| Marie - your quiz .. | Week 8 of 12, Day 54 of 84
I love it! I want "D". Er, ah, oh, you meant look at the guys pictures, and choose how I want my body to look? Oh, well, "D" there, too.
Actually, if I were to pick my favorite femme physique, I would add an option "F" and insert this picture of my wife:
... and that's what I'd pick! For my own body, I still enjoy the shape I was in here:
And I plan to be there and beyond in 11 weeks!!!! WHOOOOOOOT!
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 5/23/2003 9:20:14 AM | | Emma - about this manhood thing | Week 8 of 12, Day 53 of 84
I couldn't help but respond to a few points!
* Am I the only guy who really likes the movie Chocolat?
* Don't play Black Jack
* Don't use an umbrella ... it's not like the rain is going to make me melt and I certainly don't believe it helps me catch a cold. This one makes my wife MAD ("Why don't you carry an umbrella.") Although it does crack my daughter up when I start jumping around and jerking and tell her, "I'm doding the rain drops."
* I've never waited 100 minutes for a girl no matter what her rating on the "hotness" scale
* My wife loves sports and has a great knack with buffalo wings. Although, my lack of sports knowledge typically gets me stuck talking to the interior decorators while the other dudes hem and haw about the latest game
* Beer is great compensation for buddies. But this one can be dangerous. I had a buddy come over to help me finish a room in my basement. We had this grand idea that we'd work through the night and drink beer. It worked well until about 5 am when we were both tired and drunk. The attempt to hang a piece of 12' x 4' drywall was aborted when it slipped out of my hand and nearly severed my buddy's thumb. Of course, being a man's man, he just gritted his teeth, said it was fine, and continued working. In church at 10:30am the same day, he nearly fainted. His wife took him to the emergency room and they found he had crushed the muscle and nerves in his thumb and cracked the bone. They dressed him up and when I called to apologize, he only said, "No problem .. just let me know when you're ready to plaster."
* That speedos think is tough. How do you propose I keep Zach from getting on stage in a pair of speedos? Have you seen how huge he is lately?
* The weight-lifting one is hilarious. Fortunately, I don't talk much when lifting - I only grunt, groan, growl, and scream.
That was a great share .. thanks!
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 5/22/2003 7:38:54 AM | | Buzz, answers, Dawn, welcomes, etc., Michal answer ... | Week 8 of 12, Day 52 of 84
Mimi - just saw you posted while I was writing this, so wanted to add prayer and positive thoughts for your blemish!
Dawn - welcome! You're in great hands with Sue. We all look forward to sharing in your success!
Buzz - Honestly, 4 weeks is a number pulled like magic out of thin air. Some people will swear by it, but you have to ask yourself ... why switch? In a BFL program that lasts 12 weeks, it's easy to divide it into 4 week chunks. For a trainer, too, it's easy just to switch exercises on a fixed time frame instead of actually getting feedback from the client, learning their body, and changing the exercises based on what the body needs and some demand. 4 weeks is a decent number in my book, and here's why: in my opinion, it takes three training sessions to really get an effective workout. The first session is when you are learning the exercise and also floundering with weights and figuring out exactly how much you need to hit your targets. The second session has you easing into it, ready to have a decent guess at the weight and familiar with the exercise, and the third session is when your body is really confident enough to load a heavy weight and get a lot of tension out of the workout. Now, if you are training once a week, that's a 3 week minimum. If you are doing holistic sets like I am, then I actually rest up to 9 days between sets, so 3 sessions will last me 5 weeks.
But why stop at 4 weeks? If you are training very intensely, and I mean the scientific definition - in other words, you are lifting 90% or higher of your one rep maximum, so if you can bench press 200 for one rep, you are lifting with 180 pounds of heavier, then you are not only physically taxing your body, but you are straining your central nervous system. So for really heavy lifts, I like to back off after 4 - 5 weeks and rest. This doesn't mean cutting out training, but it means doing lighter weights, etc.
If you aren't training that intensely, then I always say ... if it's not broke, don't fix it. I have so many people that just automatically switch exercises at 4 weeks. They might be making great progress, but the sand runs out of the hourglass and it's time to switch. What is your goal? If you are trying to build muscle and gain strength, the only requirement is that you perform more work. So if you are consistently increasing your weights and reps, why stop? Unless you are bored with the exercise, then you might as well continue enjoying your strength and maximizing your gains. It's only when you hit a plateau that you really should switch.
