When I worked at GNC during my undergrad, I had many my conversations with many different customers. The biggest request I received was for the strongest fat burner we carried (We will discuss these so called "fat burners" later). While each customer was different, they shared a common complaint. Paraphrasing all the variants, they'd tried every diet out there and nothing worked. While I know they'd all tried many different diets, they clearly hadn't tried the right one. Before we get into what the right diet is, lets look at why all the ones they'd tried had failed.
Many of their attempted diets were crazy, placing huge restrictions on calories, macro nutrients, and expecting the person to adopt these restrictions over night. While it is true that you have to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight, requiring too much of a drop too fast is unsustainable, and here is why. If you were to take 10 people and assign them all a diet plan that placed extreme restrictions on their food and calorie intakes, only 1 out of these 10 could sustain this change. Now there were a few of these diets that had merit, providing excellent recommendations and guidelines, and resulted in weight loss for the individuals. However, once they stopped the diet the weight they lost came right back. Why would this happen? They'd followed the protocols to the letter, and even lost weight. So why did it come back? Well, both of these problems have the same cause, and also the same solution.
Diets fail and lost weight comes back for the same reason, poor dietary habits. If your nutritional habits didn't keep you lean and muscular before, they surely aren't going to after you diet. Also, if you aren't used to practicing good nutrition, the extreme changes required by some of these diets are too much to handle. So there you have it, a simple cause of what would seem like a complex problem. Ready for the solution? Of course you are ;)
Now before you get too excited, the answer is not a diet the you can follow. If you want a plan like that, sorry but you gotta pay. My monthly coaching is not expensive, but is very comprehensive, as well as founded in science and results proven (www.precisionnutrition.com, website of Dr. John Berardi, will give you insight into these results). If you have questions or are interested shoot me an email, now back to the solution I promised.
Start by looking at you complete current diet; what you eat and when you eat. Do this over three days and write it down. Once you have this information, I want you to look for the following habits:
1- are you eating every 2-4 hours?
2- are you eating at least 2 servings of veggies at each meal?
3- are you eating lean protein and healthy fat at each meal?
4- are the carbs your consuming only during and after your workout?
By asking yourself these four simple questions, you will get a good idea of where you diet is lacking. Now before you get totally confused by the higher amounts of protein and fat here, if you ready my post on nutrition, you'll understand. By taking these habits and gradually implementing them into your diet, you will be much more successful at weight loss, and ultimately will be healthier as well. Once you have a solid nutritional base under your feet, then, and only under the supervision of a qualified trainer/coach, should you even attempt a more advanced "diet". However, I only recommend doing so if you are looking to get on stage or something of a similar nature.
As before, questions and comments are welcome ;)
Friday, June 17, 2011
Thursday, June 16, 2011
What makes a great trainer, and how to spot one.
Personal trainers are a dime a dozen these days. More and more people are becoming interested in fitness and healthy living. As a result, the fitness industry is churning out substantially larger numbers of trainers compared to even a decade ago. While the optimistic would hope that this would be a positive outcome, and that this increase in trainers would benefit the public, sadly this is not the case.
There is much more to being a personal trainer or strength coach than taking a client through a workout, or giving them cookie cutter information on training and nutrition. When someone makes the decision to go to a trainer to seek help, they are doing so out of a desire to improve themselves for what ever reason motivates them. When the trainer does the things mentioned above, the client suffers. Drawing on the post on training specificity, all people are unique. Everyone has unique nutritional and training needs, and its the trainers job to assess these unique needs and prescribe accordingly. However, this is a rare occurrence these days. Most main stream gyms today are concerned with client volume, not satisfaction. This, along with a lack of desire and coaching knowledge among many so called trainers, has resulted in an express lane style of coaching. Many trainers now simply push clients through an hour long workout, often identical for all their clients, take the clients money, and that's the extent of their interaction. While this has become the norm, it is not the ideal method. Not even close.
A personal trainer or strength coach plays and integral role in a client's body transformation and physical performance. Poor training leads to poor results; superior training leads to superior results. The coach or trainer should take an active interest in each individual client's needs. This is done by meeting with the client, performing interviews and assessments, and prescribing training and nutritional recommendations unique to the individual. The trainer should develop a plan with achievable goals, over a reasonable time frame. In addition to being based on information gathered during the consultations and assessments, the plan should be based on ideal outcomes for the individual. While many people come to a trainer asking for 30 lbs of weight loss in 6 weeks, this is not possible safely. It becomes the job of the trainer to focus their client's goals on something much more reasonable, safe, and lasting. As the plan progresses, the trainer should constantly be getting feedback from the client and performing assessments. This allows for manipulation of the program to keep progress steady.
Sadly, these ideas go way beyond the scope of involvement for the typical trainer. At my old gym, there were four trainers on staff. Three had degrees, one did not. All were certified by a sanctioned governing body such as ISSA, ACE, etc. One of them also had a master's degree in exercise physiology. Out of the four available trainers, only one showed this level of commitment to his clients. I know this based on both a long time friendship with him, as well as being a former client. He provides the ideal service for those that desire results. He also stays as up to date as possible with research and information in our field. These my friends are the mark of a true trainer. Two of the others, sadly one with a degree in exercise science, do not even come close to this level of practice. this means that 1 individual, 25% of the available trainer pool, is worth your time and money. The remaining 75%, do not hold your breath. Sadly, this also means that many of those wishing to achieve their goals possibly will be stuck with sub-par training as one individual can only effectively train a certain amount of people.
So what does all of my ranting and soap boxing mean for you? All of this boils down to one key idea, evaluate your trainer. A trainer worth your time and money uses the techniques above with each and every client. A great trainer uses the science of exercise and nutrition to provide results, results that he or she has documented over numerous successful clients. These traits are easy to spot, and before you invest you hard earned money in a trainer, look for them. Finally, if you are one of the unfortunate people working with a poor quality trainer like those mentioned above, I'd advise a change of plan.
There are many great trainers around that even offer services over the internet, or have numerous books published worth their price (More on diet and exercise books later). A few include Dr. John Berardi (www.precisionnutrition.com) Eric Cressey (cresseyperformance.com) and www.tmuscle.com. These people and websites are a treasure trove of information and services that are worth looking at.
As always, comments, questions, and discussion welcome!
There is much more to being a personal trainer or strength coach than taking a client through a workout, or giving them cookie cutter information on training and nutrition. When someone makes the decision to go to a trainer to seek help, they are doing so out of a desire to improve themselves for what ever reason motivates them. When the trainer does the things mentioned above, the client suffers. Drawing on the post on training specificity, all people are unique. Everyone has unique nutritional and training needs, and its the trainers job to assess these unique needs and prescribe accordingly. However, this is a rare occurrence these days. Most main stream gyms today are concerned with client volume, not satisfaction. This, along with a lack of desire and coaching knowledge among many so called trainers, has resulted in an express lane style of coaching. Many trainers now simply push clients through an hour long workout, often identical for all their clients, take the clients money, and that's the extent of their interaction. While this has become the norm, it is not the ideal method. Not even close.
A personal trainer or strength coach plays and integral role in a client's body transformation and physical performance. Poor training leads to poor results; superior training leads to superior results. The coach or trainer should take an active interest in each individual client's needs. This is done by meeting with the client, performing interviews and assessments, and prescribing training and nutritional recommendations unique to the individual. The trainer should develop a plan with achievable goals, over a reasonable time frame. In addition to being based on information gathered during the consultations and assessments, the plan should be based on ideal outcomes for the individual. While many people come to a trainer asking for 30 lbs of weight loss in 6 weeks, this is not possible safely. It becomes the job of the trainer to focus their client's goals on something much more reasonable, safe, and lasting. As the plan progresses, the trainer should constantly be getting feedback from the client and performing assessments. This allows for manipulation of the program to keep progress steady.
Sadly, these ideas go way beyond the scope of involvement for the typical trainer. At my old gym, there were four trainers on staff. Three had degrees, one did not. All were certified by a sanctioned governing body such as ISSA, ACE, etc. One of them also had a master's degree in exercise physiology. Out of the four available trainers, only one showed this level of commitment to his clients. I know this based on both a long time friendship with him, as well as being a former client. He provides the ideal service for those that desire results. He also stays as up to date as possible with research and information in our field. These my friends are the mark of a true trainer. Two of the others, sadly one with a degree in exercise science, do not even come close to this level of practice. this means that 1 individual, 25% of the available trainer pool, is worth your time and money. The remaining 75%, do not hold your breath. Sadly, this also means that many of those wishing to achieve their goals possibly will be stuck with sub-par training as one individual can only effectively train a certain amount of people.
So what does all of my ranting and soap boxing mean for you? All of this boils down to one key idea, evaluate your trainer. A trainer worth your time and money uses the techniques above with each and every client. A great trainer uses the science of exercise and nutrition to provide results, results that he or she has documented over numerous successful clients. These traits are easy to spot, and before you invest you hard earned money in a trainer, look for them. Finally, if you are one of the unfortunate people working with a poor quality trainer like those mentioned above, I'd advise a change of plan.
There are many great trainers around that even offer services over the internet, or have numerous books published worth their price (More on diet and exercise books later). A few include Dr. John Berardi (www.precisionnutrition.com) Eric Cressey (cresseyperformance.com) and www.tmuscle.com. These people and websites are a treasure trove of information and services that are worth looking at.
As always, comments, questions, and discussion welcome!
Training Specificity- Reason to re-evaluate your workout
In the world of exercise and performance training we have a few laws to go by. These laws are grounded in scientific evidence, so usually they are dead on ( Hint, Hint, always duh!). The one we are talking about today is the Law of Training Specificity.
The law of specificity states simply that whatever you train for you will get better at. In a nutshell, if you train with a bodybuilder style program, your body will experience the adaptations of this style of training, not those of marathon training. What this means for both competitive athletes and everyday people is that your training should be geared towards your desired end state. If you want to be stronger and faster for a sport, your training and exercise selection should reflect this goal. Conversely, if your goal is fat loss, better posture, or any other goal that is not bodybuilding, DON'T TRAIN LIKE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is one of the biggest mistakes, along with poor form and diet of course, that I see daily at the gym. Men and women, both underweight and overweight, young or old, and all not competitive physique athletes are guilty of it. They take workouts featured in bodybuilding and figure oriented magazines that promise fat loss, muscle gains, and rock hard anything, and without thinking do it. This results in the late 50 something out of shape husband and wife duo I saw this morning doing a series of 4 different curl and press down exercises. Now while I am sure that Jay Cutler experienced great gains with this program, not the best selection for everyday people looking for improved body composition and health.
If you do 9 million sets of curls, push downs, side laterals, etc you will become better at these exercises, and your arms/shoulders might grow a little bit. But lets be realistic folks, while many of us want the body of these figure athletes, is it best for us to train like them? The answer is absolutely not.
For someone like the couple above, this exercise selection is wrong. Instead of doing curls, skull crushers, and whatever else, they should be focused on the exercises that have the greatest potential for fat loss, muscle growth, and strength gain. Pushing and pulling are the best thing on earth for these things. Dead lifting, squats, pressing movements, even body weight movements (Yes, you should still do these) all involve both multiple and large muscle groups. This leads to increased muscle mass over a much larger area than those of a curl. Also, this higher level muscle involvement means more calories burned during exercise, as well as afterwards due to muscle gains (muscle is the metabolic furnace that fuels fat loss). Oh, and these compound movements with also make arms and shoulders plenty big enough for the ladies fellas. I have not done an arm specific training program in years, and I have big, strong arms just the same.
In closing, think about what you are doing, and how it relates to your goals. The information above will steer you in the right direction. If you go to some other trainer and they have you doing a bunch of curls and press downs, come to me or Brandon Walters. Brandon is the single best trainer I have seen in this state. He will get you set up along the right path. That is of course if you are Jay or Ronnie. If thats the case, curl away my friends ;)
As always questions and or discussion is welcome!!!!
The law of specificity states simply that whatever you train for you will get better at. In a nutshell, if you train with a bodybuilder style program, your body will experience the adaptations of this style of training, not those of marathon training. What this means for both competitive athletes and everyday people is that your training should be geared towards your desired end state. If you want to be stronger and faster for a sport, your training and exercise selection should reflect this goal. Conversely, if your goal is fat loss, better posture, or any other goal that is not bodybuilding, DON'T TRAIN LIKE ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is one of the biggest mistakes, along with poor form and diet of course, that I see daily at the gym. Men and women, both underweight and overweight, young or old, and all not competitive physique athletes are guilty of it. They take workouts featured in bodybuilding and figure oriented magazines that promise fat loss, muscle gains, and rock hard anything, and without thinking do it. This results in the late 50 something out of shape husband and wife duo I saw this morning doing a series of 4 different curl and press down exercises. Now while I am sure that Jay Cutler experienced great gains with this program, not the best selection for everyday people looking for improved body composition and health.
If you do 9 million sets of curls, push downs, side laterals, etc you will become better at these exercises, and your arms/shoulders might grow a little bit. But lets be realistic folks, while many of us want the body of these figure athletes, is it best for us to train like them? The answer is absolutely not.
For someone like the couple above, this exercise selection is wrong. Instead of doing curls, skull crushers, and whatever else, they should be focused on the exercises that have the greatest potential for fat loss, muscle growth, and strength gain. Pushing and pulling are the best thing on earth for these things. Dead lifting, squats, pressing movements, even body weight movements (Yes, you should still do these) all involve both multiple and large muscle groups. This leads to increased muscle mass over a much larger area than those of a curl. Also, this higher level muscle involvement means more calories burned during exercise, as well as afterwards due to muscle gains (muscle is the metabolic furnace that fuels fat loss). Oh, and these compound movements with also make arms and shoulders plenty big enough for the ladies fellas. I have not done an arm specific training program in years, and I have big, strong arms just the same.
In closing, think about what you are doing, and how it relates to your goals. The information above will steer you in the right direction. If you go to some other trainer and they have you doing a bunch of curls and press downs, come to me or Brandon Walters. Brandon is the single best trainer I have seen in this state. He will get you set up along the right path. That is of course if you are Jay or Ronnie. If thats the case, curl away my friends ;)
As always questions and or discussion is welcome!!!!
A Brief Look Into Nutrition: The Most Important Part of Fat Loss/Performance
The true importance of nutrition seems to be lost among today's society. So to is what qualifies as "good" nutrition for all people, not simply athletes. Nutrition is the single most important and controllable factor of disease prevention and healthy living. Sadly, this seems to be lost on many people I see daily. In this blog, we will look at what constitutes good nutrition, how it's vital to our health, and ultimately show how easy it is to practice on a day to day basis. If during the next few weeks I do not touch on an area you would like to talk about, or you simply want more information, just leave a comment.
I have a challenge for you. While you are at work, school, or wherever you are around other people, I want you to ask a question of them. Ask each person what they believe good nutrition is. I guarantee that each answer will be completely different. Herein lies the first issue we will discuss. There is a fairly large amount of information on nutrition available to the public today. The problem is that it is either in the form of scientific journal articles, or misconstrued in diet books, popular TV shows, and business marketing. This presents a problem for the everyday individual. Most people don't have the training, or desire, to decipher scientific studies, and all of those TV shows, books, and advertisements can be extremely confusing (and often inaccurate!). So to help alleviate this confusion, I am going to give you a simple, easy to understand definition of good nutrition. Good nutrition is nutrition that provides adequate amounts of energy, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients (more on these later). It does so without providing too many calories, which leads to fat gain. Condensed, good nutrition gives you everything you need without excess. Also, good nutrition is unique to you. While base nutritional guidelines are common to all of us, each one of possesses a unique metabolism and physiological makeup. The best nutrition is tailored to your individual needs.
Today, we are going to look a bit into the foods we eat, what makes them up, and how our body uses them for fuel (as well as other important processes). We have a huge variety of foods, both good and bad, at our disposal these days. While the tastes, textures, smells etc of these foods differs greatly, what makes them up does not. There are six components, or nutrients, that are common to all foods: carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. The first three are the only nutrients your body uses for energy ( meaning the obscene doses of B-12 you could be taking are not giving you the energy they are marketed for!). The other three nutrients are used by your body in various metabolic processes, making them essential. First we will look at the first three, known hereafter as macro-nutrients.
