The Zzzs of Exercise

In this blog:

• another strength training benefit
• see my new video
• one of our trainers is on TV tonight!

1. Another Strength Training Benefit

A study published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise showed that after just three months of strength training, gastrointestinal transit time increases by as much as 56%.

Why this matters: gastrointestinal transit time has been associated with a higher risk of colon cancer.

Action step: maintain a regular strength-training routine, and lower your risk of colon cancer.

2. NEW VIDEO:

You can see a new video of the workout experience at Myogenics Fitness, with clips of a number of our clients working out and explaining what they think of it.

Check it out here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4AQHZnOdVE

Please comment below the video what you thought of it.

3. One of Our Trainers is on TV Tonight!

You can see one of our very own Myogenics Fitness personal trainers in Los Angeles, Scottie Epstein, as he helps to coach for Team Liddell on this season’s The Ultimate Fighter. The first show airs tonight at 10pm PST on the Spike network.

I was just talking to Chuck Liddell a few days ago, after his last workout at our LA gym, and I have to say that it is gratifying to have one of the top athletes in the world tell me that nothing compares to the workout he gets with us.

That’s especially gratifying given the fact that we specialize in working with busy professionals and with people who have often never done any exercise in their life before they come to see us.

It just goes to show that the fundamental principles that are most important for someone who is just starting out exercising will still be the most important aspects to get right, even if you manage to become a pro athlete.

-Chad

Today:

• a story
• a lesson learned
• a 30-second exercise for you, based on the lesson

Of the several positive responses I received after my last post, one in particular raised an issue that I want to discuss further, because I think it’s REALLY important…

Ed wrote to me the following:

“Thanks – what a great tip. The goal is exhaustion. We will try this on every exercise we do, not only weights, but also treadmill and bike.”

Thanks for writing that, Ed — that was a perfect set-up for me to explain when you should NOT try to “empty the tank” on activities outside of controlled resistance training.

Two of the activities that fall into this category are exactly the treadmill and bicycle.

Let me start by sharing a personal story:

I was skiing in Colorado several years ago, and enjoying a beautiful, sunny day with spectacular views of the surrounding mountains. Near the end of the day, I started feeling tired, but I was enjoying the day so much that I decided to take one last run down the front face of the mountain to take it in one last time.

As I was skiing, I noticed that my legs were even more tired than I thought, and about half way down the mountain, one ski stuck and went in a different direction from the other ski.

I began to fall suddenly toward the ground, and I didn’t have my usual strength to muscle out of the situation.

My exhausted brain let me do something foolish … I jabbed my right ski pole into the ground, attempting to stop my fall.

As I continued to fall at the ski pole, my weight pushed my right thumb all the way back into my forearm.

That hurt.

It took several days for my thumb to heal enough for me to even hold a pen and write … which was a problem, since I’m right-handed.

It was also too painful for me to shift a manual transmission car with my right had for weeks … which I know because I owned a stick-shift car.

The moral: getting physically and mentally exhausted during some activities can be DANGEROUS.

Imagine what could happen if you got totally fatigued on a treadmill.

Not pretty.

Imagine what could be the result of riding a bike when your muscles are too exhausted to quickly maneuver to avoid a sudden large rock in your path, or to recover from something throwing you off-balance.

Not pretty.

If “exercise” is activity performed to improve your health and ability to enjoy life, anything that puts you at a high risk of injuring yourself does not qualify–and it should not be considered exercise.

Hammering nails while blindfolded is physical activity, but I think that it should not be considered exercise.

I believe that the intensity of exertion is the most important factor in generating strength and cardiovascular benefits, after looking at the evidence. Therefore, I recommend that any activities you use for exercise are simple to learn, master, and perform, and are very difficult to do wrong.

The skills/activities you use should be mastered to the point of feeling well within your control before you attempt to really “empty the tank” with them.

Also note that “empty the tank” means to go to the point where you physically cannot move … and beyond — to continuing to try for another 10 seconds just to make sure you really can’t physically move under sustained 100% effort. When people feel that they are absolutely “too exhausted to continue,” that is often a sign that they are about 50% of the way to this point. Maybe 40%.

I am not talking about feeling too tired, or mentally giving up — I’m talking about the point at which your muscles are physically incapable of moving the weight — even as you’re exerting a maximum effort.

To get anywhere near this point, a good type of exercise is isometrics (like I demonstrated on the video linked to from the last newsletter), as there is no movement at all to mess up. