October 19th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
Spinster, lunatic, powerlifter…
19th October 2008
Bodyweight: 61kg
Squat: 80kg
Deadlift: 110kg (good)
Bench: 52.5kg (poor)
Argh! Have stalled on my bench press again!!!! Am complete and total failure at powerlifting! Should prob back off for a week.
Saw Mark Darcy in the gym again today. God, he is so irritating! He came up to me while I was squatting and said “You know, you really ought to squat a bit lower. You wouldn’t be given that lift in a competition.”
What an interfering busybody! Just because our mothers share the same personal trainer, that doesn’t give him permission to adjudicate on my squat! And how the hell does he know I’m training for a competition? Mum must have mentioned it to him in between her Step class and her tummy session.
Hope Daniel Cleaver is at the gym tomorrow. He’s so gorgeous when he flexes his biceps in front of the mirror. Mmmmmm….wonder if he’ll be doing curls in the squat rack again like last time?
Jude says I should sidle up and say innocently, “Can I work in with you?” Not sure if plan is 100% foolproof as cannot curl 40kg.
The Diary of Bridget Jones: The Birth of a Legend
October 16th, 2008 at 11:09 pm
Unilateral exercises are, quite simply, exercises done on one side only, such as single leg squats or one arm dumbbell presses. Most exercises that you do in the gym have a single-side option.
Why do unilateral exercises?
Many of the best functional strength and conditioning coaches advocate unilateral work:
“Most athletes and people in general need to focus more on unilateral (single leg) lower body work than bilateral (both legs) lower body work. For non-powerlifters, most of life occurs on one leg.”
- Alwyn Cosgrove, 10 Things I’ve Learned
“Whether or not you wish to use barbells, I still advocate unilateral training. There are clear benefits (ex. coordination, stabilization requirements, the ability to target specific imbalances, etc.). A complete strength plan should include a unilateral element.”
- Ross Enamait on his forum
There are many good reasons to incorporate unilateral exercises in your training programme:
- To improve strength imbalances in the body
- Help to prevent injury due to undiagnosed weaknesses
- Safer, as they involve less weight and decreased load on the back
- Functional – lots of things in sports and in life occur on one leg or arm!
- Easy to do at home with limited equipment
- Train oft-neglected aspects of fitness, such as balance
It’s not necessary to do unilateral exercises all the time (although you can if you want) but it is worth incorporating them into a training cycle every so often.
Injury prevention
If you have ever tried to bench press with two dumbbells at the same time, you may have noticed that one dumbbell goes up easier than the other. Most people have strength imbalances in the body due to the fact that we favour one side or another for functional movements but often the first time people find out about it is when they get injured.
“If you are in the strength and conditioning game long enough you are going to encounter structural and muscular imbalances along the way. These imbalances and weakness occur naturally and by way of accident or injury. Rarely if ever will these situations correct themselves.”
- Michael Rutherford, Dumbbell Unilateral Training Alternatives, Performance Menu
Sometimes an injury in one part of the body can be traced back to a weakness in another part of the body. These can be difficult to diagnose, especially if you coach yourself. So one option is to train in a preventative manner and try to cover all bases from the beginning!
How to perform unilateral exercises
Watch my video demonstration of the key unilateral exercises and read on below.
Almost any lift that you do with two hands or two legs can also be done with one hand or one leg. You may have to change the equipment, such as using a dumbbell instead of a barbell. Some of the most effective exercises are:
- Single leg squat (pistol)
- Single leg stiff legged deadlift
- One arm dumbbell swing
- One arm dumbbell snatch
- One arm dumbbell press (either bench or overhead)
- One arm clean and press/jerk
Single leg squat aka pistol
Single leg squats can be done on the floor or on a raised platform. The floor version requires more flexibility but is harder to add weight to. Hold your arms out for balance and squat down as far as you can go. If you want to add more weight to the move, hold a dumbell in one or both hands, or wear a weighted vest.
Single leg stiff-legged deadlift
This is a great move as it puts more strain on the hamstring and less on the back than a conventional stiff-legged deadlift.
Hold a dumbell in each hand and slowly push the hips back, lowering your arms towards the floor. Keep the back flat.
As in the pistol, maintaining your balance is tricky, so take it carefully. Make sure that you keep a slight bend in the working knee, but not too much so the hamstring is worked.
When doing one leg exercises, I recommend you wear flat trainers rather than trainers with a lot of air as they tend to wobble!