Carbs, proteins, and fats are organic compounds that give our foods their caloric value. Carbs and protein are each worth 4 kcals per gram, and fat is 9kcal per gram. It addition to their caloric value, each of these macros is utilized differently by the body. We will begin by looking at carbs. Carbohydrates can be simple or complex in structure. Simple carbs consist of a single sugar, while complex carbs, like starches and fiber, are long chains of glucose bound together. They represent the fastest digestible energy source for our body, and the preferred fuel during high intensity exercise and competition. When we eat carbs, our body breaks them down into simple glucose. Depending on the size and type of carb, this process can be rapid or slow. In order to manage these digested sugars, our body releases insulin, a hormone that signals cells to uptake glucose. When we eat a meal high in simple, processed sugars, there is a rapid rise in blood sugar, as well as insulin levels. Meals higher in complex carbs and fiber are processed slower, meaning a more sustained rise in blood sugar and insulin level over an extended period. Glucose not immediately used for energy is stored as glycogen ( imagine a long chain of glucose molecules) in our muscles and liver. This last sentence is where most of you should really start paying attention since it relates directly to your body composition. Allow me to explain, when the carbs you eat are not being used as energy for daily activity or exercise, and both your liver and muscle stores are full, these carbs are converted into body fat. Also, when the carbs you consume are rapidly digested, but you body's demand for sugar is not high, like after exercise, the carbs turn to fat. Finally, each person handles carbs differently, with some being more efficient at this process that others (more later). This rapid rise in blood sugar, insulin, as well as sustained high blood sugar levels present us with many health problems, but we will discuss those later. The short message to take away from this is to limit simple sugars to immediately after exercise, consume high fiber/complex carbs over simple carbs, and avoid processed carbs at all cost. Later on we will discuss the what, when and how much of carb consumption, and how to individualize it to you.
Protein, second only to carbs in the amount of controversy that surrounds it. This section is going to short and sweet. First, I draw your attention to two different studies currently published that showed high levels of dietary protein have no side effects in healthy adults. This helps alleviate your fears of shutting down your kidneys, or any of the other rumors that float around these days. Second, the metabolic cost of converting protein to glucose and then fat is extremely high, so in active people high protein intakes are much less likely to result in fat gain. Also, protein is time consuming and energy expensive for your body to metabolize, so it increases the Thermic Effect of Feeding, meaning increased calorie burning. This also keeps you feeling full longer. As far as uses in the body, protein is used in construction and maintenance of many body tissues, including muscle. It is also vital for the function of multiple body systems, such as the cardiac, nervous, and immune systems. So, how does all of this translate to protein levels in your diet? Lean protein should be taken in at each meal. Men should get between 40-60 grams per meal, women 20-30 grams. This equals two servings the size of your fist for men, and a single serving this size for women. As far as protein supplements, they are ok if you are not getting enough protein from food, but limit total consumption to 80g per day, and preferably only after workouts. Your body was built to digest whole food, so it is more efficient. Lean sources include 90/10 or better beef, chicken, salmon, talapia, tuna, venison, elk, buffalo just to name a few.
By increasing your protein intake and limiting your carbs to specific times, you will maintain your caloric intake, speed up your metabolism, and improve exercise performance and recovery, as well as many other benefits we will discuss in a separate post specifically on protein. Next up is fat, one of my favorite things (and yours to I bet ;)
I have a challenge for you. While you are at work, school, or wherever you are around other people, I want you to ask a question of them. Ask each person what they believe good nutrition is. I guarantee that each answer will be completely different. Herein lies the first issue we will discuss. There is a fairly large amount of information on nutrition available to the public today. The problem is that it is either in the form of scientific journal articles, or misconstrued in diet books, popular TV shows, and business marketing. This presents a problem for the everyday individual. Most people don't have the training, or desire, to decipher scientific studies, and all of those TV shows, books, and advertisements can be extremely confusing (and often inaccurate!). So to help alleviate this confusion, I am going to give you a simple, easy to understand definition of good nutrition. Good nutrition is nutrition that provides adequate amounts of energy, vitamins, minerals, and other essential nutrients (more on these later). It does so without providing too many calories, which leads to fat gain. Condensed, good nutrition gives you everything you need without excess. Also, good nutrition is unique to you. While base nutritional guidelines are common to all of us, each one of possesses a unique metabolism and physiological makeup. The best nutrition is tailored to your individual needs.