Let's put this in perspective: you bench 200 this week. Next week, you add 210 and hit it. Next week, 220 .. and so on. Great. Well, now you went to 230 and you can't hit your reps. So the next week you stay at 230, and you do hit your reps. Well, you've exhausted the 10 pound option, so go up to 235. Then 240. Now suddenly you are exhausted again. Fine, if you have 2.5 pound weights, hit 242.5. Now, two weeks have gone by and you can't do any more reps. NOW your body is telling you - this is enough, switch. The switch doesn't have to be much. What has happened is that your central nervous system has become so efficient at that workout, that it simply isn't adapting any more. It's a dead end. Simply going to a slight incline is enough change in the way the load hits your muscle, that your CNS has to relearn and you will progress. Or go to decline. Or switch from dumbbells to barbell. Or from flyes to pec deck. Then you start the whole process over again!
So, if you are bored, switch. If you are at a plateau, switch. But if you enjoy your exercises and are making progress, why change a thing? I happen to love squats. What happens when the squat runs out of steam? Here are my options:
Squat
Box squat
Front squat
Squat with wide stance
Squat with narrow stance
High bar squat
Low bar squat
Hack squat
One-legged squat
Breathing squat (you do 10 reps, then you do 10 reps taking one breath between reps, then you do 10 more reps taking two breaths between reps)
Squat jumps
Partial squat
The list goes on and on. Bench press? Flat bench. Decline bench. Incline bench. Bench with dumbbells. Bench with barbells. Floor benches (yes, lying on the floor). Bench using german volume training. Bench doing forced reps. Drop sets with bench. Cluster sets with bench (10 reps, pause 10 seconds, 10 more reps, etc). Bench supersetted with back. Bench using a slow tempo like 422 (4 seconds to lower, 2 second pause, 2 seconds to raise it). See, I can get a lot of real estate out of a bench press, too!
Buzz ... you like it, keep it. It's not working for you? Toss it, grab another exercise out of the rolodex, and keep on truckin', buddy!
Michal - the target heart rate equation is a farce. Seriously. It is very hotly contested by many scientists. Your heart rate is a combination of genetics, environment, level of fitness, etc. A study was published 30 years ago that made an inference and even admitted a large margin of error. The person who spearheaded the summary put that equation as an approximation of the data he interpreted, NOT as something to project to the general population. Several studies since then have proven this equation to have a HUGE margin of error, yet what's happened is that it's worked its way into textbooks and proliferated, and a large body of people (including trainers) who just take what they hear at face value and don't question the source end up spreading it. It's not your fault - you hear "experts" talk about this, so most people would think the equation works - just like so many people believe that eating cholesterol actually raises blood cholesterol or that fats are bad. The truth is, if I am a marathon runner, my heart can probably tolerate a lot more workload than you. Pushing a high heart rate can actually mean two things ... one, that you are extremely out of shape, so your heart has to work hard to keep up with you, or two, that you are extremely IN shape and like to train anerobically and push your heart rate up to a higher limit. Sort of a paradox, eh? Cross-country skiiers actually get close to their "maximum" and maintain that for hours on end, whlie runners get so efficient they can run 30 miles and be under 70% of their maximum. It's really one of those attempts at "one size fits all" (similar to the switch exercises every 4 week thing).
Here is what I would do: instead of letting some equation dictate your workout, let your body speak for you. When you are doing cardio, you can either stay within a certain "zone" as Emma alluded to in her post, or you can do interval training. In interval training, you want to enter the anaerobic zone (higher heart rate) but then get out of that zone - that's why it's interval, intervals in the zone and intervals out of it. To find you maximum heart rate, instead of the equation, you can do one of two things. I like doing the weight lifting maximum test. Strap on your heart rate monitor, then warm up and do a heavy lift - I wouldn't recommend a 1 rep max unless you know the proper way to warm up and work towards it, but maybe a 3 rep set or 6 rep set. Find the weight where you go to failure on the last rep, and record your heart rate after that rep. This will be your upper limit heart rate. In your intervals, it's okay to reach that level, but then you want to drop at least 10% below it. When I do a max bench press, my heart rate is 180 so I target 180 as a cap for my training and try to drop to 160 in the slower intervals. The other way you can find your zone is a little treadmill test. Get on the treadmill, set a comfortable speed, and go for a minute. Every minute, increase the speed and the incline. Keep going until you can't stand it any more. Monitor your heart rate ... that will be a good upper limit.
