My Decade Top 17 List of Fitness Stuff that Works

Really I should say things that work for myself and my clients. I just put together a list of what I have learned in my many years as a trainer. I either learned these things by being successful or something failed miserably. All I know is this stuff works for me so far and it has been close to a decade now since I really have been full time training. So here is my list from my success and mistakes with fitness:

In no particular order

1. If you're going to a training program or diet do it all the way. We definitely cling to what persuades us the most regardless if the idea or method is right or wrong. Add a celebrity to a training system or diet and suddenly it is the holy gospel. Whatever fitness idea persuades you make sure you REALLY do it by following the protocols and lasting through the duration of it. Then you can judge from there. Most systems work at least partially.

2. Sleep is essential for dropping fat and maintaining overall health. More sleep before the strike of midnight the better, Cinderella.

3. High protein diets with low carbs still are the best diets for fat loss and maintenance of muscle. The closer you stay to just protein source and vegetables the better. Make sure to really load up on the vegetation.

4. 6 packs are genetics, diet, and cardio. Generally a person needs to be at or below 11% body fat to be this ripped. You can do an infinite number of crunches on a nice baby blue swiss ball and never see the six pack if your fat percentage is too high. Even this is not a guarantee if your genetics are not quite up to par for having a sixpack.

5. The better your support group is the more successful you will be at most challenges. Hang out with people opposing your goals or success and you will most likely fall short. So ditch the loser friends (kidding...slightly).

6. Doing any exercise past the point of exhaustion will generally push the body to hypertrophy (build muscle mass). Whether you use lots of weight with low reps or baby weight with super high reps, they body will adapt by developing more mass. Big muscular thighs can come from heavy barbell squats or come from spin class.

7. As we age we lose the ability to move fast, jump, and upkeep basic functional ROM (range of motion). So train with speed in mind and maximal strength for the reps you use to hold these effects at bay. That means leave the fluorescent dumbbells alone.

8. When training Olympic lifts have the patience and wisdom to train the body up to par before going for it (progress). Nothing worse than a crappy CF style clean and jerk.

9. A person will burn more calories exercising in either the standing or plank position (pushup position). So when going for fat loss use these body positions A LOT.

10. Drinking a protein shake or eating a handful of nuts will help to curve the appetite before going out to eat or grocery shopping. So you don't feel crushed by not ordering the the chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sundae and a slice of mocha cheesecake. Oh, I've been there.

11. Marathon wannabes and long distance joggers should look at the posture of the elite class long distance runners and attempt to mimic while out running so you don't "plod around and end up getting a bonehead injury".

12. Never miss a workout because you are pushing for time. Do something in the timeframe you have. Something is most definitely better than nothing and that is what my downloadable program Firestarter is all about. No more excuses. Just friggin' do it!

13. The first three weeks of being consistent will be your hardest. If you make it past that you will continue to push.

14. People who hire a trainer or keep a journal of their training and body composition are generally more consistent than most and will more likely succeed.

15. Read one article a day from different fitness and medical sources and you will be smarter than most bonehead personal trainers in this overcrowded industry.

16. Do not attempt to train body parts like a bodybuilder (unless you are a bodybuilder). Best way is to train the movements (i.e. push, pull, full body push (think squats) and full body pulls (think deadlift)).

17. "Raise your sail one foot and you get ten feet of wind". Motion is what the body is created for and it creates emotion. Meaning you have to get started to be successful and be motivated. Don't spend too much time B.S.ing around with over-planning and buying supplements and cool tight shirts. Start moving and you will learn along the way. Success is contagious and motivating. So do it and move always forward!

New Twist on My Fitness Assessment

For years now I have separated kinetic and strength assessments with actual training. I had a good reason for doing so. I have always felt that basic assessments needed to be done when the body is rested and the mind is focused only on the task at hand. Of course there are reasons out there why a coach would want to assess his client while not fully recovered or focused (especially for high endurance athletes). Up until this year I have felt assessments need to be kept separate from the stress brought on by training.