Exercise guide to the One arm dumbbell snatch
Exercise guide to the One arm dumbell swing
Magic 50 workout
A classic strength and conditioning workout from Ross Enamait, who is a fan of unilateral exercises. This lung-buster incorporates both the dumbbell snatch and swing to provide a great full body workout.
5 rounds as fast as possible of:
5 x dumbell snatch each arm
5 x dumbell swing each arm
10 push-up burpees
October 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Whichever diet you are on, whether it is one you have devised yourself or one from a book, there are quite a few things you can do to increase your chances of success.
I call them rules of thumb because they are:
- not specific to any one diet;
- easy to remember;
- things that you can turn into habits not just something you do for 2 weeks before your summer holiday.
I’ve tried all of these while dieting and find them really helpful. I believe it is these small things that make the difference between making your calorie target and not.
Rule 1: Don’t give up what you like completely.
It’ll make you feel very virtuous for about five minutes but after that you’ll feel miserable and resentful and start sneaking behind your own back to get some. You want to eat better for the rest of your life, not just see how long you can go without your favourite thing.
Rule 2: If you don’t buy it, you can’t eat it.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of “I’ll buy that huge bar of chocolate but make it last a month”. Three-time World Ironman Champion Peter Reid takes this rule to extremes: always keen to be as light as possible for his endurance event, when dieting he would literally only buy enough food for one meal at a time. So there was never anything in the fridge, never anything in the cupboards to tempt him.
Rule 3: Out of sight, out of mind.
Food has a very strong visual attraction and the mere sight of food can make us want to eat. I suffer from this one in particular. Simply catching sight of a tin of biscuits makes me want to have some. So I put food away in cupboards out of sight. Buffets are a nightmare because everything is laid out in front of you. You just have to be prepared and exercise some self control.
Rule 4: Stay hydrated.
Often when you think you are hungry, you are actually just a bit thirsty. Have a drink of water or a cup of tea first and see if that deals with the hungry feeling.
Rule 5: Take your own lunch to work.
It is normally the meal we have the least control over because we are not at home. It’s also the meal that British people in particular seem to be most careless about. We rush out and grab something random from the nearest sandwich shop (or Cornish pasty shop, where I live!) without thinking about what’s in it. Making your own lunch gives you complete control over how many calories goes into it and you also save a lot of money each week. Bonus!
Rule 6: Distract yourself.
A lot of people (me included!) eat when they are bored or doing something very passive like watching TV. So avoid this situation by getting involved in other things. Now’s the time to take up that new hobby or pastime that will get you out of the house (and away from the biscuit tin).
Rule 7: Have smaller portions.
Rather than denying yourself all the foods you like, just have less of them. The only thing you don’t have to have smaller portions of is vegetables. In fact, you can use these to fill you up. It really works, especially if you eat most or all of the vegetables before you eat the other elements of the meal.
Rule 8: Go to bed early.
It is a great way to avoid late night snacking - plus your body will benefit enormously from the extra rest. Another good trick to avoid eating late at night is to brush your teeth after you have had your evening meal. This makes you feel a lot less like eating. Oh, and don’t have a blog either - it will keep you up till all hours!!
Rule 9: Count your calories.
This is the safest way to diet. If you religiously count everything you eat, you know for a fact that the ginger biscuit you want to have with your tea is going to take you over your target for the day. If you don’t know this, it is all too easy to think, “It’s only a little biscuit, it won’t matter”. But if you did that every day for a week, the calories would mount up. By the same token, you don’t want to undereat because you’ll just get tired and grumpy and eventually want to give up the diet. Eating as little as possible is not the way forward.
Rule 10: Avoid marketed ‘diet’ foods.
They are expensive, not very nice and they generally don’t work. What you need is proper food, just less of it. You need to make better food choices and have a grasp of the calorie and nutrient content of foods. Diet foods take that ability away from you. They also use all sort of synthetic methods to replicate the taste and sensation of high-calorie foods, rather than getting your palate used to the clean, fresh taste of healthy food.
Whichever diet you are following, these simple rules can be applied. But the most important advice is to take an interest in food and learn about its nutritional value. Dieting is only difficult when we don’t know what to look for, and this is precisely the confusion that companies exploit when they claim to produce food products that will help you diet. Find out for yourself and you won’t need them.
