| The PECking Order | Week 3 of 12, Day 16 of 84
First, before I forget, DeniZ - I almost completely forgot, but as people age, their body starts storing more vestigal fat, i.e. around the internal organs. Since body fat is TOTAL body fat, but the body fat we see in pictures is mainly the subcutaneous (under the skin) body fat, that means that a 50-year old with 10% body fat might appear to be in the same shape as a 25-year old with 8% body fat, etc. (This is why age is part of the equation). When you mentioned cross-referencing age in your post, that's what reminded me - I was at stone mountain here in Georgia for a local Body-for-Life™ get-together and offered to measure body fat. Two very fit women approached me, one appeared to be in her early 20s and the other appeared to be in her late 30s. Well, it turns out that the latter was actually in her late 40s, she was just in terrific shape. They both were lean enough that their abs were showing, but of course, when I took their body fat, the wiser woman had a higher reading due to the simple fact that she had seen more birthdays. This sparked a debate between the two women and I was informed that putting age into the body fat equation simply isn't fair! I'm just the messenger! LOL!
Last night was INCREDIBLE. I was going to be a lazy fool and swap my workout schedule to catch up on some sleep. My wife wanted to take a walk because it was absolutely gorgeous outside. We were walking for a few minutes when I realized that in the time it would take to go on a walk, I could be finishing my workout. So I jogged back to the house, ran downstairs, and started pounding it out. I did 2 sets of 6 reps at 205 for bench, which is probably close to a record for me. The heaviest I've lifted was 240 pounds, but then I was only going to upper arms parallel, i.e. no full range of motion. I'm targeting that same 240 but with a full range of motion by the end of this cycle.
I did several exercises for chest and triceps: bench press, incline bench press, decline dumbbell bench press, flat flyes, reverse grip bench press, skull crushers, triceps push-downs, and dips. It was a great workout and I had a fantastic pump. My wife told me I was more muscular than she could ever remember seeing me. That was very motivating, considering the fact that (as Zach suggested in his post yesterday) I had myself convinced that my largest "muscle" right now is this tire of bloated fat cells around my waist. I realized that in 2 weeks I have made incredible strength and size gains and stayed practically the same weight on the scale .... so I'm certain I've lost a tad of fat. We'll see how the four week pictures go considering I will be keeping it GREEN for the next 12 days before the shoot.
Today's eats:
6:00am 1 tbsp flaxseed oil, 8oz fresh tangerine juice
6:30am 1 red pear, 1 gala apple, 1 kaya orange
10:30am my yummy spicy lentil stew with a piece of whole grain pita bread
12:30pm snack on some BAKED organic corn chips
2:30pm 4oz of my wifes INCREDIBLE New York Strip steak, 1 cup of black beans
Last night's dinner was ... oh, can you say ... HEAVEN?! My wife rolled some fresh Icelandic salmon in olive oil and seasame and then grilled those puppies and served them with streamed broccoli. YUMMY.
Take care, everyone.
Yours in Christ,
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 4/15/2003 7:13:29 AM | | Tendonitis, Carpal Tunnel, and your wrists | Week 3 of 12, Day 15 of 84
I type over 100 words per minute and work in front of a computer easily 40 - 60 hours per week. Prior to working out, I had all of the precursor symptoms to full-blown carpal tunnel syndrome. I had very sore wrists, my arm would go numb or get tingling pain, I'd have pain shooting into my hands, my fingers would get locked up, etc. It was getting to the point where I would eventually have my doctor recommend some agressive therapies and possibly even look into surgery.
This is when I found Ian King and the Lazy Man's Guide to Stretching. Actually, this article is a great summary of what I learned, but is only a small fraction of what he teaches in his videos dedicated to stretching and control drills, and also what I learned in a seminar.
Back to the wrist. There are two distinct things I began to do that totally reversed my condition with my wrists and now let me type and work pain free. I strongly recommend these to anyone who uses a computer or engages in some sort of repetitive task that could put them at risk from repetetive stress syndrom, which for us computer geeks manifests itself as tendonitis and/or carpal tunnel syndrome.