Today, we are going to look a bit into the foods we eat, what makes them up, and how our body uses them for fuel (as well as other important processes). We have a huge variety of foods, both good and bad, at our disposal these days. While the tastes, textures, smells etc of these foods differs greatly, what makes them up does not. There are six components, or nutrients, that are common to all foods: carbohydrates, fats, protein, vitamins, minerals, and water. The first three are the only nutrients your body uses for energy ( meaning the obscene doses of B-12 you could be taking are not giving you the energy they are marketed for!). The other three nutrients are used by your body in various metabolic processes, making them essential. First we will look at the first three, known hereafter as macro-nutrients.
Carbs, proteins, and fats are organic compounds that give our foods their caloric value. Carbs and protein are each worth 4 kcals per gram, and fat is 9kcal per gram. It addition to their caloric value, each of these macros is utilized differently by the body. We will begin by looking at carbs. Carbohydrates can be simple or complex in structure. Simple carbs consist of a single sugar, while complex carbs, like starches and fiber, are long chains of glucose bound together. They represent the fastest digestible energy source for our body, and the preferred fuel during high intensity exercise and competition. When we eat carbs, our body breaks them down into simple glucose. Depending on the size and type of carb, this process can be rapid or slow. In order to manage these digested sugars, our body releases insulin, a hormone that signals cells to uptake glucose. When we eat a meal high in simple, processed sugars, there is a rapid rise in blood sugar, as well as insulin levels. Meals higher in complex carbs and fiber are processed slower, meaning a more sustained rise in blood sugar and insulin level over an extended period. Glucose not immediately used for energy is stored as glycogen ( imagine a long chain of glucose molecules) in our muscles and liver. This last sentence is where most of you should really start paying attention since it relates directly to your body composition. Allow me to explain, when the carbs you eat are not being used as energy for daily activity or exercise, and both your liver and muscle stores are full, these carbs are converted into body fat. Also, when the carbs you consume are rapidly digested, but you body's demand for sugar is not high, like after exercise, the carbs turn to fat. Finally, each person handles carbs differently, with some being more efficient at this process that others (more later). This rapid rise in blood sugar, insulin, as well as sustained high blood sugar levels present us with many health problems, but we will discuss those later. The short message to take away from this is to limit simple sugars to immediately after exercise, consume high fiber/complex carbs over simple carbs, and avoid processed carbs at all cost. Later on we will discuss the what, when and how much of carb consumption, and how to individualize it to you.
Protein, second only to carbs in the amount of controversy that surrounds it. This section is going to short and sweet. First, I draw your attention to two different studies currently published that showed high levels of dietary protein have no side effects in healthy adults. This helps alleviate your fears of shutting down your kidneys, or any of the other rumors that float around these days. Second, the metabolic cost of converting protein to glucose and then fat is extremely high, so in active people high protein intakes are much less likely to result in fat gain. Also, protein is time consuming and energy expensive for your body to metabolize, so it increases the Thermic Effect of Feeding, meaning increased calorie burning. This also keeps you feeling full longer. As far as uses in the body, protein is used in construction and maintenance of many body tissues, including muscle. It is also vital for the function of multiple body systems, such as the cardiac, nervous, and immune systems. So, how does all of this translate to protein levels in your diet? Lean protein should be taken in at each meal. Men should get between 40-60 grams per meal, women 20-30 grams. This equals two servings the size of your fist for men, and a single serving this size for women. As far as protein supplements, they are ok if you are not getting enough protein from food, but limit total consumption to 80g per day, and preferably only after workouts. Your body was built to digest whole food, so it is more efficient. Lean sources include 90/10 or better beef, chicken, salmon, talapia, tuna, venison, elk, buffalo just to name a few.
By increasing your protein intake and limiting your carbs to specific times, you will maintain your caloric intake, speed up your metabolism, and improve exercise performance and recovery, as well as many other benefits we will discuss in a separate post specifically on protein. Next up is fat, one of my favorite things (and yours to I bet ;)
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