Read more
The low-fat myth
Myths about food
Zone diet: episode 1
October 5th, 2008 at 5:21 pm
The front squat is a very useful exercise that is not often seen in the average gym. But it is unjustly neglected and some coaches even prefer it to the back squat.
What is a front squat?
Holding the bar across the front of your shoulders, squat down until your hips are below parallel and up again. This exercise is known as a front squat to distinguish it from the more common back squat, where the bar is across the back of the shoulders.
Why is it such a great exercise?
The front squat is considered safer than the back squat because there is less load on the spine and it is also easier to dump the bar forwards if things go wrong.
Less weight can be moved in the front squat than the back squat, so there is less likelihood of someone trying to squat a weight that is too heavy for them.
The squat is probably the most important and effective move in weight training. Front squatting gives you many of the beneficial effects of the back squat, with some differences: less weight can be moved in the exercise, the quads tend to be worked more than the hamstrings and glutes and the torso is more upright.
The front squat is also a component of the Olympic lift, the clean. A good front squat will help to develop a good clean.
How to perform the front squat
The key to the front squat is to keep your elbows up and chest lifted. This holds the bar in position while you squat.
Step 1: Starting position
Position the bar in a rack at shoulder height, or clean it from the floor. The bar should be resting across the front of the shoulders or top of the chest. To keep it in this position, raise your elbows as high as you can – think about pointing the tip of your elbows forward.
Don’t be tempted to hold the bar too close to your throat; this is uncomfortable and you might choke yourself! If your elbows are high enough, you won’t need to do this.
Your hands will be just outside your shoulders, bent back at the wrists with the bar resting on your fingers. There is no need to grip the bar, your hands are simply there to stabilise the position of the bar.
Some people cross their hands over the bar in front of their neck, because they don’t want to (or feel they can’t) bend their wrists sufficiently to hold the bar like this. However, if you ever want to attempt the clean – which you should as it is an excellent exercise! - you will need to adopt this position, so it is worth developing the necessary flexibility.
Legs will be slightly wider than shoulder width apart, with toes slightly flared. As with the back squat, you can experiment with leg and toe position depending upon your own build. You will often see back squats performed with a very wide stance, powerlifting style; the front squat stance tends to be narrower than this. Olympic weightlifters are able to perform front squats with a fairly narrow stance as their flexibility is so good. The narrower the stance, the more the quads come into play (olympic weightlifters have massive quads!). Ordinary trainees, myself included, can adopt a wider stance in order to reach the required depth without rounding the back.
Step 2: Squat down until your hips are below parallel
Keeping your elbows pointing forward and chest raised, start to squat down by sitting back as if you were sitting on a chair. Try to lead with the hips, rather than just bending at the knees. Keep the back either flat or slightly hyper-extended to ensure that it doesn’t round as you descend.
Because the weight is in front of you, your torso will naturally have to stay much more upright than it would in a back squat. Some people may find this tricky at first; if you find that your torso is tilting too far forward, try putting a wedge or a weight plate under your heels or wear weightlifting shoes which have a block under the heel.
I wouldn’t train this way all the time, as ideally you want to correct the problem rather than eliminate it with a prop. But using a wedge is useful to know what you should be aiming for.
Step 3: Bottom position
In the bottom position your hips should be below parallel, back is flat, chest is lifted and elbows are still pointing forwards, keeping the bar balanced on the front of your shoulders.
Don’t worry too much if your knees are forward of your toes – this will tend to happen in a front squat. However, make sure that your knees do not come inwards; they should remain in line with the feet. Actively push your knees out if you need to by engaging your adductor muscles (inner thighs).
Step 4: Squat upwards and return to start position
As with the back squat, the bottom of the front squat can be a sticking point. In order to get upward momentum, activate your glutes and press through your feet as if you were trying to part the floor beneath you. At the same time, lead upwards with your chest and your elbows.
Try to avoid what many people do in the squat and lead upwards with your chin. This causes people to tip their head back and point their chin in the air, which is not a great position for your head to be in.
Instead, lift the chest but keep the angle between your chin and chest the same.
Return to your starting position, standing up straight and bar still across the front of the shoulders. Rack the bar.
How to use the front squat in your training
The front squat is a very useful exercise and has its place either alongside back squats or as an alternative.
Alternative to back squat: some people do not want to or cannot back squat. The front squat is an excellent alternative. As strength coach Mike Boyle explains:
“Back pain has three root causes as it relates to lifting. Torque (forward lean), compression (high spinal loads), and flexion are what cause back injuries. Front squats lessen torque, compression, and flexion, and are therefore inherently safer.”