If you have a history of heart problems, are recovering from surgery, etc, then a high heart rate IS a potential threat and you should work closely with a physician to monitor it. Otherwise, pushing it heavy will help you lose fat. In fact, more important than your heart rate is how quickly it recovers. An out of shape person will have an elevated heart rate for minutes and even hours after they train. As you get into better shape, you'll notice that your heart rate falls more rapidly after exercise - and this is a sign of being fit!
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 5/21/2003 8:56:10 PM | | Kelly - there's only one plan! | Week 8 of 12, Day 52 of 84 cont...
When training for ISSA certification, one of the things they teach is NOT to ask a client "what they want" on the first visit. Instead, it is an "exploration" session, checking out the equipment, their physique, etc. Now that seems silly ... how can a trainer possibly keep their job without knowing what the client wants?
The truth is, I oversimplified the process ... but almost everyone wants the same thing. They want to lose fat, and they want to maintain or gain muscle. I have never met someone who wanted to lose muscle. I know many overweight people who think their bulk is from muscle and don't realize that most of that will disappear as they lose fat, and I once saw a special about a woman who had abused steroids and therefore was hulking and "man like" and therefore wanted to lose muscle to become more feminine again, but I've never had a client say "I want to lose muscle" and I've never had anyone argue against losing fat.
My point is that it is a common, and valid, question - how can I lose the most fat possible without losing muscle? That is a GREAT question to ask. Fortunately, the answer is straightforward. Perform cardio, train with resistance, eat healthy, and consume less than you expend.
That's it!
If you are eating multiple meals a day, getting adequate protein (and believe me, I think 100% of the people who have found fitness through Body-for-LIFE or other programs are getting more than enough protein), stimulating your muscles, and burning energy, you will lose fat and you will do your best for maintaining muscle.
On the other hand, there are so many factors, including genetics, that dictate how our body will respond that you cannot have a guarantee that you won't lose lean mass. It depends on how far you want to go. I've seen the mistaken impression that being low body fat and seeing your abs is healthier than someone who doesn't see their abs. This simply isn't true. While the process to get there may (or may not) be healthy, our bodies are built with a PREFERENCE for fat storage. That's why so many people are obese! And our bodies are built, regardless of the trendy movement to "eat more and still drop fat", to run on low calories. That means that the body actually tries to minimize muscle gain because more muscle means more calories to maintain ... and the body wants to remove as much dependency on calories as possible to protect against famine and stress and other events.
So, to get to maybe 18% body fat for a woman and 12% body fat for a man, and these are just generalizations, is a straightforward process - consume few calories. If you want to gain or maintain muscle in the process, then train with resistance. The only rules with resistance training are to do more work each time - either lift another rep or increase the amount of weight, and when your body becomes so efficient at the exercise that you stop making progress, then change the exercise. And trust me, getting to that level is VERY healthy. I don't care if there's extra body fat around your middle section and you can't see your abs. If you are eating healthy, and your heart is pumping efficiently (cardiovascular health) and your bones and joints are strong enough to resist the impact from a fall (strength training) then you are in good shape.
Going below that, however, is a sacrifice. Gaining extra muscle means really TRICKING your body ... changing the stimulus and applying the force in such as way that it is forced to adapt by growing your muscle tissue. Trust me, gaining more muscle shouldn't be your concern - unless you are an expert at exercise, physiology, kinesiology, and other disciplines, or are working with an awesome trainer, you won't be gaining much muscle beyond a certain point because it's just too complex ... if it were easier, there would be more successful bodybuilders. What we see when we look at champions is the one millionth percentile that has the genetic makeup to POTENTIALLY succeed in gaining sufficient muscle to compete, and then the one thousandth percentile of those people who actually find the right combination of training, exercise, rest, and recovery to actually take advantage of that potential. I know for many people it may seem like they are gaining muscle, but unless you've ever become really, really lean, I'd wager a guess that most of the bulk is not the muscle you think it is.
Back to getting really lean .. some people can do it and preserve/gain muscle ... Zach is walking proof of this. He worked HARD at it .. harder than most anybody I know could possibly work ... but that work paid of. Some people, no matter how hard/smart they train will always lose a little muscle mass when they lean out that last little bit.
