Eating For Strength and Fitness: Improving Your Gains Via Food
Fitness- n. 1. the condition of being physically fit and healthy. 2. the quality of being suitable to fulfill a particular role or task.As most of us realize that our overall fitness includes both exercise and diet. Would anyone pour sugar water into a car's gas tank and expect it to win NASCAR races (or run at all for that matter)?
It's the same with the human body: you can't load up your body with sugars (and highly processed frankenfood) and expect to achieve athletic feats and improve your physical streng
So what should we eat to provide the fuel our bodies need to crush heavy weights, tear it up on the fields and courts, and rise to Jedi Master status?
Lean meats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, water... you know, whole foods. A diet rich in whole, (mostly) unprocessed foods should the be base of any healthy diet, and especially so for those looking to build muscle, lose fat, improve speed, increase verticals, and slay dragons.
There are many calculations, measurements and details that I can expound on to find your specific caloric intake. These, I think, are more applicable for elite athletes (which most of us, outside our imaginations, are not) or highly competitive physique athletes, i.e. bodybuilders and figure competitors. For us mortals, we'll be a-ok if we keep eating real food, employing lots of vegetables, and limiting the amount of processed crap we ingest.
Nutrition is akin to training in this sense. While, yes, calculating and recording does have it's place in those high level athletes' lives, the average trainee (as in 95% of the population) will have a healthy, productive and happy lives the less we measure and obsess about everything that goes in our mouths. Just keep it simple.
Since I think it can be impractical to count calories with every meal, here are some more practical ways to manage your portion sizes.
1 palm of meat is roughly 20-30g of protein
1 "serving" of fruits or vegetables is either, 1 medium piece of fruit, 1/2 cup chopped fruit or vegetable, or 1 cup of leafy vegetables.
1 fist is about the serving size of carbohydrates.
Meals should consist of:
1. Protein source: lean beef, chicken breast, fish, eggs (vegetarians: tofu, tempeh, plant based combos to make a complete protein). How much: men- 2 palm-sized portion, women- 1 palm-size
2. Fat source: egg yolks, the fat found in meats, coconut oil, butter (real stuff, not margarine), nuts/nut butter, avocado, and olive oil How much: Roughly 30% of your calories should come from fats so try adding just a bit to each meal. Sautee vegetables in 1-2 tsp of olive or coconut oil, eat 2-3 eggs, a handful of nuts or a tablespoon of nut butter, or eat half an avocado. Just adding a little of a fat source to each meal will be perfect.
3. Vegetables: anything green, cauliflower, peppers, carrots, tomatoes... just pick some! How much: 2 servings per meal. Yup, that's right. 2.
4. Carbohydrate source: Simple: sugary drinks, soda, fruit juice, muffins, bagels, soday, sugary desserts, and soda. Complex: rice, quinoa, oatmeal, lentils, whole grain bread and pasta (real whole grain, not "enriched wheat flour), sweet potatoes or white potatoes, fruits.
How much: That depends. For those looking to lose weight, any simple carbohydrate intake should be concentrated around the workout window, with the rest of the day with smaller servings of complex carbs. Those who either train for endurance sports (triathletes, cross country, etc.) have a manual-labor job, or have a hard time gaining weight in general, should have higher intake of carbs throughout the day (with more complex carbs than simple).
Every meal should have at least 1-3. Number 4 is, as mentioned, dependent on your goals, training, and metabolic needs. Your choices are not limited to the above mentioned, but are a good starting point.
What about snacks? If you're hungry, eat! Try to include at least 2 of 1-4 above in each snack.
How often should you eat? When you're hungry. There are no hard and fast rules for how many meals and snacks one should eat during the day. If you're training hard, you will be hungry, therefore make sure you're eating enough throughout the day that you have enough energy to complete workouts and recover from them. Pay special attention to your protein intake. Muscles require protein to rebuild so make sure you're providing ample supply before and after your workouts!
Nutrition has become overcomplicated in the past few years. It doesn't have to be. Eat lots of vegetables and fruits, eat lean proteins every day, control the carbohydrate intake depending on goals, and have a sweet thing here and there.
Build Muscle: Top 5 MUSTS!
