Here’s Some Things That Bug Me….

#1 – “…I do it because it works for me…”

This statement sounds fair enough on the outside but in the inside it’s a “put it the too hard basket”, or at least that’s what it seems to me.

There are plenty of suggestions to find “what is right for you” on here but the reality is, most of us here haven’t tries more then 5 ways to train but a lot of claim to know “what works for us.”

The time you start to think that you don’t have to learn anything new is the time you start to go backwards

#2 – “…what type of cardio should I do?…”

Mostly in response to their fat loss efforts this is always the 1st question posted. Yes cardio is needed in some cases but what constitutes “cardio”? Cardio is short for cardiorespiratory exercise (heart and lungs), so isn’t any exercise effectively “cardio”? Quick answer yes, long answer no. I like the term energy systems work made popular by Christian Thibaudeau which refers to exercise performed in the 3 basic training zones.

1 – Anaerobic System

2 – Lactic Acid System

3 – Aerobic System

Now I don’t want to go into these too much as basic research will give you that answer pretty quickly but “cardio” needs to be specific, much like the term “I want to get fit”. Get fit for what? I myself would struggle to run a quicker 2km time then anyone here for plenty of reasons I won’t go into here but does that mean that I’m not “fit”? Give me a resistance circuit and I’ll do most in from here because that’s what I train for, not to run, swim, bicycle etc.

So the answer really should be, “what do you want the cardio to do for you?” If it’s fat loss quickly then intervals, if it’s for football then sprints and agility work will be required, for marathon running, well run marathons.

The point is it needs to be specific to your goal, and 30mins on the treadmill 3 times a week is not really specific to anything except for running 30mins on the treadmill 3 times a week.

#3 – Fatigue vs Intensity

This is a big one that even most trainers will miss. Fatigue is the point where work quality (weight lifted, tempo, volume etc) is decreasing. Intensity is the point at which you are performing. Doing 1 set of bicep curls then finishing off the set with 2 or 3 drop sets isn’t increasing intensity, its increasing fatigue. Increasing the weight over a session, weeks or months is increasing intensity.

100 times out of 100 I would rather increase intensity over fatigue. I think we all know how hard it is to train under fatigue and how slowly, if ever, results show themselves which leads me to point 4…

#4 – Manage Fatigue, Don’t Seek It

I need add in here that for muscle growth you do need a certain amount of fatigue with the certain amount of intensity which is what a lot of Chad Waterbury’s programs are all about. You choose a weight that allows all the reps of every set to be achieved for example using a 5 – 6 rep max for 10 sets of 3 as opposed to trying to get 10 sets of 3 with your 3RM which will ever happen. Here he manages fatigue with the load (weight) used but keeps intensity high (5 rep max or 80 – 85%). It’s important to reach your sets and reps for most of your sessions or what are they there for?

Basically you need to set up your program long term to monitor this.

Eric Cressey follows a high, medium, very high, deload format each month.

High – new lifts are introduced with moderate to high volume and intensity to set a baseline for the next 3 weeks. A surprisingly fair amount of fatigue is induced while intensity is fairly high too.

Medium – weight is added to all exercises but volume (sets and reps) drop slightly compared to week 1 leading into “peak” week 3. Not a lot of fatigue is induced byt intensity is increased.

Very High – weight and volume are added to higher level then week 1 and is the week to go for personal bests. Lots of fatigue induced at a high intensity. Most people will try and stay at this level for weeks and months on end but remember, “you can train hard, but you can’t train hard for long.”

Deload – intensity and volume is decreased by 20 – 40% depending on the lift giving your body a chance to recover good and proper from the previous week where you should have pushed your body to the point it hasn’t been before (hopefully!) and refreshing you for the next phase.

This is just 1 example but you can see that it isn’t simply “balls to the wall” all the time as it simply can’t be done.

#5 – Program Design

I love when 14 year olds post “I’m making up my own program, can someone tell me if it’s alright.” The alarm bells should ring right there as that must mean that they don’t know if it’s right so why not just do a ready made program form a reputable trainer, or ask for tips on how to make one or even better, research how to make one up.

Here are 10 tips for designing a program:

1 – 95% of us will make the most progress on a full body program performed 3 times a week or 7 times in 14 days. Unless you have appreciable muscle (say 20pds of added muscle, actual muscle) from your starting point or 2 years “proper” weight lifting experience (no that 1 year when you were 15 and did 280 push ups in your bedroom each night doesn’t count), then full body workouts are probably the best option for you.

2 – Train your lower body more than upper body.

3 – Don’t’ use just one rep range.

4 – For every bench press, push up, shoulder press, shoulder raise, chest fly, cross over and upright row that you do you need to at least 1 row variation rep.

5 – If you can do chin ups, then you should never need to do a lat pulldown again.

