ASDC Northwest | Alberta Sport Development Centre

Hey,

This one will be brief; I’m just going to go over something of interest. I was at a conference the other week and one of the lectures got me thinking. This is a good thing I guess, if a presentation doesn’t get you thinking, they probably did a poor job presenting. But the idea was stated as the difference between learning, and understanding. We can have all of the data, stats, numbers, facts, you name it, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t know how to use it and apply it and to think critically of it. How many times have you read a newspaper, or magazine that states something that you really don’t believe?

Ever heard bogus news like these? “Drinking Green Tea and Acai will make you lose 20lbs”, or a other supplement “will let you gain 18lbs of muscle”, or old wives tales like “being awake for 36 hours straight is the same as being legally drunk”, etc. Where does the paper, magazine or wherever get this information anyways? Well that’s the question you should be asking. The information could be true, people don’t usually go around lying in the news, do they? The problem is you are only getting a tiny window. If you go back to the original source, it may give you some answers.

Going back to my original examples: The only source I found on Green Tea and Acai showed that if used in a balanced diet you can lose weight. Meaning, that if you eat healthy, you will lose weight, PERIOD! Both Green Tea and Acai have been showed to be quite healthy foods, with antioxidants and omega fatty acids, but has not shown to have magic fat burning effects as some claim.  As for the supplements causing 18lbs of muscle gained in 8 weeks: When looking into it, this usually turns out to be one person in the study had some crazy abnormal effect, with a combination of reasonable tester error, and maybe some good genes. In the end the study usually shows predictable gains in muscle, rather than some crazy number. I’m not sure about the sleeping one, but I’ll look into later and let you know.

Basically though, this all just comes back to what I’ve said before. Be careful who you take advice from and where the information is coming from. Everyone has an angle and spin; it’s just easier to figure some out. So just always think critically.

Hey,

 So I’ve been slacking a little on my blog, I missed last week so I’ll try to make it up by making this blog phenomenal in every way. I guess you could say I have a severe case of writers block. I keep trying to make each post better and better that I get half way through writing one and delete it because it’s not good enough. But I’ll make it through this one for sure. I just want to talk about some weight room etiquette. Now please don’t take this and read it and think that all of a sudden you don’t want to try to work out in fear that you’re doing something wrong, or people will look negatively at you. If you follow some of my advice, you’ll be fine in every weight room scenario.

First of all, be careful who you take advice from. Trust me, I see the irony that I’m giving you advice on not taking peoples advice. But I’m just saying that there is some great advice, and some really bad advice. Even myself, I have a university degree, some certifications and a lot of practical experience. But I know I’ve probably given out some bad advice before. Even the most well intentioned advice can still be wrong. Just know where it’s coming from, and think about it critically so you can make your own decision.

Secondly, don’t be “That Guy”. You know the one, the loudest grunter in the gym, the guy always dropping the weights really hard, the guy who tries to lift way more than he could possibly lift, the guy always swinging the weights to do those extra reps, etc. It’s fine to stand out, you can be the friendly guy, or the helpful guy, or the good looking guy, or what ever. Just don’t be “That Guy”. And yes this applies to ladies aswell; you have your own special cases too.

Thirdly, don’t take up equipment unnecessarily. If you’re only using one cable, don’t take up the whole cross-over. If you know you spend a lot of time on one piece of equipment, allow people to work in.

This one is VERY IMPORTANT. Put your weights and equipment away. I watched a guy yesterday do 2 sets on every bar, machine, and you name it and never put a single piece away. This could fall under “That Guy” again but is so crucial it needs its own spot. On top of this, put it back properly, I hate when I have to move a few 45lbs plates just to get to a 10lbs plate buried underneath it all. It’s not that hard to put your equipment back.

And my last point. Ask for help when you need it. There are usually people working in the gyms that are there to help you when you. Not all, but most, and either way, other people are usually pretty willing to help out. Whether you need a spot or need to know how to use the equipment properly. Just remember the first point and make sure they know what they are talking about.