How is it some build muscle with, seemingly, little to no effort? Putting meat on the bones comes easy for some: they’ll do a couple curls and drink a glass of milk then BAM, they’re swole. For the rest of us, it can feel like we have to grind and suffer day in and day out for an ounce or two of muscle. The methods used and the advice given can sometimes become overwhelming.
Do this program... “Take these supplements... Eat 22.75 grams of protein every 76 minutes... Train each bodypart once every ten days.”
Sometimes you’ll hear fitness experts give advice that can be contradictory or confusing, or just plain unreasonable for you and your lifestyle.
Amongst the sea of information on the quest for building muscle out there, here are my top five tips for beefing up.
1. Make Strength a Priority
If your goal is purely to build muscle and you couldn’t care less about your deadlift max, that’s great! Good for you, and to each their own. However, understand that as you get stronger you can increase the muscle building stimulus by utilizing greater loads. We know we need time under tension via resistance training to stimulate growth, but if you continue using the same loading schemes over a period of time your body will eventually adapt and the stimulus dies.
How do we avoid this? Focus on getting stronger! Have a handful of “indicator lifts” to use to track progress. These lifts are ideally big compound lifts that you strive to become stronger in. Personally I use the the biggie compound exercises: back squat, deadlift, bench press, and overhead press to track my progress in strength. Other good options to use are any squat exercise variation (front, box, goblet), push-ups, pull-ups, single leg movements, row exercise variations, prowler work, or farmer’s walks. Heck, if your goal is to grow enormous biceps focus on getting stronger at the curl.
The point is we want to look back at our own records after months and years pass and see that we are capable of throwing more weights around. If you make awesome improvements in strength over a significant length of time I’d be willing to bet that you’ve made progress in your lean body mass as well.
2. Volume
This is where we see a big difference in the typical comparison of how a bodybuilder trains versus how a powerlifter By joining a RED franchise, you could earn in excess of ?1,300 more per year than at other national truck driving schools – and significantly more than if you choose to operate as an independent instructor. trains. The bodybuilder, whose primary goal is to build muscle, will utilize a ton of volume into their training. A bodybuilder"s workout for his (or her) chest may do something along the lines of the following:
|
Bench Press |
4x8 |
|
DB Incline Press |
3x10 |
|
DB Flyes |
3x12 |
|
Pec Deck |
3x15 |
The powerlifter, on the other hand, may work up to a heavy single on the bench, do a few sets of rows and go home.
Now this is a very simplified comparison of the two training disciplines but you get the message: if mass is your goal, you need more volume in your workouts.
More volume, however, does NOT necessarily mean that you have to be lifting in the 10-20 range for each exercise. If you did that, you’d be sacrificing too much tension to get those reps in. Try some different set x rep schemes that will allow for significant volume with moderately heavy weight. 7 sets of 4, 5 sets of 5, and 4 sets of 6 are all good options, especially for your “main movement” of the day.
3. Eat Better
This is a problem for a lot of younger athletes that stay very active year-round. You need food to live, and you need food for energy, but you need even MORE food to build muscle.
Be honest with yourself! You want to be bigger and stronger but all you had for breakfast was… nothing?! Re-think that strategy.
The nutritional side of muscle gain is underestimated too often, and it needs to be a consistent effort everday. If you eat like an infant all week, but binge at a Chinese buffet on Saturday it doesn’t count. Eat a lot of good food every single day.
Sometimes it’s not an issue of eating enough food, but eating enough of the right foods. A diet consistent with cookies and cokes probably won’t be the key to building a big strong body that you work so hard for.
Keep a food log and make sure you’re eating right. If your still confused and overwhelmed, just have Kelsey analyze your diet and she’ll tell you everything you’re doing wrong.
4. Aim for a Horomonal Response
Your hormones are the key to growth. Without them we’d be nothing. No need to go into a complex physiology lesson right now, but here are some quick tips you should keep in mind.
Testosterone: Stimulated by lifting heavy weights. Hit it hard and heavy, and get adequate rest between sets.
Human Growth Hormone: Stimulated by moderate weights, higher volume and lower rest periods.
Cortisol: Evil. Catabolic stress hormone that doesn’t want you to gain muscle. Keep it low by getting enough sleep and doing whatever helps you de-stress your life.
5. Be Aggressive!
Building muscle takes hard work and focus. You can’t just casually hit the gym once every couple of weeks and expect huge gains. Lift and eat with a purpose, and be stubbornly consistent. If you hit a plateau, change something up and keep grinding.
