Saturday, November 8, 2008

Setting realistic goals from square one...

Whenever I take on a new client and sit them down for an evaluation I always ask them, "So what are your goals?" The answer is usually, "To lose weight". Right from the start, that is an excellent answer however it is like saying "ocean" when someone asks you about your job as exporter of North Atlantic Fish Oil pills. Yeah, it kinda explains it but doesn't really get to the specific point. So we are going to explore goal setting on a more specific level today

"To lose weight"

Losing weight is a very important and worthwhile goal but unless you have a plan for doing it you might as well being throwing darts in the dark while standing in the center of an airplane hanger with your left hand. Statistically, you will never hit the bulls eye. Chances are pretty low that you will even hit the board at all and you will probably end up frustrated, angry, possibly injured and no closer to your goal than when you started. The problem is the overall scope of your goal though.

Goal Setting

If you were to say, "I am going set a goal to go to the gym at least 3 times a week and do at least 30 minutes of cardio at 70% of my max heart rate every time I go", you would be setting a more realistic productive goal. However, while this is a stellar start, you are setting a "gym goal". It's only a portion of the goal you should be shooting for. This is just another place that individuals suffer on their plan. You have to also set a "home goal". What you do at home affects you far greater than what you do at the gym because it's those other 4 days that you are out of your gym mindset that you give in to complacency. I do it myself. It is pretty normal.

At home, you have to have a plan and stick to it. Otherwise, all your hard work is going to slip away and you will be taking 2 steps forward and 5 steps back. This is one of the biggest issues that people have with working out. "I have been working out like crazy 3 days a week and I am not seeing any results". It doesn't take very much to affect what you do and it happens fast. You HAVE to remain vigilant on the days that you don't go to the gym. It's like the saying about a bad apple spoiling the bunch. That is exactly how it works and you have to be careful not to allow this. Ways this can happen are:

-Rewarding yourself with food
-Keeping old habits of overeating
-Insisting that your perception of contentment is real
-Not supplementing your gym days with a little extra, i.e., taking the stairs at work, etc.
-Not tracking your intake
-Thinking that you are doing enough at the gym to be able to eat however you want

This is NOT a lifestyle change. It is a LIFE CHANGE!!!

If you don't modify your behavior and create a real change in habits then you will be doing the equivalent of pushing against a wall that you are building and reinforcing every day.

At Home

Let's focus on home life for a second. As I said, we spend those "non-gym" days at home and this is a huge part of our problem. How do we change it? Consider child-proofing. When you bring a child into your home you go absolutely crazy about electrical outlets and haz-mat cabinets taping off corners on tables as well as a whole slew of other considerations you make to keep that little one as safe as possible. It's a great idea. Now, put that in relation to yourself. Keep healthy stuff in the cabinets and fridge. Boycott all sodas. Start reading the nutrition information on food. Eliminate the possibility of falling into bad habits. Etc...

The best way to alter your behavior is to start at a neurological level. Neural pathways operate on the basis of repeated recognition of perceived data. If you spend 2 years as a typist in a law office and then stop typing for a year do you forget how to type? Of course not. But if you spend that same year typing on a foreign keyboard where the letters and numbers are out of the usual order, do you think you would re-learn typing all over again? Absolutely. This is what we are shooting for. We MUST relearn. If we relearn a new perception of contentment then we will eat less and feel full sooner. If we learn to shop for healthier foods and read the nutrition panel on the back of everything we will develop a new attitude toward what we consume. If we learn to enjoy fruit over sugar rich snacks then we will really overcome our dependence on sugar rich foods (this is a major one).

So let's start to develop some goals...

1. Go to the gym 3 days a week. --just being at the gym will fill you with a desire to work out--
2. Do at least 30 minutes of intermediate level cardio 3 times a week. --220 minus age multiplied by .7 = 70% of max heart rate - this is a good target heart rate and will be conducive to fat burn--
3. Shop smarter. --not as hard as it sounds. Start being more aware of what you are consuming on the basis of calories and saturated fat, trans fat acids, etc. Learn to enjoy sprouts and salad and more vegetables and lightly seasoned chicken breasts and other lean meats--

Remember, keep your goals small and easier to hit but somewhat challenging. Consider the big picture as a bunch of smaller pictures. It's the smaller ones we're going to focus on. Things are a bit easier this way.