Hey,

Last post I talked about how training programs will all work, and they will all see results. But now if that’s the case, you may be wondering why I have spent so much of my life learning about how to get “faster, higher, stronger” and why there is so much research into the same goals. Well I’ll tell you. Simply yes if you work hard everything you do will contribute to your overall well being, but there are other factors to consider, and there are better ways to do it. Plus depending on your goals, certain training types may not work for you.

When a Strength and Conditioning Coach is making a training program for an athlete, they generally use something called Periodization. Periodization is, to put simply, how we arrange a long term training plan.What this means is those 4 training focuses I discussed last time (Hypertrophy, Strength, Power and Muscular Endurance) are arranged so we get the right type of compensation. Here’s an analogy I’ve developed that I think illustrates Periodization really well. It’s simply this: If we think of our muscles as a water bottle. Then lets say our water bottle can fit 500ml in it, then we can only get 500ml of anything in it. If we keep trying to force more and more in the bottle, maybe it will eventually stretch, but it’s really like fighting an uphill battle. Now if we think of the water in the bottle as our strength, well once our bottle is full, our muscles are at their full potential, and we really don’t have much to do to make them stronger.  Beyond Strength we also need Power in our muscles, so for this we have our Gatorade mix. If we have a lot of water, we can add a lot of Gatorade, but if we only have our bottle half full, we can really only get so much in until it just sits at the bottom as un-dissolved crystals. If we play with this analogy we can really see different scenarios and how they emerge.

A body builder works almost entirely in a hypertrophy phase, the hypertrophy phase is simply building a bigger water bottle. But the bottle sits nearly empty, and this is where we get the type of people that look big, but can’t lift much. Power lifters will usually work almost entirely in Strength and Power so they are constantly trying to cram more and more into an already full bottle, and they can be successful doing this, but it takes a lot of work. If we take a normal untrained population we have a lot of room to do anything. Most people are probably sitting with fairly empty bottles, and so that is where if you do anything, you will see great results. You will develop strength quickly, and increase health benefits in no time. So everything you try will work. It’s when you get into high performance athletics that now we have to be specific and deliberate. We need to first build a bigger bottle, fill it up with some strength, and then add our Power for flavor. I haven’t entirely figured out where Muscular Endurance fits into the analogy, but for now we’ll just say that when you’re drinking the bottle and using what you have. The endurance is how fast you drink, and how fast it refills so you can drink more, and sooner.

Hey,

As I’m in the gym I get asked a ton of different questions. One of the major themes of these questions is this “What is the best kind of training to do?” After I hear this they will usually go into some long explanation about how their trainer told them that kettlebells are the end all be all, or that crossfit will answer all of their problems, or plyometrics is the only way to increase vertical jump. Then of course there are all the packaged training programs that everyone has heard of, whether it’s the new P90X craze, or any other cardio DVD, or Air Alert, or whatever else there may be. I’ll tell you something that may just shock you, They All Work!There no secret that by working with a kettlebell you will release some awesome ancient magical power. It’s a weight with a handle on it that you can swing around. How about the programs on the Internet that will make you gain 50lbs to your bench, or grow your biceps by 4 inches. Yeah, they probably work too, but really there is nothing secret about any of it. They are programs, made by a Strength and Conditioning Coach or a Personal Trainer and has wrapped it in a nice professional looking package with maybe a commercial or two to promote it. The testimonials are probably accurate too, but keep in mind, they will only post the successes.

I just ran a 5 week program with a couple athletes and they all gained about 10% more weight to their Bench Press. I have another athlete that has put on close to 10 lbs of lean mass in just 6 weeks. I have personally decreased my body fat by over 8 percent. Another couple of athletes have increased their VO2 maxes significantly. I’ve helped people lose weight, gain muscle and be more active and fit. This isn’t magic, and I’m not the only trainer to be able to do it. All these little programs and gimmicks out there have a time, place and purpose. It’s important to understand these, and in my next post I will explain this. But until then just know, if you have a specific goal and a plan to get there, IT WILL WORK!

