Posts Tagged ‘fat loss’
My Response to “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin”
Okay folks, here comes a classic Jamie Sulc (pronounced Schultz) rant! Be warned - I pull no punches with this one.
So, I get an email from my wife last Friday and all it said was “read this” with a link to this Time Magazine article by John Cloud entitled “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin.” As soon as I clicked the link and read the title I thought to myself “Aww sh*t, this is probably going to piss me off!”
And guess what? It did. I’ll be honest, this is one of the most absurd articles I have ever read. Now, Mr. Cloud does make some valid points and while it’s hard to argue with academia’s imperical data, in my opinion, the article is mostly a load of horse manure.
Make sure you read the article and the selected passages before reading my thoughts!
Passage #1
The basic problem is that while it’s true that exercise burns calories and that you must burn calories to lose weight, exercise has another effect: it can stimulate hunger. That causes us to eat more, which in turn can negate the weight-loss benefits we just accrued. Exercise, in other words, isn’t necessarily helping us lose weight. It may even be making it harder.
Passage #2
All this helps explain why our herculean exercise over the past 30 years — all the personal trainers, StairMasters and VersaClimbers; all the Pilates classes and yoga retreats and fat camps — hasn’t made us thinner. After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in “sports” drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories. If you’re hot and thirsty after a 20-minute run in summer heat, it’s easy to guzzle that bottle in 20 seconds, in which case the caloric expenditure and the caloric intake are probably a wash. From a weight-loss perspective, you would have been better off sitting on the sofa knitting.
Passage # 3
In 2000 the journal Psychological Bulletin published a paper by psychologists Mark Muraven and Roy Baumeister in which they observed that self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you’ll be more likely to opt for pizza.
Passage #4
In short, it’s what you eat, not how hard you try to work it off, that matters more in losing weight. You should exercise to improve your health, but be warned: fiery spurts of vigorous exercise could lead to weight gain. I love how exercise makes me feel, but tomorrow I might skip the VersaClimber — and skip the blueberry bar that is my usual postexercise reward.
Excuses, excuses. This article rains excuses. Even with the evidence as to why most people don’t drop the pounds and body fat they want with exercises in the article, it’s still somehow the exercise making us too hungry to lose any weight.
Another thing I like is the assertion that your will power is affected by exercise. I guess the brain releases some french fry craving chemical causing you to run for the boarder right after you leave the gym?
All the hard training in world does not mean sh#t if you go right to Starbucks and get a double iced mocha double whipped caramel chocolate latte or you go to Wendy’s and get a double cheeseburger and biggie fries.
WTF do people expect? If you are trying to lose weight and drop some body fat, you cannot eat like a freakin’ slob. If your will power is so weak that you cannot sacrifice your evening Ding Dong or hostess cupcake I have a little hint for you…
It’s not the exercise dumbass, IT’S YOU!
STOP making excuses and make a commitment to a goal.
STOP training like a candy ass!
STOP putting junk into your body!
I’m sick and tired of the bitching and moaning about not losing any weight or not getting stronger. When I was 19, I weighed 260 lbs. I was training like a beast and was strong as hell, but I ate pizza every night. I suppose all that heavy lifting made me fat?
I stopped making excuses for all the crap going into my body and made a change. After I dropped the weight I wanted to get strong again so I made another committment to another goal, worked harder, and got stronger. And guess what, I’m stronger and lean.
The common denominator here is you get out what you put into something. Stop making excuses, forget the rules, train hard, and eat right!
Jamie Sulc…OUT!
Training Splits Part II
In Training Splits Part I, I covered the most popular training splits. In this second installment, I hope to help steer you the training split that’s right for you.
What’s the best split you and how often should I train a particular body part or muscle group.
The short answer is, it depends on what you’re training for.
If you’re training for performance I would go with full body or an upper/lower split. Beginners and and those training for fat loss should employ full body workouts because they allow you to use large movements which help build the most muscle and burn the most calories. If you’re a bodybuilder and have the time to devote to single body part training, go for it. The bottom line is pick a split that best fits your goals.