More later...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Turning up the work-out beyond cardio...

People ask me all the time, "How is lifting weights going to make me thinner?" They usually follow up with, "I don't want to get all muscular and beefcake". Let's go ahead and start here.

There are principally 2 types of resistance training: Endurance and hypertrophy-specific.

Endurance training: Resistance training characterized by low weight and high repetitions. It improves overall stamina and endurance at a muscular level. In doing so this form of training facilitates the improvement of cardiac output, increased hemoglobin in the red blood cells, increased mitochondria volume and increased production of capillaries in the muscles.

What does this mean to you?

Well, improved stamina and endurance means you can spend more time doing strenuous activities before you get completely tanked out. For instance, helping a friend or loved one move into a new place or perhaps something as simple as carrying in groceries or washing the car.

Also, an improvement in cardiac output is matched by an increase in the number of capillaries in the muscles. Together, this takes away that feeling of not getting enough air by allowing the blood to move more slowly through the muscle to maintain the time needed for oxygen diffusion. Long story short, less wheezing from the more dreaded exercises. Adding an increase of hemoglobin increases the amount of oxygen carried to the muscles from the lungs in the first place.

Likewise, an increase in the number of mitochondria in the cells INCREASES THE RATE AT WHICH FAT IS BURNED during cardiovascular exercise. For the uninitiated, mitochondria are the living organelles in the cells that eat fat and spit out fuel. That's a good thing.

Furthermore, this kind of workout has been shown to cause a natural release of endorphins which are known to suppress stress, pain and anxiety as well as increase natural levels of serotonin which can ease your overall mood and stress levels as well (think of how you feel after you eat turkey on Thanksgiving...you know, tryptophan). If nothing else, it also releases that wonderful feeling of a job well done. It's what I tell my clients: What you are doing in this half-hour period is more than most people will do all year. And that's a statistical fact.

The Overload Principle
Placing a greater than usual demand on a muscle or muscle group that eventually leads to increased functionality.
Another thing people ask me is, "How do I know how much weight I should be using?" This is a good question and actually has a very involved answer. Ideally, we would first consider the concept of 1RM or one repetition max. This is the amount of weight that can be, with proper form, moved a single time. For the purpose of endurance training, we would consider 75% of 1RM. However, this amount can drastically vary throughout different muscle groups. For example, 75% of 1RM will allow me 8 or 9 repetitions with my chest whereas 75% of 1RM on a leg press will allow anywhere from 12 to 20 with my legs. Furthermore, constantly testing 1RM for every exercise you intend to perform is just not practical. This is where you have to apply judgment as well as increase the number of sets. I like to keep my number of reps to at least 8 and no more than 10 for 3 sets. This, I find, makes for a well-rounded endurance workout.

Hypertrophy-specific training: This is what builds that crazy bulky muscle. This is high weight and low repetitions. This is a totally different ball of wax and doesn't really suit our current purposes so I won't delve into the finer points of it in this particular post.

Ok, think of it like this. Endurance resistance training is college for your muscles. You train them, develop them, teach them how to function productively and the smarter and better equipped they become the more productive and efficient they will be in the real world. Now think of cardiovascular training as getting that dream job for your muscles. This is the entire reason for going to college in the first place. It's all about the job afterward. Keep in mind, you get out of your job what you put into it. The harder you work and the more time you spend doing it and refining it and coming up with new and interesting ways to do it, the more you will ultimately get out of it. Learn to love the job. Take time to do it from home if you need to. What's more, this job takes away stress and makes you feel better.

Finally, do some research on simple and sensible exercises. I would hate for anyone to gum up the works by doing exercises that are simply too complex or just too dangerous in general (yes, those exercises do exist). Use the K.I.S.S. rule: Keep It Simple...Superstar. Concentrate on muscle groups as these are stronger and easier to work out than individual muscles. Groups like the chest, the legs and the back. Using several muscles at once carries a greater benefit than single muscle exercises.

Remember, the days you don't feel like working out are the days you NEED to work out most. Stay positive and push yourself.

More later...

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Oldest and Easiest, continued...

Yeah, sorry to leave you hangin' there on that last one. I had to go to work. Crazy work.

Moving on...

