruenger AJ, Lemmer JT.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Dec 4. [Epub ahead of print]
This study took a small group of trained individuals in a double blind (ie neither the researchers nor the participants knew what they were getting) crossover design to compare a pre-workout protein supplement to a pre-workout carbohydrate supplement.
Both groups then completed a heavy resistance training workout (4 sets of 9 exercises at 70-75% of max weight)
Both groups showed a significant increase in resting energy expenditure for up to 48 hours post workout (as we would expect from the afterburn effect of weight training), however the protein group had a significantly higher increase than the carbohydrate group for up to 24 hours.
The researchers concluded that timing a protein supplement prior to weight training may be a simple and effective strategy to increase energy expenditure by elevating the post workout “afterburn effect” which in turn could facilitate reductions in body fat mass and improve body
composition if nutritional intake is stable.
Obviously this is a small study – but it’s nice to see this type of work being done. This has been a standard recommendation at Results Fitness for some time (never train on an empty stomach).
Bottom line – adding a pre-workout protein supplement will increase the afterburn effect of a basic weight training program significantly when compared to a carbohydrate supplement.
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AC