Addition to back squat: if you are looking for a similar exercise to the back squat, say, to do on a medium weight day rather than a heavy day, the front squat is a great addition. It is much more functional than a leg press and takes a bit of pressure off the back while giving the legs an excellent workout.
Training for the clean: the front squat position is the same as the rack position of the clean. Training the front squat will develop the necessary flexibility and confidence to handle heavy weights in that position.
Warm up for Olympic weightlifting: the front squat is a useful inclusion in the warm up for a weightlifting workout.
Further information and related posts
October 1st, 2008 at 12:10 am
Anyone who has delved into current theories of nutrition has probably heard that the low-fat obsession of the last few decades has largely proved unhealthy and damaging.
The new culprit in today’s western diet is carbohydrate – more specifically, high glycemic index carbohydrate.
Of course, if you do have an inkling of any of this, you are much more informed than the average punter. You’ve either spent some time finding out, or you’ve been lucky enough to come into contact with someone who has given you good information.
And anyone who has tried to follow an eating plan based on this new thinking about the low-fat myth has probably been subjected to at best, puzzlement and at worst, ridicule and anger.
That’s because the vast majority of people still fervently believe that low-fat diets are the key to good health and weight control. A friend commented recently on a forum:
“I’m known at work for eating strange things at lunch. Yes, chicken breast, broccoli and cauliflower constitutes strange in my office where as the salesman who sits at his desk eating supernoodles on toast is considered normal.”
This struck a chord with me: in my workplace at lunchtime you can’t move for all the supernoodles, pasta, fruit and toast!
Why are low-fat diets unsuccessful?
“A low-fat diet is, by definition, a high-carbohydrate diet”
- Gary Taubes, author of Good Calories, Bad Calories
Low-fat diets are often unsuccessful in the long run because to replace the dietary fat, people eat more carbohydrate – often highly processed, sugary carbohydrate - which causes an insulin response resulting in excess carbohydrate being stored as fat. In the long term, this excessive insulin response can also lead to diseases like Type II Diabetes.
Low-fat diets also tend to be lower in protein because many protein sources are also fat sources – meat, fish, eggs, butter and so on – and in avoiding those fat sources, protein is also lost from the diet.
Protein is vital for muscle building and cell repair. Protein, together with fat, also makes it easier to cope with a calorie-restricted diet as it is filling enough to assuage hunger for several hours.
So a low-fat diet can often be a low-protein, high-carb diet. Not a healthy combination, especially for those interested in optimal health and body composition.
But aren’t low-carb diets just as bad?
Low-anything diets are not optimal or sustainable in the long term. But there’s a difference between low-carb and reasonable-carb.
In addition, not all carbs are created equal. Carbohydrates with a high glycemic index (highly processed or sugary carbs) cause a spike in blood sugar which results in a high insulin response but a correspondingly greater fall in blood sugar not long afterwards. Not only does this make you hungry again a short time after you have eaten, but the excess sugars consumed are being stored as fat.
A lot of food that people perceive as ‘healthy’, such as pasta, rice and fruit juice, can cause this blood sugar spike. The healthiest source of carbohydrate is plants: fruit, vegetables, seeds, beans. Some fruit does have a high glycemic index but the nutritional value you get from the fruit in the form of vitamins is worth the small amount of fructose absorbed!
“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
- Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food
Vested interests
It is clear that there is a lot of confusion about ideal nutrition and has been for decades. And when you think about it, this leaves plenty of scope for vested interests to get involved in what people are advised to eat.
It is important to talk about these in the context of diets and food, as today’s revelations may well be tomorrow’s deceptions.
The carb pushers
During the late 20th century, food became more and more productized, convenient and cheap. Having convinced consumers that buying a food product was better than buying actual food, the food industry was well-placed to exploit any attempt by the authorities to get people to eat a certain way, by simply producing a food product that appeared to do the job.
“When the federal government began pushing low-fat diets, the scientists and administrators, and virtually everyone else involved, hoped that Americans would replace fat calories with fruits and vegetables and legumes, but it didn’t happen. If nothing else, economics worked against it. The food industry has little incentive to advertise nonproprietary items: broccoli, for instance. Instead…the great bulk of the $30-billion-plus spent yearly on food advertising goes to selling carbohydrates in the guise of fast food, sodas, snacks, and candy bars. And carbohydrates are all too often what Americans eat.”