This year I have been assessing while hitting clients with hard training. Actually, there is microphase separation in the training. Corrective exercise and reassessment sessions on opposite days of "goal" training sessions. What I have found or verified for myself is that asymmetries throughout the kinetic chain are easier to detect/fix and easier for the client to sense and understand when the client hits a point of slight to mid level discomfort. What I mean by this, is at the point the breathing and heart rate hit a high level and the muscles are beginning to feel pain of lactic acid build up, the client has hit a point of slight to mid range discomfort. I arrange certain basic test within an AA (Anatomical Adaptation)and corrective exercise session. I find the different training days is a big help to keep the sessions motivating, and really justify to myself and to the client why we choose certain exercises.

I do this type of session only a few times a week for clients who are beyond the beginning stages of training. Clients who are not beginners and trying to pack mass and strength, drop fat, and/or perform better in a sport need more sessions to handle these goals without the kinetic assessing/re-assessing. This especially goes for training near maximal load or power output. A client will need to keep "readied" for handling the trauma of this training and the assessments will most likely show negative progression as muscles tighten and bones get compressed during these high intensity sessions. Again, that motivation factor is kept high if I don't bore the hell out of them with corrective exercise drills for their given asymmetries, everyday.

The assessment is given the time it deserves and improvement or lack of improvement can be noted weekly along with progression towards personal goals. Also, the training goes uninterrupted by corrective drilling. So far, this type of assessing/re-assessing, corrective training, and goal training takes up to 12 weeks to run its course. Around the third to fourth week I can really see what the client can do. One primary reason is this is the point the motor patterns are corrected, which eliminates false plateaus or positive signs for kinetic issues. The way I can tell if this phase has worked is there is less of asymmetrical training within the program by the final weeks. If you're a little confused let me show an example:

Say I have a client with a ROM (range of motion) problem with her right shoulder. The left shoulder does the movement just fine. It would not be optimal to attempt to train both the shoulders equally since one has less ROM than the other. So, the exercises I choose to develop better ROM in her shoulders, she will do by performing more sets on the right shoulder (usually two more sets at first), which needs most of the focus. As the training continues, the asymmetrical training should become more symmetrical (meaning the right shoulder is becoming even with the left shoulder in ROM and the sets are equal on both shoulders). This progression can also be justified by the "goal" training days. Hopefully the exercises where shoulder mobility is necessary show improvement. Once a re-assessment shows ROM is equal in both shoulders the hybrid phase for that particular assessment is done.

Currently, I am doing this on myself and you can see what I mean by following my journal on FES forum.

The Verdict for My Trail Running Trainers

A few weeks back I did a quick post about coming off of some deserved Vay-Kay and purchasing new trail-running shoes from Under Armour. I paid a decent price for these suckas' so they better work.

Well a few weeks later I am fully sold that these shoes are not just to style at a "state of the art" gym while running on a treadmill next to scantily clad fitness model.


( I don't knock the idea...but still)

No sir (or ma'am) this be "the real deal". I took these trainers out on a few uphill mid speed sprints to check comfort and gripping. If you want you can check out my training on my forum. You may even want to keep an online journal there as well. First thing I noticed was the good grip of the heel to midfoot portion. When my foot hit the ground it was..STABLE... I could easily put good amount of force into my stride without fearing a miss step (which can easily become an annoying twisted ankle). The only fallback is the bulky shoes has some weight to them. Even though I easily adjusted, the sturdy neutral positioned sole and heel cushion came with the price of added weight.

Another point here, I ran with these shoes on a one mile trail tempo run. The terrain was pretty rough. Once again no problems I must say and at that point I was very used to the added weight. I even tested out the gripping after a nice "downpour". I found myself a muddy uphill track and took off in sprint intervals. My friends I did not feel one slip.

So the shoe checks out and has the Ty Ferrell stamp of approval.


(HEREBY APPROVED BY TY FERRELL)

So there are Myths About Exercise...

I just finished reading an interesting article in Time magazine. It was titled "The Myth About Exercise" (by John Cloud). The highlighted point was vigorous exercise does not always deplete weight. In fact, it contributes to adding weight. I did appreciate the good use of references to back up the authors certain points. From what I read, the article just proves people in general need to be more active.

Even though it is quite tough to stay unbiased when reading, I did my best to bite my lip and show the good points and flawed points of this article. To make this easier to read, I'll just list them with the authors points and mine.

1. Vigorous workouts can create a strong appetite after completion. A person is more likely to eat junk food (author mentioned examples of french fries and muffins) and have a higher caloric intake than expenditure.