(1) I began strengthening my forearm muscles to reinforce my wrist joint.
(a) This doesn't mean you necessarily have to dedicate mega-sessions to wrists alone. For example, in your curl routine, insert a few rounds of reverse curls and do the same for your triceps exercises (i.e. reverse grip push-downs and skull-crushers).
(b) Target your flexors doing wrist curls, which can be with a dumbbell, barbell, or even cable. To make things more interesting, try wrapping cloth around the bar or dumbbell to change the grip.
(c) Target your extensors doing reverse wrist curls and apply the same rules of variety above.
(2) STRETCH!!! This is key.
After any workout that will warm up your wrists - which is a lot - such as biceps, triceps, bench press, cable rows, dead-lifts, etc - anything where you are wearing out your grip - this is the ideal time to stretch your forearms. You may also do so during work after a typing session, but you'll reap the greatest beneft doing these stretches for 20 - 40 seconds after lifting:
(a)
 Wrist Extensor Stretch - place one arm in front of you, palm facing away and fingers pointing up. Now, grasp the fingers with your other hand and pull towards your body to stretch the wrist.
(b)
 Wrist Flexor Stretch - place one arm in front of you, palm facing away. Now bend at the wrist so the fingers are pointing down (your palm will now be facing you). Grasp your fingers with your other hand and pull towards your body to stretch the wrist flexors.
(c)
 Wrist Rotation Stretch - start with one arm out, palm facing away, fingers pointing up. Now, rotate the thumb away from the middle of the body (clockwise for the right arm, counter-clockwise for the left arm). Grasp this hand with the other hand, and pull through the rotation to stretch the wrist rotator muscles.
Okay - there you go. Also, a small tip for the typists. You know that trendy thing where you have little feet to jack up the back of your keyboard, so it's at an angle? NOOOO. Bad. That bends your wrists at the angle that pinches the nerves and can aggravate or even cause carpal tunnel!
The proper typing form is to have your wrists in the air above the keyboard, fingers curled down. Professional typists know this is the fastest way to type, and this is the least strain on your wrists. A wrist pad is fine to REST between typing sessions, but the actual typing should be performed with wrists in the air!
This article points to a slightly different view than my own, but is by someone who obviously knows their stuff, so please check it out as well.
This page demonstrates the difference between bad and good, and I took the diagram below from Cornell University's Ergonomics Web Page.
posted by Jeremy on 4/14/2003 3:13:01 PM | | Planes, trains, and automobiles | Week 3 of 12, Day 15 of 84 cont...
Well, the weekend started off interestingly enough. A friend of mine at work talked me into going to see Phone Booth after work. We headed on over with moderate expectations (I had already heard a few things about the movie) and watched it. Well ... what can I say? The beginning is intriguing and interesting. The rest ... well, I'm not going to say it's BAD per se, and don't want to prevent anyone from seeing it, but let's just say I wouldn't recommend it to a friend.
I made it home in time to do some sprints at the local park ... this is essentially Guerilla cardio right out of the pages of Muscle Media. 4 minutes to warm up, then 4 minutes of the following grueling cycle: 20 second all-out sprint, 10 second jog .... then 4 minutes to cool down. The longest 12 minutes you'll ever suffer through, and I must admit that a few of those "sprints" turned into more like speed walking.
Saturday was a great day. I woke up early and went on my morning jog. My cardio is split between the sprints, the long Saturday jogs, and interval training on Wednesdays. My jogs are staggered so I don't overtrain, like this:
30 minutes
35 minutes
40 minutes
35 minutes
40 minutes
45 minutes
40 minutes
45 minutes
50 minutes
Etc. This is known as wave loading your effort. I increase each week for three weeks, then fall back, then increase ... you'll note that I go from 30 minutes to 50 minutes, but I'm doing it in a way to avoid overtraining. If I just did 30, 35, 40, 45, 50 straight on, I could burn out quick. 40 minutes is a strain, then falling back to 35 gets me into a comfort zone, 40 minutes the second time is a little bit easier, and then 45 minutes is pushing the envelope, etc.