- Gary Taubes, The Soft Science of Dietary Fat
The food industry has benefited massively from the growth in junk food consumption and – just when it seemed latterly that junk food consumption might decline - the explosion in low-fat diet products.
What’s the betting that a cornucopia of low-carb products will be coming soon to a supermarket near you? They have been pushed in the fitness and supplements industry for years but have yet to take over the shelves of the local grocery store.
The protein military complex
Otherwise known as the meat and dairy industry (thanks to Physical Subculture for the nomenclature!). If you think the carbs and cereals industry are the only baddies, think again.
“The American Heart Association realized early on that saturated fat was something that raised blood cholesterol levels…Then the advice was to eat less of the sources of saturated fat. And then you were in political trouble, because the main sources of saturated fat in American diets are meat and dairy products, and meat and dairy products have huge lobbies that don’t like the American government or heart association or any health agency telling the American public that American animal food commodities are bad for health.”
- Marion Nestle, from an interview in 2003
A recent diet promoted in Australia has come under fire because it was funded by the meat industry and has protein at the centre of the eating strategy. A critic of the diet, Dr Rosemary Stanton, points out
“It encourages this total preoccupation with protein or carbohydrates, with nutrients rather than food.”
I think that is a very useful concept to dwell on in conclusion: food not nutrients. While I don’t wish to sound too folksy (as the nutrient debate interests me), it certainly helps to take food at face value. A lot of the carbohydrate and fat in our foods is hidden in processed or productized food trumpeted as ‘healthy’ in the marketing material. But when you’re talking about broccoli or strawberries or chicken, you don’t have to worry about the ingredients list.
We can never be sure exactly what has gone into our food unless we grow or raise it ourselves, but taking an active interest in the debate is the best way to progress. People who sit back and say, “I just want to be told what to eat” are, in this politicised age, just asking to be lied to.
Sure as eggs is eggs.
Further reading
Sickly sweet - an overview of sugar, insulin and the glycemic index
What if it’s all been a big fat lie? - Gary Taubes’ controversial article in the New York Times
Frontline interview with Marion Nestle, author of Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health
Why I’m a High Carb Girl - the value and benefits of plant and legume carbohydrates by a vegan nutritionist
10 foods you probably think are healthy but aren’t - from Stronglifts.com
September 25th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
I mentioned to a friend that I was training for a powerlifting competition and he said, “So you’ll be wanting to bulk up then!” I explained that you can be any weight you want since, like boxing, there are different weight classes.
It is easy to forget that most people don’t know what powerlifting or Olympic weightlifting actually are. They know it involves lifting weights of course, but they don’t know how these sports differ from each other or from an activity like bodybuilding. I used to be one of those people (slap me if I sound unbearably smug now….)
The other side of that coin is that most people think anybody who regularly picks up a weight is a bodybuilder. The extent to which bodybuilding and lifting weights have become melded together in the public consciousness is amazing.
 |
| Nicole and Eva from Crossfit Santa Cruz |
One of the great things about the Crossfit movement is the way it educates trainees about strength sports. You will get people coming from a heavily bodybuilding-influenced fitness club environment into a milieu where powerlifts, Olympic lifts and gymnastic exercises are regularly performed.
Not only that, trainees are encouraged to up the intensity and up the weight. In a Body Pump class, if you are not smiling, you aren’t doing the class properly. In a Crossfit session, if you are not gasping, sweating and grunting, you aren’t doing the workout properly.
Crossfit has also broken the mould by putting women front and centre – very fit, very strong women at that. They have managed to do what might have been considered impossible: make a system with girls’ names for workouts and women in the demo videos not look like a chick thing.
This isn’t a post about how wonderful Crossfit is. It’s an illustration of how Crossfit has been able to get women who would never see themselves as lifters to lift weights. The powerlifting world is all very well but most of the women in it were either introduced to lifting by their husbands/boyfriends or, like me, have some unusual inner motivation to pick up heavy stuff.
So there is still a lot of work to do to convince the majority of women that lifting weights will not make them bulk up. In fact, it is more likely to do the opposite and slim them down. That’s certainly what happened to me and I am not blessed with good genetics, special powers or anything like that! You don’t have to get as ripped as Nicole Carroll or Eva Twardokens in the picture above if you don’t want to (and to be frank, most people wouldn’t have the dedication to get like that anyway), but you can be leaner and more shapely.