To answer the question “What is the best kind of training to do?” My simple answer is this “Try anything and everything, if it works for you, then it’s the best. And please hire a professional to make sure you’re doing it right!”

Hey,

I said last time I will break down my workouts in more detail and let you know what’s happening. Right now I’m transitioning to Strength so last week I did 2 days of hypertrophy and 2 days of strength. Now doing Max Strength this is really going to up the weights that I’m doing. Max Strength you are trying to lift as much as you can a very small amount of times. Before I go into my workouts I want to explain the term “Rep Max”.

Your rep max is simply the maximum amount of times (repetitions) you can lift a specific weight for a specific exercise. So people usually talk about their one rep max for bench press, mine is around 240lbs.  When doing strength, you are working in anywhere from 1-5 reps, each at rep max. Based on predicted values my weights at each rep max would be 1 rep – 240lbs, 2 reps – 228 lbs, 3 reps– 223 lbs, 4 reps – 216 lbs and 5 reps – 209 lbs. That’s based on normalized percentages of your max, 1 rep being 100%, 2 reps – 95%, 3 reps – 93%, 4 reps – 90% and 5 reps – 87%. All this means is that when I want to work max strength and let’s say I will be working in a 3 rep range at max, for my bench press I would want to use around 223 lbs (for simplicity I use 225 lbs). These percentages can be used to find what weights you should be using for each exercise, and can also be used in any order. For example if you know your 12 rep max, you can predict your 1 rep max.

My lifts are as follows, all are 4 sets, 3 reps each:

Monday – Legs (Squats, Deadlifts, Straight Leg Deadlifts, 45 degree Leg Press, 45 degree calf raises, DB Split Squats)

Tuesday – Chest and Triceps (Bench Press, Incline DB Press, OH Tricep Cable Extensions, High Cable Flyes, Dips)

Wednesday – Shoulders and Upper Back (OH BB Shoulder Press, Bent Over BB Row, Front Shoulder Raises, Weighted Pull-Ups, Rear Delt Cable Rows, Shoulder Shrugs)

Thursday – Repeat Legs

Friday – Repeat Chest and Triceps

Saturday – Rest

Sunday – Repeat Shoulders and Upper Back

So that’s 6 days on, one day rest. The workouts themselves are fairly short, but when working in strength you need lots of rest. So 3 – 5 minutes between sets, at minimum only counting rest; my Monday would take almost an hour and a half. Time is cut down using supersets but working on strength is more waiting around resting, than actually lifting.

Hey,

So it’s time for my weekly update and rant. So I’m still learning how this whole blogging thing works, but I get to add titles to them (who knew), so now I will actually be dating them. Otherwise you would never know when I wrote what down, but don’t worry, now you will.

Well another week has gone by and my training is starting to change. Up until this point I have been on my cutting routine and trying to lose some weight, increase cardio, and working in a hypertrophy range.

When resistance training we generally split programs into 4 areas:

               Hypertrophy is increasing the size of the muscle.

               Strength is increasing the muscles ability to lift a heavy load.

               Power is being able to lift heavy loads at faster speeds.

               Muscular Endurance is the ability to lifts loads multiple times in a row.

These occur by working in different rep and set ranges, with some guidelines on rest. By stimulating the muscles in different ways, different adaptations occur.

I could go on for pages about how each of these happens, but it wouldn’t make for a very entertaining read. What I’m trying to say though is that I was trying to make my muscles bigger. I stated before that during a cutting routine due to the lack of nutrients and energy on a restrictive diet, you tend break down protein for energy, and with this you tend to lose muscle mass. So to counteract this, I worked in hypertrophy to increase my protein synthesis (ability to make and store protein). Now that I’m coming out of my diet, I want to increase my strength. Over the next week I’m phasing into strength by working 2 strength days and 2 hypertrophy days, with 3 days of rest. I normally will only take 1 or 2 days of rest going into a transition like this, but I want to make sure I’m more recovered for the next phase. Sorry for all the science in this post. But dont’ worry, I’ll give more details on the breakdown of my workouts in the next post.