Make your goal important, and put in the necessary effort it takes to make it happen!
Circuit Training for Fitness
Picture this:
You got out of work later than ususal... perfect timing to hit rush hour at its height and extend your normal 20-minute commute to the gym into an all-out 45-minute crawl full of frustration.
By the time you get to the gym, you only have about 25 minutes before you need to leave.
What do you do? Do you literally throw in your towel and just go home? How can you possibly salvage a decent training session out of the train wreck that was the afternoon?
Circuit Training is waiting to save the day! Well, so are Time Turners, but pretty much no one has one of those things...
What is Circuit Training?
The possibilities are limited only by your imagination (and your physical capacity. I know from personal experience that performing box jumps after a barbell sumo deadlift is a baaaaad idea).
Typically, circuits are comprised of 5-8 exercises and you want to work with weights about 75-80% of your max. Translation: pick weights that you could probably perform for 8-10 challenging repetitions. String them all together, and work through the circuit with minimal rest between exercises.
In terms of time, you can set up your circuit a couple of different ways:
1. Set a particular rep goal per exercise and then set your time for 15-25 minutes and see how many rounds of the circuit you can perform.
2. Pick a number of rounds to complete and try to finish as quickly as possible. Usually, if you have about 5-8 exercises, 5 rounds will be around 20-ish minutes.
Benefits of Circuits:
1. They're a great way to improve overall conditioning without watching your hard earned muscle mass wither away. Two recent research reviews (abstracts here and here) have found that steady state cardiovascular training can a) decrease power output (yikes! Not good for athletes that need to produce power aka: everyone) and b) compromise muscle mass (and thus strength) gains. This effect is seen most prominently when aerobic training is 3x/week for greater than 20 minutes. The metabolic pathways that aerobic and anaerobic (think strength training and sprint/interval training) are conflicting. It's very hard to maintain a large amount of muscle mass and be a long-distance runner!
Circuit training is similar, metabolically, to sprint/interval/hill training in that it preserves lean muscle mass.
Steady state cardiovascular training, on the other hand, can lead to elevated levels of cortisol (stress hormone) which can decrease the effectiveness of muscle-building hormones such as testosterone and insulin-like growth. It also encourages muscle protein break down.
While strength training too breaks down muscle tissue, the anabolic (building) environment produced by strength training encourages repair more than the catabolic (break down) environment of aerobic training. Strength coach Charles Poliquin says:
Whereas endurance exercises compromise anaerobic performance and body composition, anaerobic training modes such as sprint intervals and weight lifting will benefit endurance athletes if programed properly. To improve endurance performance, do a strength-type resistance training program with loads of 80 percent of the 1RM or heavier. This will train the type IIA muscle fibers so they increase the rate of force development and get faster.
Type IIA muscle fibers = strong, powerful muscles. We want those!
So if you're still with me, we'll move on to the second point.
2. It's time-efficient. After a quick dynamic warm-up and maybe a warm-up set or two of the planned exercises, the total time of a circuit should be no more than 25-minutes start to finish. 15-minutes would even be sufficient depending on the intensity of the exercise selection and weights used. Nice huh? It's just long enough to make you feel like you've worked out but not too long that you're home late for dinner.
3. (but really 2.5) Not only are they time-efficient but they're efficient in the sense that a circuit can hit a lot of muscle groups, through full ranges of motion, in one fell swoop. While a jog will really only get your legs (and, I would argue, not very well since the range of motion is small, the force production is low, and the intensity isn't that high either) and maybe some low level core activation, a circuit can be full body. Take a look at this sample:
Goblet or barbell squat x 6-8
Pushup x 8-10
Step back lunge x 6-8/side
3 Point Row x 8/side
Kettle bell swing x 10
Can you see the total body genius in that? We have lower body (both bilateral and unilateral movements), upper body (push and pull) and a delightful amount of full range of motion exercises. All of which, if one wanted, could be done with just one kettlebell.
Run through that baby 5 or 6 times and try to tell me that's not cardio. Oh wait, you can't. I can't hear you over your screaming lungs and gasping breaths.
4. Because circuits demand so much from your muscles and cardiovascular system, they're pretty calorically expensive, which means your body will be burning calories longer post-workout than they would after a lower intensity training session (aka: low-intensity, steady state cardio). On those above-linked research reviews, it was found that athletes reduced body fat when they performed high intensity exercise (sprints or circuits).