However, this isn’t just a fear born of cultural conditioning, it is also indicative of a deeper problem: ignorance of the role of nutrition and hormones in the body’s development. Lifting weights – on its own – won’t make anyone, man or woman, bigger. How you eat governs whether you get bigger. But it’s up to you whether that extra weight is mostly fat or mostly muscle.
Read more:
September 24th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Who is this man who has such a suitably evocative name? ‘Dan’ conjures images of a deadly judo master; ‘John’ is reminiscent of the prophets. Even T-Nation calls him “Yoda”…
Dan John is one of the few strength pundits who is both teacher and pupil. He has a clear, engaging prose style and everything he writes is ‘big picture’. When you read a Dan John article, you understand what it’s all about and why do it in the first place.
I like Dan’s approach because he is first and foremost a sportsman (field events, Olympic lifting, highland games etc) and therefore more performance-oriented than size-oriented. He is also a straight talking kind of guy who has no desire to make things sound more complex or esoteric than they actually are, just to boost his own ego. As the man himself puts it:
“I feel good about things like helping people with a clear goal, strength training, winning things and defeating evil.”
So naturally when I wanted some help and inspiration for my latest programme, I looked up some of Dan John’s articles. I was not disappointed! Here are the ones that resonated the most with me:
The Philosophy of Physical Capital
This article is about finding the right training programme and adapting it for your own use. What is refreshing about John’s approach is that, rather than looking at training programmes from the outside, he shows that you first need to be honest about your own abilities and commitment (physical capital) and find a programme that fits those aspects.
He discusses his ‘highly scientific’ terms for the concept of the max lift: Sorta Max, Max, Max Max and Max Max Max. I have no hesitation in saying that his explanation will change the way you think about your “max” lift forever!
Nautilus, Crossfit and “Hihi”
This is one of the best of John’s teacher-as-pupil articles. He talks about his different training experiences over the years and what he has learnt from them. He admits that he gets ‘sucked in’ but says that he enjoys trying out new ideas or new pieces of equipment.
There is a tendency in the fitness world to elevate people who espouse a single idea constituting their life’s mission, and to be suspicious of those who have changed their minds or tried different systems. Politicians have the same problem: they can never change their minds for fear of being accused of flip-flopping or u-turning.
This, of course, is nonsense. As the body of knowledge ‘out there’ grows and changes, we ought to grow and change with it. And in case you were wondering, Dan John does eventually boil his years of learning into a useful concept that you can take away and apply to your own training.
Two tips on goal setting
If you’ve read the above articles, you will understand where Dan John is coming from in these two pithy tips about goal setting.
Goals v Behaviours by Dan John
Two goal setting tips by Dan John
Read more
September 21st, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Some of you may have come across this neat little product before: it is an interval timer for use during workouts.
You can set the timer to go off at regular intervals, such as every minute. This would allow you, for example, to do a circuit that involved changing exercises every minute without having to worry about looking at a clock or a watch. This is extremely useful if, like me, you do a lot of your circuit training on your own or outside where you are not in sight of a clock.
Moreover, the Gymboss allows you to set two interval lengths, so you can use it to do tabatas – where you need one interval of 20 seconds and one interval of 10 seconds.
I’ve been using a Gymboss interval timer for several months and I think the product is so useful that I have decided to host some links to the site. If you decide to get one too, you can give your much-needed support to this site by purchasing your Gymboss via the banners and links here.
Workouts using a Gymboss
Interval timers like Gymboss make a whole host of conditioning workouts much easier, especially if you work out on your own.
1. Tabata protocol
The Tabata protocol consists of 20 seconds of maximum intensity exercise, followed by 10 seconds of rest. This cycle is repeated 8 times, for a total of 4 minutes. Tabatas can be performed using any exercise. The key is to perform at maximum intensity, which has the effect of increasing aerobic capacity and raising the body’s metabolic rate for long after the exercise itself has finished.
If you have never tried tabatas, you are in for a surprise! 20 seconds doesn’t sound like a very long time, but the body fatigues more quickly than you expect, especially if you are not used to high intensity work. Whatever exercise you choose, whether squats, press-ups, burpees or something else, count the number of reps you do in the first 20-second interval and try to get the same number of reps in each of the subsequent intervals. It’s a lot harder than you think.