I agree the appetite is usually increased. This goes along with the increase in metabolic rate, which is a really good thing. There is definitely a certain discipline needed after training to eat properly, but not much. I find most people will want to do the right thing after training.Also most fitness professionals know that the nutrition factor makes up 70% or more of the weight loss challenge for most non-athlete trainees. With proper nutrition protocols placed around training times this should not be a problem (at least not directly after training). From my experience those who eat diets higher in protein and fiber are able to satiate the need for grabbing crappola on a stick. Also, if a person is going to cheat then cheat after training. The body is more forgiving on sugar addiction around this window of time. The problem comes in when a person simply does a form of aerobics (such as jogging) that his or her body has already adapted to and then attempts to indulge. Not to bash on simplistic aerobics too much, but alone, aerobics has a very limited influence on the potential EPOC (excess-post exercise-oxygen-consumption). Point being the metabolism is really stimulated while doing the aerobic activity and not after.I definitely agree on the notion of being more active means having a higher temporary metabolism and subsequently appetite.

2. A person not going to a gym can lose close to the same amount of weight as someone in the gym for up to 194 minutes a week.
This was a heavily flawed point. The studies referenced by the author were to vague to understand the training protocols the study group was exposed to. Also there is no information about the nutrition or lifestyles the study group had. Another flaw here is not knowing the body compositions of the group starting and finishing. Other than the flaws I would agree results will be all over the place for any average person for weight loss. The problem is a person depending on a gym training session as the magical answer to weight loss. That is simply absurd but it is the warped perception of some. The author, like others, sees the gym as a replacement for loss of activities in life. This is partially correct, but we still have primal bodily systems and the demands outweigh the desires. Doing crunches in the gym and running for thirty minutes to an hour is a small demand placed upon the body in comparison to what a person will do with the other twenty-three hours a day.

3. Self control diminishes as used. People can not stay in control.
You know I think I heard this exact argument in a serial killers defense case. Discipline is a huge part of getting to a weight loss goal. Motivation is the next factor that needs to be stronger than deterrents. This goes along with the idea if you want "change" you need to "change" your lifestyle. People set themselves up for failure when they look to lose weight, but still want to party like it's 1999 every weekend or cook up big pasta dishes every night. There is a point of diminishing self control and motivation. When I worked in a commercial gym we used to take bets on what new member will fall victim to the "3 week this shit don't work" syndrome. Very evil but true. Change has to be embraced and a person has to be ready to do what it takes. If not it is inevitable the person will fail and I will win another ten bucks.

4. Total activities are more important than the gym to lose weight.
NO SHIT! Now we are getting somewhere! I do agree. We are not the active mobile hunting survivors we once were. We are rush hour driving, computer typing, bad back griping, pill popping evolved humans. The body is still pretty primal. As stated before, it comes down to the demand placed upon the body. If we place demand to sit alot and browse the internet, well we get big ole' booties and sessions at the chiropractors office for kyphotic posture. If we take the time to stand up, walk around, hold good posture and enjoy whatever activities we want (biking, weightlifitng, kayaking etc.) ... 'Lo and Behold our body's begin to adapt to the imposed demand we put on them and we can actually look into a mirror after a shower and smile at the awesome active specimen staring back at us.

Wrapping this up, I can see the frustration this author feels from getting suckered into a 30 minute "ab attack" special deal from his gym. I can see the overwelhming frustration in many people who want to be picture perfect in "6 weeks or less", who think jogging around the block at tortoise speed and then buying organic and junk food from Whole Foods will make them Angelina Jolie thin, or who hire a trainer to handle the weight loss burden but refuse to change his or her lifestyle. This frustration has inspired articles like this Time magazine one. Here is my final point:

- There are no magic pills or perfect answers for weight loss. To lose weight make sure all factors are good to go (training, nutrition, recovery and being active).

- Body transformations can take sometime. As Berardi puts it 6 week goal is more like 52 week goal. There needs to be enough demand for weight loss and these things take time (short of liposuction).

- Consistency, frequency, motivation, and a decent life balance will reap greater rewards than mind numbing treadmill jogs and chocolate cookie dough ice cream with dark chocolate "super-antioxidant" sprinkles. Frustration is what it is. Frustration over genetics, fitness programs, and foods. We all get it at some point. If it were easy every guy would have a body like Terrell Owens and every gal one like Jessica Biel.