I came across an old article written by Jason Ferruggia and I want to share it with you. In this article he talks about optimal training frequency and training splits. I’ve been reading his blog for quite a while now and he’s one of the best. If you don’t know who he is, check out his blog and his book Muscle Gaining Secrets.
Determining Optimal Training Frequency
By Jason Ferruggia
December 1, 2006
How often can you train a bodypart, muscle group or movement pattern?
Well that depends on quite a few different factors. How long have you been training? What are you training for? How strong are you? How is your recovery ability? Are you healthy or injured? What other physical activities do you engage in? What have you been doing in your workouts lately?
Let’s address each of those and show why they are so important in determining this.
How long have you been training?
If you are a beginner you will always do full body workouts three days per week, no questions asked. If you are an intermediate you may switch to upper/lower splits and train four days per week or still three days, just spreading your two upper and two lower workouts over 9 days instead of 7. If you are advanced you may stick with this plan or perhaps do two upper and one lower workout per week. Or maybe you may do a pushing workout, a lower body workout and a pushing workout, or some variation of that.
What are you training for?
If it’s mass, full body workouts work great. Then again so are upper/lower splits and even bodypart splits. If it’s fat loss the usual inclination is to do full body workouts with exercises that burn the most calories. But this approach only works for a short time and is often flawed. The reason? If you are trying to lose fat, you are probably doing intervals and/or steady state cardio a few days per week. Add three days of squatting and lunging on top of another 3-4 days of riding the bike or sprinting and your knees will be screaming in no time.
I think the full body workouts are great to kick start a fat loss workout for beginners or intermediates and even certain advanced guys but eventually, and this may only take 3-4 weeks to happen, your knees will be shot. Unless, of course you are doing your intervals and weight training on the same day. Then you have a little longer to recover but the sheer volume is still the same and will lead to breakdown sooner or later. One option is to alternate one month periods of full body workouts with splits in the quest to uncover your abs.
How strong are you?
If you are very strong, and by that I mean strong for what your body can handle naturally, full body workouts are not really an option. If you can bench press over 300 pounds and squat over 400, there is no way it is healthy or smart to press or squat more than twice per week, for any length of time. Maybe you can do it and make great progress, but only for short periods of time. I do it on occasion when I am coming back from a layoff or as a change of pace but you simply can not EVER do this year round. Actually that is a statement for all lifters, beginners to advanced; you can not do full body workouts year round.
How is your recovery ability?
If your muscles ache and joints hurt after training you may need less frequency. Maybe you recovery incredibly well. Then you might need more.
Are you healthy or injured?
If you are healthy you can get away with pressing or squatting more frequently. But what if you are forty and have been training for over twenty years and your shoulders feel terrible. Guess what my friend? You’re doing bodypart splits. You almost have no choice. Pressing twice a week is tough on healthy shoulders if you are strong and have a lot of years under your belt. But on bum shoulders, it’s a nightmare. In a situation like this you would have to do one of the following two options:
Monday- Chest & Biceps
Wednesday- Legs, Abs, Calves
Friday- Back & Triceps
If your shoulders are really smoked and you need to relegate all shoulder irritation to just one day you may have to do chest and back on Monday and just biceps and triceps on Friday. That would give the shoulder more time to rest each week.
What other physical activities do you engage in?
If you play a sport or run sprints a few days a week, you probably can’t recover from more than one lower body workout every 5-7 days. Now again, if you are a weak beginner you probably can. If you are an intermediate you would probably do best on 5 days and advanced guys would do better on 7, sometimes going heavy every 14.
What have you been doing in your workouts lately?
Usually the best thing to do in your next program is the opposite of what you have been doing for the last few months. I know this isn’t the most scientific approach but in many cases it happens to be the truth.
As you can see, there is no cut and dried answer when it comes to determining the optimal training frequency or split. No split is optimal all the time. The best split is the one that addresses all of the concerns addressed above and even that will need to be changed eventually.