6 – If you can’t do 10 single leg pistol squats, 20 perfect push ups and 15 perfect inverted rows, then why are you doing leg presses, chest presses and lat pulldowns? I don’t know either.

7 – Antagonist and Agonist pairing supersets are far away the best way to set your exercises up as they allow for more wt to be used from relaxing the opposite muscle group and you’ll easily cut 10% of your training time so your training density will be improved resulting in more calorie use. Obviously this works best with upper body then lower body. Also take into account the load used in each side of the pairing and even that up as best you can. A 100kg Bench Press paired with a 30pd Scarecrow is not even.

Best pairs are Bench Press and Rows, Shoulder Press and Chin Ups and bi/tri (but why bother there really?).

8 – Training everyday is not the answer and 4 weight sessions a week maximum with 1 – 3 cardio type sessions is plenty. The more weights you do the less cardio you do too.

9 – Do what you need to do not what you want to. Are your shoulders rounded forward? Does your chin enter the doorway 2 minutes before you do? Does your arse enter the same doorway 2 minutes after your chin has? Then why are you still doing 280 push ups everyday, 1/2 squat after � squat and endless crunches when you should be doing deadlifts, rows and face pulls?

10 – Read the No More Neanderthal series by Eric Cressey and Mike Robertson found here.

It’s quite a read but you’ll be plenty of steps ahead of 90% of the people in your gym if you can apply it.

#6 – Muscle Confusion

One of my all time pet hates. Strength is the base of all other fitness qualities and without it; you’ll struggle to optimally develop most of the others. To attain strength you basically have to repeat and repeat a lift so that the action gets wired into your nervous system until you can do it automatically. Performing a lift once every 6 weeks will not do this and you’ll never gain strength, thus never increase your weights enough to gain any meaningful muscle mass either. Those who use the confusion principle often are the one’s not inducing fatigue, not managing it also. To get good at something it needs to be repeatedly practiced frequently. When you learn to walk as an infant you don’t do it once a week, you do it everyday until your nervous system catches up with your body and learns the movement/s.

#7 – “…I burnt 1000 calories in that session…”

How do you know that? You don’t and never will. So may people try (and fail) to match up there energy in and energy out. You can never know how many calories are burnt in any given session. You can have a guide maybe but you’ll never know for sure. Trying to determine how many calories has a myriad of problems associated with it.

1 – Metabolism boost is not taken into account so if you’re trying to gain wt then you’re expending more calories then you think and then you won’t be eating as much as you need to

2 – Calorie counters on cardio machines are never right. How could they be? They don’t anything about you.

3 – People who usually count how many calories they burn per session are usually too caught up on counting calories then training hard and eating right and the stress is actually making you fatter from cortisol release.

People simply train hard and eat the right foods at the right times. If you think you can train harder then by all means do so. If you know that that the cheese burger you had at lunch because you were too late getting up from the 6 pack you had last night and didn’t have time to prepare any lunch was not the best thing you could have had, well then you know what to do. If you don’t then no one here can help you.

#8 – Focusing On The Wrong Things

This is similar to #7. Go to the supplements section and there are 18 threads on whey protein. Let’s be real for a second, I think we both know that the type of protein your using is not the problem with our lack of results don’t we. Maybe the leg extensions and 60 minute elliptical trainer sessions are the problems. From what I’ve seen with people in the gym, most don’t seem to train hard enough, it’s as simple as that. Even the most basic of programs will give you some benefits if you do it hard and make it harder as you go. Bodybuilders are great for this as they train extremely hard even if they’re programs suck complete arse. Simply train, eat then sleep and repeat. Don’t make it harder then it needs to be.

#9 – Waiting for Recommendations

This one just occurred to me today while browsing. Many seem to be putting together a program and are waiting to clarify things and it seems that they are doing nothing while they are waiting for confirmation for stuff. Hopefully this isn’t happening. This is where you need a long term idea or program of what needs to be addressed so it can all be organised before you’re current program is finished. I should never see a post that says “I’ve just finished the Waterbury methods, what should I do next?”.

#10 – Supplements

Number 1 pet hate. All they do is get you to the same place as training and food can get you, but about 2 weeks quicker. Yep big deal, cash well spent. This also mixes in with #8 and #9. Firstly you need to get your diet organised before any supplement should even bare a twinkle thought in your mind then actually find out what they do and how they work before buying them. I laugh every time I read “I just bought some creatine, how should I take it?”

Bonus #11 - "...I've hit a plateau..."

After reading Shelly's post this is another one. To hit a plateau is to have tried everything you can training, diet and recovery wise and then you still can't make any progress, not when you do a program for 2 weeks which consists of the same 3 x 10 for Bench Press every mon, wed and fri you've done for the last 4 programs and wonder why nothing has or is happening. Thanks Shell!!