Back Off Break to Go Right Back On

So I went on vacation for a few weeks. Spent my time enjoying great food and drinking different ales. While I was away, I made sure to do some activity. I put together all in one dynamic warmup exercises, I did a bunch of pushups and luckily my folks own a crosstrainer cable machine, so I took full advantage of that (not to sound like I am that disciplined... because I am not). My daily caloric intake blew away my daily activity. As one coach put it, " I was doing a 5 mile workout and taking in 10 miles worth of calories". I did enough to keep the mobility up to par. I was hoping to get back to the island and hit the gym hard. Repent for my disturbing fetish with food. Well, that did not happen. I even bought some snazzy new Under Armour shoes to tackle hardcore trail running.

Here is a look at these things. I'll keep you posted on how well they handle the trails:




My reason for not going all out just yet... I really need a break from training. At least in the gym. I sense my body is not ready to kick arse on the barbells and my mind is focused on too many other things. Now usually I would raise the bullshit flag on anyone else who came up with this, but this is one of those moments when I have scratched a bit deeper into the confusing and thick surface of exercise science. I need a week before slamming the weights around to recover and (excuse the wacky voodoo talk) unify and balance mind, body and CNS - central nervous system (or spirit). So this is now my plan and hopes. I will not lift weights yet. I will continue to train outdoors and do active patterns of mobility drills such as those used in yoga and pilates. I'll give it a week or possibly longer. I am sure the results will be far greater than the short loss of gym time. Will have to see though.

Bench Press is Back to a Decent Poundage

Many moons ago I forsaken ed the barbell bench press. I no longer required its benefits and I despise the consequences. A little over four years ago I peaked my bench press around 335lb. Nothing glorious about the amount but for me, a guy with long spider arms, it was a PR breaker. The only downside was the annoying injuries that came with it. No injury was serious but it did force me to abruptly discontinue benching.

My stats for this peak weight:
6'3"
215lb
15% BF

Well, today I just put up 315lb again without any problems. I probably could have repped with the weight if I didn't burn myself out with multiple sets of lighter weights. It felt great and I am back in business. Just 3-4 months ago I was actually struggling with 225lb. I'm not at 335lb but I really don't care, I'm close enough.

My current stats:
almost 6'3" (spinal injury...lost some height)
203lb
13.5% BF

Now, how I got to this point involved a lot of factors. Just to name the primary factor, I do pushups with different hand positions on a daily basis. I average around 60 pushups daily. The pushup is arguably on of the best upper body exercises ever. So I put this primary exercise to work for me. You can check out the loads of pushups I have done and my training to this point on my forum

I have now revisited the bench and will add it by to my devilish exercise toolbox. I have no goal with it anymore, perhaps to be able to rep 315lb like I rep 225lb.

When to be Linear and when to be Undulated

I am writing this really for those like me. I am an ex athlete with multiple nagging old injuries and now someone who is a bit higher on the fitness chain than an enthusiasts. My days of competition are done and over with. However, I still use smart training principles.

Being a person of my position I choose to phase in and out of different modes of strength training (maximal, hypertrophy, adaptation, power etc). Also I like to play with different modes of energy system work (alactic, lactic, aerobic etc.). But since I no longer have a game day or competitive time period to build for, I find myself just doing it to learn and "see what happens". These days I'm learning some patterns of movement from Parkour and Capoeira. Both very interesting and both can equally leave a person with injuries. These two will suffice until I get bored and move onto another endeavor.

Now motivation is tough and therefore I go through a lot of variation with training. My goals are basically the same. Look good naked and enhance power and strength whenever possible. Now through research we know that undulated training is most likely superior for getting rapid results and being able to maintain these results longest. Trouble with undulating and learning different areas of strength and conditioning is it does not seem to leave much room for error. To be more specific here, when I was hardcore into building a strong snatch lift, I really needed time to get the technical skills down and build up explosive reactive power for the catch portion of the lift. I did try to undulate a bit and found trying to go maximal then quickly change to a higher rep, in a matter of days, left me pretty inadequate with the actual technical side. Also, I know not to attempt to undulate a high volume with an Olympic Lift because of the chance of forming bad motor patterns.