I came home, jumped in the car, bought some pea gravel to address a drainage issue at the front of the house. Then I blew the deck and washed the tables clean, came inside, and started cleaning there.
Got a phone call from my wife in Florida. She started to talk, then suddenly asked me what the date was, then said, "I'll call you back." To make a short story boring, we had been operating under the assumption that she was flying back on Sunday >> wrong answer. The date was wrong, she had fat-fingered a Saturday onto the tickets and instead of me winding down my Saturday, taking a nice rest, then picking up the family after church on Sunday, I ended up at Hartsfield Airport at 8:30pm waiting for them to come home!
I really have no complaints ... I couldn't think of a better surprise than to have my family home a day early. Of course, the plane was subjected to every delay imaginable ... they ended up arriving at 11:15pm. I drank some coffee to give myself the strength to drive them home, and read a great issue of Wired magazine. My daughter was in her stroller and smiled really big. When I said, "Hey, Alyssa!" she turned over and stuck her butt in the air. I thought she was being silly and hiding her face, but then her little hand poked out and was pointing at her derrier. She had a new pair of shorts on, and across the butt was written the word C-U-T-I-E. It was so ... cute! I laughed and she started giggling and then jumped into my arms.
Sunday was a blast. I woke up and headed to church to teach my 9:30am Biblical Nutrition class, and then I was a volunteer usher for the 11:00am Palm Sunday service. This is when we Lutherans (and Catholics and a few other denominations) wave palm fronds around and have a progression into the church to commemerate the moment when the people of Jerusalem greeted Jesus as he rode in on a donkey as a sign of liberation.
After church, we headed over to La Paz, a great Mexican restaurant. I had a steamed spinch Enchilada without the cheese on a bed of rice and black beans. It was delicious. After that, we ran some miscellaneous errands, including heading over to Harry's Farmers Market. We picked up a bird house, apples, oranges, grapes, a pineapple, broccoli, some New York strip steak, some Icelandic salmon, organic fruit roll-ups, some soy ice cream, and various other sundry, healthy items for the house.
We came home and I enjoyed and AMAZING steak dinner (steak and broccoli) with my wife, and then put the kids to bed. Then we watched a Spanish film that I highly recommend. It is really a great film. It is very erotic and contains quite a bit of sexuality and nudity, but the story itself is a very complicated, artful examination of people's lives - it contains many twists, turns, and surprises. It is called Sex and Lucìa.
Tonight I'm going to slam my pecs and triceps ... and keep it green!
(So there you have it - how I trained on Friday, then drove my automobile on Saturday to pick up my family from the plane!)
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 4/14/2003 7:15:03 AM | | Green BABY yesterday was nothing but FROGSKIN | Week 2 of 12, Day 12 of 84
That's right!
I went home and headed straight to the dungeon. I don't pump loud music when I train, it's quiet except for the occassional grunts and moans (and possibly the creak of protesting iron as I manhandle it into the air against gravity's unrelenting grasp).
First, it was some short sets of squats. I performed two warm-up sets, then loaded it and took it to the floor. Last week, I was struggling and seeing stars with 225. Last night, with 235? CAKEWALK! Put that baby TO REST so we're working on 245 next week! HOOAH!
Then it was the fun front squat. It was tough, but I knocked it out and marked down a weight increase on my training sheet.
Pumped out one-legged extensions at 190 ... those are my favorite, the burn, the pain ... while we're talking leg extensions, here's a little thought for you:
Leg Extensions
Do you want to train your quads or strain your knees? The leg extensions is a great exercise, but it DOES put tremendous pressure on the knee joint due to the angle. We can't rule it out - it has it's place, and in fact is crucial for many therapies (I know it helped me walk again after reconstructive surgery). But as with many exercises, there are good ways to train, and better ways to train.
Let's talk about a concept really quick called open lever and closed lever. I won't get too far into it - I'm going to simplify it. When you keep the lever open, you keep tension on the muscle. When you close it, the tension is gone. So with a leg extension, what happens when your leg is just dangling? Gravity is doing the work, and the lever is closed. Tension is no longer on the quadriceps. And guess what? When you move the ankle out from under the knee, this point is where the maximum amount of stress is placed on the knee joint as the lever opens.