So, 1 MET = 3.5 ml of oxygen per kg of bodyweight per minute. This formula will explain how much work is being done in METS. This is actually a part of a bigger equation. I know exactly what you are thinking: “Kg? Ml?” What, you don't know how to convert standard to metric? Come on. Seriously. No problem, I bought you guys a calculator. It's on the right.

Now, cardiovascular work is defined by the amount of oxygen being used and since we don't have spirometers just lying around we are going to have to “predict” METs based on existing data. That is to say, walking is roughly 5 METs, give or take. So, if we factor this all together and use a 150 pound man walking for 20 minutes for our example and using the awesome calculator on the right: 5 METs x 3.5 ml of oxygen = 17.5 ml of oxygen per minute x 20 minutes = 350 ml of oxygen for the duration of the exercise divided by 1000 = .35 Litres of oxygen x 4.85 (predicted caloric expenditure for mixture of fat/carb burn) = 1.7 calories x 68 kg of bodyweight for a total of 116 calories over 20 minutes. Got it? Awesome.

This is what personal trainers have to know to become personal trainers. Ask your trainer to work this out for you. Chances are they can't. That's why we use calculators to do this. THIS IS A SCIENCE. There is very little guesswork involved here and the guesses that are made have a basis for comparison and are valid to extremely close margins and degrees.

And I went ahead and put on a NEW calculator to assist you in figuring out how many calories you burn for a vast array of activities so you don't have to try to figure it out on your own. This will give you new perspective on your workout and help you to better understand what you are doing. One of the most difficult parts of working out is understanding the “why” behind doing it. Kinda like chasing your tail with your eyes closed.

So, this endless maelstrom of incomprehensible gobbledygook and technical nonsense is definitely something to consider. Cardiovascular exercise is what burns fat. It is what tones us up. Keep that in mind.

More later...

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Oldest and Easiest Workout...

Walking is practically a basic life function considering how much of it we have to do in our day to day routines. Likewise, it is exceptionally productive at a cardiovascular level. On an extracurricular level, we should make a point to walk more because of its effectiveness as a workout. It is convenient, easily accessible and great for people who experience difficulty moving because of physical limitations and joint issues that prohibit them from higher intensity exercises. Long and short, it is a great starting point.

I would like to note the importance of good shoes and appropriate clothing for working out. Shoes should be athletic in nature as these provide more support and comfort, especially as you progress to longer workouts. Arch support, heel padding and wide versus narrow fit are also considerations that can have a great effect on your workout. Fortunately, there are shoe stores specifically for athletes and workout enthusiasts and their entire function is to provide you with the best possible shoe on the basis of your style of workout (walking, running, sports, etc) AND based on measurements of your foot. It is actually a very involved process that these stores take a great deal of pride and seriousness in. Runtex is a perfect example of this kind of store.

Clothing should be vented and loose fitting. Special care should be taken as colder temperatures will affect the way we dress. As the temperature drops we should dress in loose layers if we intend to workout outdoors. As our core temperature rises from our workout, tighter fitting clothing inhibits evaporation and keeps the sweat closer to our skin. That sweat sitting on our skin will then cool with the ambient temperature and cause us a GREAT deal of discomfort, pain and possible injury. In the Army we referred to this as a cold weather casualty. It will take you right out of the game.

Now, our goal is to aim high. Walking to the end of the driveway and back is what we do to check the mail. Walking around the block is what we do to start. Walking around the block twice is what we do to turn it up a bit. And so on and so on.

As I mentioned before, your basic life functions are fueled by fat. These lower heart-rate functions are performed every day for hours on end. Unfortunately, we can't lose weight by blinking our eyes. We simply want our metabolism to go from an eye-blink to snowball and as we progress that snowball gets bigger and faster.

Now, you may have wondered at some point, how do we know how many calories we are burning? Understanding this basic concept will make the process a whole lot simpler and that demystification is important in calculating dietary needs in relation to energy expenditure. It goes like this:

TECHNICAL MUMBO-JUMBO At rest, you are functioning at 1 MET. A MET is a measurement of cardiovascular work (simple explanation) and it is based on the amount of oxygen you are consuming during work. 1 MET is equivalent to: 3.5 ml of oxygen per kg of bodyweight per minute.

More later...