Read more:
Ross Enamait on the effectiveness of tabatas
2. Crossfit Workouts
Some Crossfit workouts involve timed intervals, such as the popular Fight Gone Bad. In this workout there are five stations:
- Wall ball
- Sumo deadlift high pull
- Box Jump
- Push press
- Row
You perform each exercise for one minute before moving on to the next without a break. When all five exercises are complete, you rest for one minute, then start round two. Fight Gone Bad is usually performed in either three- or five-round versions.
Read more:
Gubernatrix does Fight Gone Bad with Crossfit London
3. Circuit training
You can use the Gymboss to put together your own circuits for high intensity workouts. A favourite circuit of mine is:
1 minute row
1 minute thrusters (front squat followed by push press)
x 3 rounds
Simple, tough but very rewarding!
Read more:
Ross Enamait has some more ideas for timed intervals that he has summarised in this guest post for Workout Routines.
September 18th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
Now that summer is over (did it ever really begin?) I am planning my autumn/winter training. This is a process that starts with ideas and goal-setting and ends up with a weekly training schedule. Because I am involved in so many sports and activities, this process can take quite a lot of mulling as I attempt to prioritise and be honest with myself, along the lines of “Gubes, there’s no point scheduling a run at 6am three times a week because you won’t get out of bed!”
When I am developing a new schedule, I stick to a few basic principles:
- Set achievable goals
- Set a timescale that is neither too short or too long; around three months is good
- Allow sufficient recovery
- Don’t do too much too soon, build gradually
- At Christmas ask Santa for new kit
But every season is also an opportunity to do things a little differently. Here are a few ideas that I have tried in the past, with varying degrees of success. Got any others you want to share?
1. Plan over a two-week cycle instead of a one-week cycle
I adopted this when I was doing a lot of power-lifting and was having trouble fitting in enough recovery time from heavy sessions around the other things I wanted to do. I decided to alternate between a heavy week and a lighter week. In the heavy week I had more recovery, and in the lighter week I was able to do more cardio, sports and so on.
How well did it work? It was ok but it made the planning and scheduling more complicated. There was some trial and error before I found a cycle I was happy with. It was useful when training for different goals simultaneously, e.g. doing cross-country running races and trying to increase my deadlift.
2. Training twice a day
This is useful when you have several training goals or if you are doing a multi-sport event. Rather than one long session, break up your training into shorter sessions, such as one in the morning and one in the evening. I have used this when maintaining (as opposed to significantly improving) multiple skills and activities. For example, a ring training session at lunchtime followed by a run or a row in the evening. Training twice a day needs to be approached with care. It is possible to develop little injuries and niggles or just become over-tired. Scaling back every few weeks is a good idea.
How well did it work? Psychologically it is good because you feel like you are getting a lot done. But although I started well, I found it hard to keep up. Firstly, it was time-consuming from a logistical point of view: if I was doing two sessions in a day but not coming home between sessions, I needed to make sure I had all the right equipment and clothing with me. This method is probably easier for people who always train from home or those who have the ability to get changed or store things at work; basically anything that makes the logistics easier. I also think that this method works better for short, sharp training sessions such as a 10-minute met-con. ‘Normal’ length sessions twice a day do tell on you eventually.
3. Coaching
Consider getting some coaching or lessons to set you on your way or give some pointers for improvement. It may save time and effort in the long run. I have got myself some coaching in the past for activities that I find technically challenging, such as Olympic weightlifting and swimming.
How well did it work? It made a big difference. Even a single session can solve some key problems and set you on the right track. One or two coaching sessions won’t break the bank and could save months of struggling to make progress. It’s good to be honest with yourself about where you need help and what you would get out of it. You can find coaching either through a local club or through the sport’s governing body. A personal trainer or a group class can also be useful if the instructor really knows their stuff.
4. Getting diet and recovery right
When I am planning a new training period, I try to take account of my diet, supplements, rest and sleep as well. I usually plan my diet, rather than making vague promises to myself to “eat more vegetables” or “drink less alcohol”. I also avoid drastic measures such as giving up caffeine (which is drastic for me) as I don’t want them to be a two-week flash in the pan. I try my best to get as much sleep as possible. Strength coach Dan John says,
“Sleep…is the single best weight loss too, muscle gain tool, training tool, life tool, I have ever encountered…It is free, try it!”
How well does it work? It is essential to consider these aspects and it makes an enormous difference. Often I end up letting one aspect slide, such as not getting enough sleep, and my performance suffers as a result. Diet is also more significant than many people think. Cutting down on starchy carbohydrate and upping the vegetables, for example, seems to give one more energy. Diet and supplementation might take a bit of trial and error to get right but is worth the effort.