So, how to maximize quadriceps involvement and minimize knee strain? Open the lever. When getting in the machine, check that you are properly situated. Your knee joint should line up with the pivtor on the machine. If your knees are in front of or behind, you need to adjust the seat forwards or backwards. You should be able to align your spine by pulling the chest up and out to minimize strain on your lower back. Then, to open the lever, it's simple. Instead of starting with your ankle under your knee, in a "relaxed" state (this is even more exaggerated on machines where the seat is slightly inclined) instead, start with the ankle slightly forward of the knee joint. This will place immediate tension on the quadriceps. Now, as you perform your reps, Never let the ankle reach the point directly beneat your knee - always terminate the rep slightly forward of this point. This keeps the lever open. What does it do? First, it maintains constant tension on the quadriceps - no "resting" between reps. Second, by keeping the lever open, you avoid that "sticking point" where the maximum stress is communicated through your knee joint. Think about it - the tension is there, no matter what. So why suddenly all of this burning pain in the quadriceps? Because we've shifted the tension to the quadriceps, where it belongs, from the knee, where we don't want it. You will definitely need a little lighter weight than accustomed to if you haven't been doing extensions like this.
This isn't to say that full range extensions are bad. In fact, these were crucial, for example, for my therapy. But this was a light weight and the target WAS my knee joint, so we WANTED tension there for therapy. And during cycles of training, you want tension on joints to help strengthen them as well. But when you are loading heavy weight and going for the mass, then give the joint a break!
My next exercise was a stiff legged dead-lift. I blew through 235 pounds so I marked down 245 for next week. Still don't have the wrist power to handle that, however, so this is one exercise I used wraps. I try not to use wraps so that I can develop wrists at the same time, but there's some exercises where it simply compromising my form and focus without them.
Then it was dumbbell lunges (guaranteed to raise my heartrate more than any other exercise that I know of in the shortest span of time), leg curls, and my favorite, the smith machine lunge.
WHAT A WORKOUT! It rocked. Had my post workout shake, then a meal about 1 1/2 hours later - Cesar salad, no croutons, no cheese, no dressing, with a double portion of jerk chicken breast. YEAH!
Tonight is some fun sprints and them I'm at 35 minutes for my jog tomorrow. Ready to close down this week and then continue the GREEN STREAK!
Have a blessed weekend, everyone.
Jeremy
posted by Jeremy on 4/11/2003 7:41:16 AM | | RECOVERY TACTICS | Week 2 of 12, Day 12 of 84 cont...
Wow! All this talk about recovery got me thinking. Last year I went to seminar in Canada hosted by Ian King and John Berardi (maybe Dr. Berardi now? Not sure how close he is). At any rate, the entire seminar FOCUSED on recovery! It prompted me to write this article, which I now share ...
People train for a number of reasons, including athletic ability, improved health, increased energy, and simply to look better. All of these goals are made possible by a phenomenon known as the training effect. Without the training effect, you would never progress - you'd be stuck at the same weight and same level of cardiovascular fitness forever. What most people fail to recognize is that the training effect is not the direct result of training alone, but training AND recovery.
Training is addressed in many articles, but how often do you read about recovery? What exactly is recovery? How much does recovery impact the training effect? Consider the fact that muscles do not grow nor do they become stronger during training (I'm talking about the permanent, long-term strength gains that you are looking for, not the temporary jumps that can be experienced through specialized training methods). Therefore, it seems that recovery is a LARGE piece of the "training effect" pie. In fact, I propose that most people fail to see significant gains because they do not recognize the full potential of recovery.
Ian King (http://www.kingsports.net/) discussed recovery in a recent seminar titled "Bigger, Leaner, Stronger" along with John Berardi (you can search for Berardi's articles at http://www.t-mag.com/). One of my largest challenges is to convince my clients that more is not always better. I am often asked, "Is this going to be enough?" when I provide a program to someone. How much is enough? How much is not enough?