So, if you're looking for an efficient way to reduce body fat, preserve lean tissue, AND improve your cardiovascular fitness, circuit training is definitely a tool you want in your toolbox!
I feel obligated to note that strength training, solid strength training sessions, need to make up the bulk of your training week. Picking up heavy things repeatedly is the best way to build muscle and get stronger. Circuit training, while it won't make you weaker and can aid with strength gains, is inferior overall to 80-90% max lifting in terms of producing maximal strength gains. While I don't recommend basing your entire training plan around circuits, they are beneficial and even fun (yes, fun.) to throw in every once and a while.
RUNFAST! Take a Peek At What It's All About
The first RunFast workout occured yesterday. Check out this great video that Goose created on-the-spot as we went through our first work out.
Prepare for the fall seasons this summer and come out and join us for conditioning, technique work, and loads of fun!
My L5-S1 Disc Explosion Part I
So I destroyed one of my intervertebral discs in my lumbar spine a few years ago, and it was followed by a year of pain, endless treatments, frustration, de-training, and overall unhappiness. I’ve been wondering for a while if I should write a blog describing the injury and the path it led me down. I’m sure some people may find the story interesting, or others with a similar injury might find solace in seeing that they aren’t alone. I know that while I was injured I was desperately reading through articles, blogs, forums, and spinal research books to not only search for information that might help my condition but to also read others’ stories and see what they’ve gone through. But for a while I didn’t want to write it because I’ve come to HATE the fact that this injury took away so much from me. I HATED the fact that I still owe money to some medical practices for the treatments I went through. And I HATED the fact that for the better part of a year the injury became the focal point of my life. I just wanted to leave it in the past and move on.
But...I figure it’s time to stop being a drama queen and give you guys a “play-by-play” of what happened.
A Long, Long Time Ago...
I’ve always been an active kid, partaking in activities like skateboarding, snowboarding, fishing (is that active?), pick-up basketball and football, dirt-jumping on bikes, and all kinds of stuff that are fun and dangerous. In high school I played lacrosse as my primary sport, but also dabbled in various track and field events. After high school I played club lacrosse at VCU before transferring to GMU but also got hooked into grappling sports. I started competing in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling fairly regularly. I loved it! It definitely made me regret not wrestling in high school. This was also around the same time that I started lifting a little more seriously.
Life was good! I was squatting, deadlifting, wrestling, grappling, and having a lot of fun. In terms of training I admit I did some stupid stuff. I never cared about “overtraining”, soft tissue quality, mobility, or pre-hab. I just wanted to get stronger and lift more weight. I always looked at “ab work" as a waste of time and effort.
I distinctly remember one day grappling with my training partners one and getting caught in a shoulder lock called a “kimura”, which basically forces your shoulder into deep internal rotation. It happened so quickly that I couldn’t tap in time and heard (and felt) a loud “POP” in my shoulder.
What did I do later that day? Heavy weighted dips! Genius I know… But my shoulder was fine! I was invincible!
In 2011 I was training extremely hard for an international grappling tournament in New York. The year before I had competed in the same tournament and lost in the first round pretty quickly. The loss really drove my motivation to come back and perform this time around. I was training 7 days a week, sometimes twice or even three times a day. I continued to lift heavy and hard as well. I was sore all the time. My entire body ached, but I noticed that my back was especially flared up. I simply shrugged it off. If you’re training hard you should be sore, right?
One particular day I was grappling with my coach for about an hour and a half, then went to class. As I sat through the class I couldn’t take my mind off of how uncomfortable the desk chair was. Finally, when class was dismissed and I stood up it felt like someone took a baseball bat to my lower back. My back locked up and I couldn’t pick up my backpack. It was time to see a doctor.
The General Practitioner
Keep in mind that back pain is one of the top reasons for a doctor's visit, second only behind the common cold. It's a very common occurrence and more often than not some pills and time off will do the trick.
At the doctor’s office, I gave the doc the rundown of my symptoms and she gave me some anti-inflammatories. I expressed my concern about a disc issue and she was convinced that it was just a muscle strain. I went home, took the pills for about two weeks and called back for another appointment. My back was still jacked up.
