Some things I’m thinking about:
1) There is a big gulf in our profession between trainers who can design workouts and those who can design programs. There’s a big difference between the two and the results you’ll get.
2) The future of resistance training is likely to be asymmetrical and “alive”. Tools like the sandbag, TRX and the power plate are really only now beginning to be integrated into this “aliveness”.
3) “Biometrics” will continue to be an area to explore. We can track heart rate and hrv and are using some real time variables to control metabolic conditioning. We need to be able to do that with strength training.
4) We’ve been able to build a program for strength (based on 1RM) and conditioning (based on VO2 max) but weren’t able to build a structured program around movement until the advent of the FMS. The key will be to integrate all of them.
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AC
A man fell into a hole and couldn’t get out. A doctor walked by and the man yelled up, “Can you help me? I can’t get out!”
The doctor wrote a prescription, threw it down into the hole, and walked away.
A priest walked by, and the man yelled up, “Help! I’ve fallen into a hole, and can’t get out.
The priest wrote a prayer on a piece of paper, threw it down to the man, and walked on.
Soon the man’s friend walked by. “Hey, friend! I’ve fallen into this hole and can’t get out. Can you help me?”
The friend said, “Sure” and jumped into the hole with his friend.
The man said, “Are you crazy? Now we’re both stuck in this hole!”
But his friend said, “No, see, I’ve been in this hole before, and I know how to get out.”
—
That’s the power of learning from people who have been there before.
Find a mentor.
—
AC
One mistake we see many trainers making is trying to be the “Jack” of all trades. We talk about this on strategy number 9 in our book, 55 Fitness Business Strategies for Success.
There are so many different opportunities instead of choosing one and being the best at it….
….many trainers end up doing Boot Camps, In Home Training, working out of at least 1-2 gyms, working with general population, working with athletic teams, going after the rehab population, do fat loss with most of their clients, but also do speed training and doing nutrition consultations trying to be everything to everybody.
Many of these same trainers are going in so many different directions it is hard to ever be great at any one thing. Many of them are “good” but it is the concept in the book, Good to Great by Jim Collins. Being good at many things is the enemy of ever becoming Great at anything.
Choose one road and be the best at that path, learn everything there is to learn and carve a niche for yourself and then you will set yourself apart. Two of the core values for Richard Branson and the Virgin organization is that if they are going to do a project, it must be innovative, and it must be challenging to existing alternatives.
One of our philosophies at Results Fitness is that we won’t do something unless we can do it better than anyone else. We didn’t offer group classes for several years because we didn’t feel we could “change the way fitness is done”. Fast forward to 2012 and gyms around the world are studying our group training model.
Action steps:
*What do you want to be known for?
* What do you want to have TOMA for? TOMA stands for Top of Mind Awareness.
* Decide what you want to be legendary at and go after it.
* Eliminate anything else and get laserbeam focused.
—
AC
I have a book of “notes about stuff” where I record ideas/research/conversations I’ve had/seminar stuff. These are just a few things that we’re looking at right now…
Things I’m thinking about:
In one of my talks I point out that if you were certified by ACE, NASM, NSCA and ISSA combined, you’d have read close to 3000 pages on exercise and less than 2% would be on fat loss.
Trainers therefore try to use “fitness training programming” to create fat loss. Might be completely wrong from the get go.
We’ve tried to program fitness and hope for fat loss as a side effect.
What if we were wrong all along, and the best fat loss training is something different? What if we’re using the wrong tool completely?
There might be no correlation between fitness training and fat loss training outside of energy expenditure. Basic example is aerobic training – it develops aerobic capacity but doesn’t seem to create fat loss.
Giving someone a traditional “fitness program” and just cutting calories/intake and “hoping” that fat loss happens is ass backward.
If it were just about a deficit (as so many claim) then it would be possible to “out train a bad diet”…..Trainers will constantly quote “you can’t out-train a bad diet”. If that’s true and you can’t outperform diet, then exercise itself doesn’t work based on our understanding of fat loss (ie energy expenditure). Because if that’s all there was to it, (calories in v calories out) then you could “out train” a poor diet.
What I’m suggesting is that there could be no relationship between improving aerobic capacity, muscular strength, endurance, speed, flexibility or whatever fitness component you want to name and reducing adipose tissue…..
Our very recommendations in our industry could be incorrect from the get-go.
2) We need to do a better job of integrating nutrition and training.
Up to now, that’s largely been interpreted as adjusting carb intake. I think there’s more to it.
e.g. how much EPA/DHA should a weight class athlete consume with regards to other fats and obviously fat soluble vitamins after week four of a heavy strength cycle using near maximal loading? That’s the level of integration I would like to see explored…
Everyone agrees nutrition should be different whether I’m trying to gain size or lose fat. But it should be different on strength days v metabolic days v rest days.