Unfortunately, perception of training often comes from the wrong source. People are constantly looking at programs designed for elite athletes to enhance their own physiques. Some athletes train 50 hours a week and have at their disposal a number of recovery aids that range from contrast baths, deep tissue massage, ART practioners (http://www.activerelease.com/) to saunas, steam baths, and cutting edge nutritional supplements. To try and take one of their training programs and expect the same training effect without the same amount of recovery is to ask for disaster. Not only would this result in severe over-training, but it could also result in severe injury.
So what is the solution? Instead of pursuing the training effect by looking at training first, why not consider recovery? Too many people take a training program and then build their recovery around this. Sometimes that training is so demanding that recovery is next to impossible. By considering recovery FIRST, you can ultimately tailor training to the amount of recovery available. This can produce tremendous results.
Let's consider the elite athlete for a moment. I have the same potential for recovery as an Olympic sprinter. If we draw a circle that represents total recovery potential, the Olympic sprinter and I start with the same, empty circle. Now we must ask ourselves, "What impacts recovery?" I have a full-time job that can take from 40 to 60 hours of my time each week. When that is done, I have a part-time business to run. This can exhaust me mentally as well as add to my levels of stress, so in my circle we draw a large slice and label it "work". I have a wonderful family that I try to spend as much time with as possible, which also places demands on recovery (try wrestling in a pool with a 14-year old or chasing a 2-year old through the airport!). So I draw another slice and label it "family". My work hours prevent me from sleeping as much as I'd like, so I draw another slice and label it "sleep". Already my circle is full of slices!
The Olympic athlete has at their disposal advanced recovery aids such as contrast baths, sauna, whirlpool, ART specialists (http://www.activerelease.com/), massage therapists, and elite nutrition to name a few. Their entire schedule is devoted to their sport, so there is no "work" to impose additional demands upon recovery. They may experience stress from the pressure of excelling at their sport, and they may have relationships off of the field that impose demands, but these are but two small slices.
As you can see, the Olympic athlete now has a huge portion of the recovery circle remaining for them. This explains why they can exercise for 50 hours in a week and still reap the benefits of the training effect - they have plenty of recovery left for training. If you take the remainder of their circle and label it "training" you will see that the slice is big enough to allow volume and intensity in training.
What about my circle? If we take the remainder and label it "training" as well, how big is my "training" slice? Probably not that big - it might be a third of the circle, more or less. I obviously cannot afford to have training impact my recovery demands as much as the Olympic athlete, so my training must be less. In fact, sleep, family, and work place so many demands on my recovery that I train for maybe 5 - 7 hours per week - the rest of my time is spent in recovery!
Now let's take a hypothetical client who is extremely overweight, in their late forties, working as CFO for a Fortune 500 company. They have a family of their own but often work late hours and must travel often. They have trouble sticking with their nutrition program but are very faithful about getting to the gym. How should I design their training program?
There are still only 24 hours in a day, so their recovery circle starts out the same as mine. I put a huge slice for "work" because of the various demands of travel and the high stress environment. I have a slice for sleep because they are missing sleep from the long hours. I put in a slice for family. We're not done yet! Since they do not have adequate nutrition to assist with recovery, I put a slice for nutrition. They won't recover as well as I do because they don't get the same quality proteins, carbohydrates, healthy fats, vitamins, minerals, and water that I do. I add another slice because of their age. By the late forties, hormone production has been drastically reduced. Hormones are a critical component of recovery, so with less natural hormone production, there is less potential for recovery.
By the time that I am through, there is only a tiny slice available for training. The impact of training on recovery MUST be much less than mine, or they will simply burn out, over train, and possibly injure themselves. Remember, we are looking for the optimal training effect. To expect this individual to have the same potential to lose fat and gain muscle as I do is ludicrous - there is simply too much going on in their life. So I must maximize their training without over-doing it, and that means taking a smaller slice out of the pie.