The second time she gave me some muscle relaxers along with the anti-inflammatories. She was still convinced that there is no need for an x-ray or MRI.
Again, I was back in her office within a few weeks. Despite putting my training on hold and diligently popping these prescription pills, nothing had changed. She finally put in an order for an x-ray. The x-ray came back with no significant results, and she said the structure of my spine is fine. That’s all good and dandy, but it’s important to note that an x-ray will not image the intervertebral discs between the bones, and you need an MRI to diagnose a disc herniation. She was still unwilling to give me a referral for an MRI.
She sent me home with a fresh prescription of anti-inflammatories and another muscle relaxer, and recommended I get a massage.
I got a massage, took the pills, and came back to the office a few weeks later with no good news and a frustrated attitude. I demanded the MRI. She gave me the referral and my MRI was scheduled about two weeks after that. If memory serves me right, it took about three months of living in severe lower back pain before I even got a referall for an MRI.
The MRI
If any of you have had an MRI before, you know how… not-fun it can be. I was shoved into this cold hard alien tube of death for what felt like days lying flat on my back, which happened to be one of the positions that aggravated my back pain at the time. When it was all said and done, the MRI confirmed the fear that was lingering in the back of my head since the day my back locked up in class: Herniated disc, L5-S1.
Physical Therapy
The next time at the doctor’s office I got some more pills but also a referral to physical therapy. I remember feeling somewhat glad that I was finally taking steps in the right direction. My condition was diagnosed, I’ll do the PT, and finally make my way back into sports and training.
My physical therapy consisted of manual therapy, electro-stim, and a TON of extension exercises. It seemed to be a very “McKenzie method” based rehab protocol, which involves a ton of spinal extension.
The idea is that these positions will help re-center the disc bulge. Bottom line for me is… Nothing helped. Sure the massage and electro-stim felt good, but the majority of my day was spent in intense lower back pain that seemed to be getting worse. It was during my time spent regularly going to physical therapy that the pain in my lower back started creeping into my left glute and down my leg…
I used up all my PT time referred by the doc, and even came back for more sessions that were paid for out of pocket, believing that it might help. After a few months of PT with zero resolve and a ridiculous bill, I stopped coming.
The Chiropractor
Around the same time I tried seeing a chiropractor. The chiropractor I went to had a decompression table, where you get strapped down to this apparatus and it gradually applies a stretch to your spine. The idea here is that the stretch will increase the space between the vertebrae and “suck” the disc back into place. After about 20 minutes on the decompression table, the chiro cracked my back in a few places and sent me on my way. Again, nothing seemed to help.
During one particular “back-cracking” session the chiro told me I should consider giving up lifting weights, grappling, and snowboarding and take up an activity like ping-pong. He might as well have said, “Maybe you should stop living” (no offense to ping-pong players). Needless to say, that was my last session with him and I never saw him again.
Although I had a less-than-favorable experience with this particular chiropractor, I am by no means a non-believer in the practice. Since this experience I have met with several different chiropractors with whom I am very impressed and would trust to treat me or my athletes if need-be.
Acupuncture
Not too much to say in this department… I only had one session, where they placed needles in my leg in a pattern that seemed to follow my sciatic nerve. They also placed wires on the needles that provided a gentle shock to the needles. It felt strange, slightly relaxing, but provided no lasting relief.
I didn’t know what to do at this point. My whole life was pain now, and by this time it was shooting down my left leg at full blast, sending pins and needles into my toes. I woke up to agonizing pain and stiffness in the morning, spent my entire day crippled, and crawled into bed at night praying it won’t hurt as bad the next day. I was flexion intolerant, extension intolerant, sitting down hurt, laying down hurt, walking hurt, everything hurt. I wasn't worried about competition anymore. I was worried about my quality of life and well-being. My friends and family noticed that I wasn’t the happy-go-lucky person I usually am, but I was quick to snap at people and I was irritated all the time.
I knew something had to be done, so after talking to several doctors I decided that I would try a few more options of treatment, and if there is no progress, I would go see a spinal surgeon.
To be continued!
RunFAST: Join Us for our First Run
Come out to Draper Park in Fairfax on Wednesday, June 26 at noon for a sample of the RunFAST program. Bring water, appropriate shoes for the turf, and a towel... it's gonna be hot and humid.
We'll be posting the actual runs on the website at some point tomorrow - so you can always do it on your own!