And not just carb intake.
We see drug/food/supplement interactions. What if the training/nutrition interactions could be eliminated or manipulated?
Perhaps nutrition should be periodized.
3) Soft tissue work may play a big role in metabolism, and we should explore that….
I think that even in a perfectly aligned/balanced/healthy muscle (whatever that is), that the very act of soft tissue work (even if it doesn’t improve any of those factors) will play a role metabolically. If you stir up tissue (massage/SMR) – you stir up physiology. But is there a way to link dose/response?
4) There are different ways to program metabolic training and most trainers aren’t using them all
* Fixed work, fixed recovery
* Fixed work, variable recovery
* Variable work, variable recovery
* Fixed work, progressive recovery
* Regressive work, fixed recovery
Exercise selection also needs to based on some type of continuum based on mechanical work and contractile to pulsatile flow and periodize them at some level.
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There you are – a wee insight into my mind 🙂
—
AC
Fenwick et al.
Comparison of different rowing exercises: trunk muscle activation and lumbar spine motion, load, and stiffness.
J Strength Cond Res. 2009 Mar;23(2):350-8.
Researchers comapred the bent over barbell row, the inverted row and the one arm cable row. The inverted row elicited the highest activation of the latissimus dorsi muscles, upper-back, and hip extensor muscles, with the lowest spinal load. Try the TRX Inverted Row in your next workout.
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McKay et al.
Effect of short-term high-intensity interval training vs. continuous training on O2 uptake kinetics, muscle deoxygenation, and exercise performance.J Appl Physiol. 2009 Jul;107(1):128-38. Epub 2009 May 14.
These researchers compared eight sessions of 8-12 intervals (one minute work to one minute recovery), to eight sessions of 90-120 minute steady state cardio.
Total workout time for the interval group was 80 mins over the 19 day study. Total workout time for the steady state group was 825 minutes. The adaptations were the same in both groups despite the interval training group exercising for one tenth of the time of the steady state group. Interval training wins again…
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Fujioka et al.
The effects of grapefruit on weight and insulin resistance: relationship to the metabolic syndrome.
J Med Food. 2006 Spring;9(1):49-54
91 obese patients were randomized to either placebo capsules and 7 oz of apple juice, grapefruit capsules with 7 oz of apple juice, 8 oz of grapefruit juice with placebo capsule, or half of a fresh grapefruit with a placebo capsule three times a day before each meal.
After 12 weeks, all of the grapefruit groups had lost an average of 4lbs (some losing up to 10lbs) without any change in the diet.
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Bahadori et al.
A “mini-fast with exercise” protocol for fat loss.
Med Hypotheses. 2009 Jul 2.
This was kind of an odd study. The researchers asked the subjects to perform “prolonged, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise at least 3-5 times weekly, nesting each exercise session within a 12-14h mini-fast.” In other words – they spent 12-14 hours per day without food and exercised in the middle of this fast.
No restrictions were given on diet although low fat, low glycemic foods were recommended.
The researchers found that after 12 weeks on this program – the subjects had lost an average of 16lbs.
I’m not sure whether this shows that “prolonged moderate intensity aerobic exercise performed 3-5 times per week” can result in 1.3lbs of weight loss per week, or the fact that people were only allowed 10-12 hours per day to eat lost weight, or a combination of the two. Basically – eating less and exercising more resulted in a small amount of weight loss per week.
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Barwell at al.
Individual responsiveness to exercise-induced fat loss is associated with change in resting substrate utilization.
Metabolism. 2009 Jun 5.
This study showed that the fat loss in response to exercise training depends not only on exercise energy expenditure but also on exercise training-induced changes in the respiratory quotient at rest. This suggests that development of strategies to maximize the change in resting fat oxidation in response to an exercise training program may help individuals to maximize exercise-induced fat loss.
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Kang et al.
Effect of preceding resistance exercise on metabolism during subsequent aerobic session.
Eur J Appl Physiol. 2009 Jun 6.
This study showed that fat metabolism and caloric expenditure during aerobic exercise is enhanced by performing a high intensity resistance training routine first.
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Lee et al.
Resting metabolic rate after endurance exercise training.
Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2009 Jul;41(7):1444-51.
This study showed no change in resting metabolic rate as a result of endurance training. this is similar to other studies showing that only high intensity exercise creates a change in resting metabolism.
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Ormsbee et al.
Regulation of fat metabolism during resistance exercise in sedentary lean and obese men.
J Appl Physiol. 2009 May;106(5):1529-37. Epub 2009 Mar 5.
Fat oxidation and resting energy expenditure are significantly elevated immediately post resistance exercise and subcutaneous abdominal fat burning is increased in the post workout period.
—
AC
(2009 article reprinted from the old blog)
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