So how does this translate to an actual program? For me, a typical visit to the gym might involve:
- 10 minute cardiovascular warm-up
- Thorough stretching
- 2 - 3 warm-up sets for bench press
- 3 sets of bench press (10 reps)
- 2 sets of incline dumbbell press (10 reps)
- 1 set of dumbbell flies (15 reps)
- 2 - 3 warm-up sets for cable rows
- 3 sets of cable rows (10 reps)
- 2 sets of bent-over rows (10 reps)
- 1 set of one-armed dumbbell rows (15 reps)
- 2 sets of biceps curls (15 reps)
- Thorough stretching
As you can see, volume is moderate to high. I perform up to 6 work sets per body part, have additional volume for my biceps, and perform a total of around 14 work sets.
When I design a program for my CFO, it will look more like this:
- 15 minute cardiovascular warm-up
- Thorough stretching (longer than my own!)
- 3 - 5 warm-up sets of bench press
- 2 sets of bench press (8 reps)
- 3 - 5 warm-up sets of bent-over rows
- 2 sets of bent-over rows (8 reps)
- Thorough stretching
Now I know what is going to happen. The first thing my client will say to me, "Hey, This isn't enough! How can I expect to make gains on such a short program? I need to do more."
This happens time and time again. The truth is simple: there is no potential to do more! This workout, albeit short, still stimulates muscle. The muscle is placed under tension and forced to resist weight, and this is what is needed to increase muscle size and strength. The longer cardiovascular warm-up ensures that the joints are warm and prepared for work. The extra warm-up sets help prepare the muscles and joints for the work sets both physically and neurologically - coordination is improved with each warm-up set so the potential for injury is significantly reduced. The stretching helps lengthen the muscle through the joint and further prepare it for the work. The work sets are short, yet intense, with fewer reps and fewer sets because we have limited resources for recovery. Biceps are indirectly worked during the pulling movements, so there is no need during this cycle to add additional volume. This program will produce results - sure, they might be slow to come (my CFO might gain a pound of muscle over several months, while I may gain the same amount in half the time) but it is still progress. Considering the fact that most individuals lost muscle mass as they age, even maintaining body composition would be an improvement over the norm! Why would we expect this person to make the same gains as someone else, like myself, who has a superior hormone profile, gets more rest, and has higher overall potential for recovery?
What if I caved in to their request to "do more"? What then? With my volume of training superimposed on their potential for recovery, the training element suddenly becomes greater than the recovery potential. When this occurs, the training effect is stifled. In fact, it may be lost completely. Instead, overtraining will result in loss of muscle mass, suppression of immune system function (increasing the CFO's chances of catching a cold or falling sick), and loss of strength. What is ironic is that, when faced with these symptoms, many people think, "I'm not gaining muscle ... I'm losing strength ... I have to train harder!"
One of my favorite quotes is that if you do the same thing, you should expect to get the same results. The people who complain about my programs being "too light" have always trained with more volume and higher intensity. They also order a program for a reason: they are hoping to see results. Whatever they've been doing isn't working out. So why the resistance to lighter training? Some of the response is psychological - we like to bust our butts in the gym to feel like we're doing something (I have the same problem - when I do an intentionally light workout, I feel unsatisfied, like I haven't done enough). The media perpetuates some of it - we read the workout that some professional bodybuilder on "gear" (a slang term for illegal steroids) uses, and want to emulate their success without the other million factors that contribute to recovery (on "gear", their recovery circle actually becomes much larger than yours or mine!).
Again, if you do the same things, expect the same results. If you feel you might be training outside of your recovery circle, remember, the training effect is not training - it is training and recovery. Try doing a little less. Think about the factors that impact your recovery, and for each element decide if a reduction in volume is warranted. You might be surprised to find that doing less will result in more gains - expressed by an increase of muscle mass and a loss of fat!
Whether the goal is improved athletic performance, better health, higher energy levels, or a nicer figure, the training effect is incomplete without recovery. Training should stimulate, not annihilate, so that recovery can create. Think about your recovery potential and adjust your training accordingly. Only through the proper balance of training and recovery will you receive the full benefit of the training effect and move that much closer to your peak physique.
posted by Jeremy on 4/11/2003 7:24:33 AM |
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