Ask yourself those questions and plan accordingly. Remember, failing to plan is planning to fail.
Train smart.
Check out http://www.thehardgainer.com for more info.
My Top 5 Muscle Building and Fat Burning Exercises
People ask strength coaches and trainers all the time about what exercises they should be incorporating into their training routines. I am asked this on a daily basis. More often than not they don’t like what I tell them. They often respond “those exercises are too hard, I don’t like them.” You know what I say to that type of response? “Stop being such a candy ass and put in some real work!” These exercises are hard for a reason. They pack on slabs of muscle and burn a hell of a lot of calories. There is a reason all the jacked dudes at the gym are never on the leg extension of shoulder press machine!
1. The Deadlift
This is my favorite exercise of all time. There is nothing like ripping a loaded barbell off the floor and standing up with it. Instead of asking what muscles does this movement work, ask what muscles don’t you work. You’ll feel this exercise from head to toe. Your upper and lower back and hamstrings will grow like never before. When people see the massive traps and back you’ve built using this move, they won’t want to meet you in a dark alley!
2. The Clean and Press
If you don’t want to look like you have bowling balls for shoulders then DO NOT add this move into your training. I prefer to do them from the hang position. I think it adds a little more to the movement because of the position from which you are pulling. You’ll develop tons of pressing strength and huge traps. You’ll also strengthen your grip and hamstrings.
3. The Squat
The say the squat is KING! Although, the deadlift is my favorite, I tend to agree with them. I just happen to be better at the first two on this list! Nothing taxes your body like the squat. To perform and develop great squatting technique your whole body has to be strong. Your shoulders, upper and lower back, and abs must be strong enough to stabilize the weight once you take it off the rack. You will no doubt pack on tons of muscle on your lower body. If you want your whole body to grow, you’ll squat at least once per week. Oh, and if you don’t believe me when I say this is the most taxing movement on your body, do a 20 rep set of squats and get back to me.
4. The Dip
You’ll feel like your chest, shoulders, and triceps are going to explode at the end of every set of dips. It’s a simple yet effective upper body exercise. To add a degree of difficulty strap on some weight or try doing dips on a set of rings or my favorite dip tool, blast traps.
5. The Pullup
There is no truer test of upper body strength than the pullup. Your upper back and biceps will thank your for doing 3-5 sets of max reps. Throw on a weight belt or some chains to get a little bit more out of the movement.
These 5 exercises will help you pack on the most fat burning lean muscle. Let’s not stop at five exercises though folks. Post a comment and add your favorite moves to this list. Oh and ladies, this isn’t just a list for the guys. Don’t worry you won’t get huge! If you want a lean sexy body you’ll do these too!
I grew up…
I grew up watching my dad train in our living room with an old Weider bench, a barbell and a pair of sawed off barbells used as dumbbells. Oh, and the weights, plastic and filled with sand or concrete. It was about as primitive as your could get. You see, my dad worked (still does) for the power company which is brutal work. In the summer you’re sweating your butt off and in the winter you’re freezing it off. He spent his days back then pulling cable and digging ditches. For anyone that has ever done any manual labor, you have to be strong. He lifted every morning before work to prepare his body for the day he told me. This is when I caught the training bug.
I began doing push ups and sit ups between commercial breaks at night when we would watch TV. I watched any Stallone or Arnold movie that I could get my hands on. Why? To me they were the epitome of strength and I wanted to be that strong and be that ripped.
As soon as I able to train with my dad I did. I bought every muscle mag I could get my hands on, following beasts like Arnold, Dorian Yates, and Lee Priest.
I’d say I’ve been in love with the iron for nearly 20 years. It’s in my blood now! Along the way I’ve had some training success and plenty of failures. In fact I’ve dedicated my life and professional career to helping others achieve their training goals. Whether you goal is just to get stronger for sport, look good naked, or just be healthy enough able to chase your kids around the yard, I want to help.
Keep training hard my friends.
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