So what's a guy to do? Why not go Linear? Whenever I need to learn something and "groove" the necessary pattern there is nothing better than the repeated effort found in a linear periodization. Generally speaking, I would start with higher volume and lower intensity (i.e. 60%RM - 4x12 type of protocol). I would go for about two weeks of simply breaking down the pattern and practicing the skills. Over the next month or so I would gradually build the RM to probably 80-85%, raise the sets and drop the reps. Now, this has already been proven to not be the superior way to get stronger and more explosive, BUT this will allow for the building of motor skill without injury. Now the downside is adaptation to the stressors comes quickly. So the body adapts and progress (in terms of power and strength) will come slower. Keep in mind I am looking for the motor skills and other technical needs at this point.

After I'm done learning what needs to be learned and trying it at higher intensities I am ready to undulate my training. It is here when I can throw in a few sessions of all out maximal strength, a session for power with technical learning and a few sessions for good old hypertrophy. Also my energy system work would undulate as well.

So if you are like myself, maybe you should try a linear approach and then undulate it. Just to give you an example of what I am talking about, here is what I would do to build my snatch lift if I could do it again:

Linear:
2 wks - anatomical adaptation and technical work - energy system - lactic and aerobic
4 wks - hypertrophy (build intensity and lower volume gradually) - energy system work - lactic to alactic
2 wks -(transition to undulated)- one day attempt Snatch lift for submax (80%) - max lift with basic closed chain lifts that enhance hip extension and scapula retraction.

Undulated:
4 weeks
Day1 - Hypertrophy - Day2 - Max lift - Day3 - Technical and Power - Day4 - Hypertrophy - Day5 - Max Lift
Energy System:
Day1 - Lactic/ Aerobic - Day2 - Alactic - Day3 -Alactic - Day4 - Rest - Day5 - Alactic/Lactic

Chance for Learning

Well really it is a time for realizing what I knew but, for whatever reason, did not put into practice. Many changes taking place since the global recession and I am in the middle of launching my new website/forum . Also I took some time to feel out what direction I really wanted to take my personal fitness endeavors. While I'm getting all this together I begin stumbling about on things I should already be doing because I already know it but just totally disregarded it (like a moron).

Right now I'm sitting at 12.5% Body Fat, a scrawny 200lbs., and more endurance than I would ever need in life. What I want is 12% - 11% BF (anything lower and I would never be disciplined enough to hold it)., 220lbs of mass on my bones and more power and medium (lactic) endurance (high endurance usually comes with the great side effect of not being able to get out of the "scrawny" rut).

Now here is what I know but have not used to get to these goals:

1. Hypertrophy training - I was getting to complicated with this. Hypertrophy is pretty simple to evoke. Simply train the muscles past the exhaustion point with enough overload so the reps are not out of control high ( I like 8RM and lower). Recover well and eat like a king. Simplistic stuff I already knew. Tons of methods out there but the premise needs to be pretty much the same.

2. Max Strength and Power - This point I just totally broke my own golden rule. If you lack the mobility in the involved joints DON'T TRAIN WITH MAX WEIGHT UNTIL YOU GOT IT!! My deads are a lot better looking now that I took the time to increase my lower body joint mobility. Also, to me, develop max lift to transition into the power lift. For instance, the deads need to be developed to transition into cleans. Soooo.... I do not lift like a "power lifter" who simply seeks to gain leverage for maximal weight. I train like an Olympic lifter looking to develop a better power clean. If you haven't witnessed both lifters you should. The deads for a powerlifter is a whole world apart from the dead for Olympic lifters.

3. SAID rules over everything- Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand can not be changed regardless what I do. My life has changed where I am know doing strenuous hikes up and down mountains daily. I also train various people and take runs with my running clients. I went from 215lb to 195lb in a matter of weeks. I fought tooth and nail to regain some mass. Still have a way to go. I feel the Michael Phelp's caloric trouble now. I have to put done at least 2700 k/cal to keep functioning and 3300 k/cal at least to maintain current muscle. Add 500 calories to that and that is what I need if I want to gain. My body is now geared to high endurance climbing activities. I am trying to change it to a bigger more powerful thing. SAID principle says hell no.... not without changing the demand of high endurance my life currently has. DAMN YOU SAID!

Learning to go back and review what I know and actually apply it. I'm sure I'll remember more as time goes on