5. Do what is hard
I’ve talked about this before, but I find that the most progress is made when you do stuff that is hard and horrible and even scares you a little bit! The success of a training plan is based on how often you train when you really don’t want to or don’t feel like it. You develop motivation reminders and cues to make sure that you do your sessions. My mental cue for when it gets hard is “this is where it counts”. The easy stuff is not what makes the difference.
How well did it work? I don’t want to sound weird about it, but when I eventually (after a few years of what I thought was training) learnt what it felt like to push yourself harder than you thought possible and come out the other side, it was a revelation. Training-wise, I haven’t looked back. There is no doubt that if you want to make serious progress you need to go through a bit of pain. There is nothing wrong with training for fun, but you also need to push yourself otherwise you are running just to stand still. As Coach Rippetoe says,
“Only people willing to work to the point of discomfort on a regular basis using effective means to produce that discomfort will actually look like they have been other-than-comfortable most of the time. You can thank the muscle magazines for these persistent misconceptions, along with the natural tendency of all normal humans to seek reasons to avoid hard physical exertion.”
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September 10th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
I recently started holding my breath throughout my heaviest bench press lifts. I never used to do this in the bench press as I wasn’t taught that way, but in the squat and deadlift I consciously hold my breath throughout the rep and it seems to have naturally carried over into the bench press.
This type of technique, where you forceably expire against a closed airway, is known as the Valsalva Maneuver. People do it naturally when straining to lift a heavy weight, or to equalize pressure in the ears (holding your nose and breathing out). It has been adopted by powerlifters to protect the spine and stabilise the upper body when lifting heavy.
However, this technique of holding my breath throughout the duration of the rep has elicited comment from people in the gym who see me bench, as it goes against what they have been told about breathing during lifting.
The argument that my fellow gym-goers usually proffer for breathing out on the upward part of the lift is that it helps you to push upwards more explosively in the bench press. While this may well be a psychological help, I am less convinced of its effectiveness in reality. Imagine that your car is stuck in a ditch and you are trying to push it out all by yourself. As you strain against the car, pushing with all your might, are you holding your breath or breathing out? Practically everyone holds their breath, without even thinking about it. It makes it easier to push.
The reason that people are instructed not to hold their breath while lifting is safety. Holding your breath while your torso muscles are contracted creates intra thoracic pressure which can result in dizziness, blackouts or, in extreme circumstances, a hernia or a stroke.
Most trainers therefore recommend this breathing pattern but Mark Rippetoe is one authority who recommends holding your breath throughout the rep as “it provides support for the chest. This takes the form of increased tightness throughout the thoracic cavity due to the increase in pressure provided by the big, held breath. A tight ribcage allows for a more efficient transfer of power to the bar by the muscles attached to it when they contract.”
Some trainers hedge their bets – such as Dr Ian King or Tom Venuto and Richie Smyth, who recommend that you hold your breath as you change direction and continue holding until you’ve pushed upward through the sticking point. Once that is over, you can afford to start breathing out.
This probably wouldn’t prevent any problems caused by too much straining, as you would still be straining at the sticking point. However, by reducing the length of time you need to hold your breath, it might make you less dizzy and less likely to drop the bar on your head (not that this should be a problem as you will of course be benching with a good spotter!).
There are some interesting issues and choices raised here. On the one hand, the Valsalva Maneuver carries some risk – of blackout, hernia, stroke etc. On the other hand, it gives more protection to the spine, and can help in lifting heavier weights.
For me, use of the Valsalva Maneuver is a no-brainer in the squat and the deadlift. I perceive the risk of a back injury to be much greater than the risk of some kind of hernia, so I choose to protect my back using this breathing technique. It is also true that the body adapts to the demands placed upon it and you would expect the risks to be significantly less for someone who lifts regularly and progressively than for someone who puts their body under enormous strain without any prior training or development.
The bench press, though, is a slightly different animal as it involves much less load on the spine than the squat or the deadlift, so the advantages will be less in proportion to the risk. The issue seems to be more one of efficacy than safety: stabilizing the chest makes the lift more efficient.
I am not sure whether I have managed to change any minds in my local gym so far, but I will continue to use the Valsalva Maneuver in the bench press and see if the results speak for themselves.
More information
Mark Rippetoe on breathing in the bench press (wmv video clip)
Dr Ian King on the bench press (see point 15)
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