The GREAT news is that it is infinitely easier to gain muscle when you are extremely lean than when you are heavy. I've said this before (can't remember if it was here?) but studies show that the more body fat you have, the more likely you are to gain or lose fat when you gain or lose weight. The less body fat you are, the more likely you are to gain or lose muscle when you gain or lose weight! This is why someone at 30% body fat who goes on a "bulking phase" will probably, despite an increase in strength and hard effort, gain more fat than muscle. On the other hand, someone at 6% who tries to drop 3 pounds will probably lose some lean mass, but according to former BFL Champions Scott Nelson and Harry "Hank" Johnson, Jr, when they are extremely lean, they just double their calories for a few weeks and gain muscle without even training hard!
So ... I know I always take a long time to explain myself, but I just want people to not only know "what" I'm saying, but also "why" I'm saying it. So, to summarize, here is "what" I'm saying ...
Drop weight. Don't worry about the muscle. There is SO much emphasis on "gaining or maintaining" muscle when dropping weight. The people I know who have been extremely successful at maintaining a lean physique had one thing in common - they simply dropped the weight and reached their goal for becoming lean, THEN they added the muscle and monitored their body fat. So focus on getting the fat off, but don't feel like you have to do anything special to preserve muscle. If you weight train, you are doing what you can to stimulate that muscle. Focus on dropping your weight until you reach your goal. If you lose some muscle mass in the process, it will be easier to gain it and "bulk" once you're lean.
And to help be realistic, while men can readily drop 0.5 - 1.5 percent of their body weight each week, women are more in the 0.5 - 1.0 range. So if you are dropping more than 1% of your body weight, it is probably water weight and possibly muscle mass. This can't be prevented with any special training or supplement, it simply means you need to eat more to slow your rate of weight loss. This doesn't mean it HAS to be lean mass - some people can drop a ton of weight in a short period of time and still come out clean, but the majority of women I've worked with (and most of my clients were women) had their best results if they lost between 0.5 and 1.5 pounds per week, with 2 pounds really pushing it.
Focus on dropping that weight, and don't worry about doing anything special for the muscle. The numbers say I dropped lean mass when I prepped for my photo shoot, but 9 out of 10 people said, "How did you get so freaky big?" The reality is that I didn't get bigger, I got smaller, BUT with the low body fat, the muscle definition showed and therefore it looked bigger. When you lean down, you will not have huge, freaky muscles. In fact, in clothes, most people will probably do what they did to me - they'll say you're too skinny and should GAIN weight. But when you bare your arms or legs and the detail shows, suddenly you look "muscular". Once you are lean, you can decide if you need to build more muscle or not - but it takes the discipline and drive to get lean first before you can have the discipline to build muscle and remain or get lean again.
And a final note .. think long and hard about your goals! Are you in this for health? Then it's not necessary to have shredded abs! Now, some people will reach that level simply through eating healthy, and that's great. But others have to fight, struggle, claw their way to it ... and unless you are just concerned about the physical appearance, why put yourself through it? It's a great lesson in discipline and accomplishment, but if you really are targetting health, it's not necessary ... a woman at 20% body fat who can run several miles and lifts weights regularly and has a healthy heart and cardiovascular system is no less healthy than the 12% body fat woman with ripped veins and big muscle. The latter might be more athletic, but athletic is not healthier. It seems like common sense would dictate this, but I know a marathon runner who is the top of his age class and his pre-run meal is a bag of Dorito's and a coke and his post-run meal is a six pack of beer. While his heart may pump efficiently and he can outrun me, I feel for his liver and his body in general - as he pounds his body through exericse, what junk is being supplied to rebuild it? Running may be fun now, but the real benefit of eating healthy comes in the golden years, when all of that food that created your body starts to break down ... then is when people go, "Why didn't I eat more veggies, whole foods, etc".
WOW. I sure do rant a lot. I'd better take a break from long posts, before Zach starts charging me rent for storage space!
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 5/21/2003 11:34:28 AM | | P.S. - a long overdue thanks to Zach! | Week 8 of 12, Day 52 of 84 cont...
Zach,
I meant to thank you a week ago, but you know how hectic things get. Doreen was reading a few blogs, and told me, "Congratulations." I said, "Huh?" For the front page mention ... what? I had totally missed it. Thank you so much, those are kind words, and I PROMISE to deliver with this mean, GREEN challenge I'm in!
posted by Jeremy on 5/21/2003 9:32:58 AM |
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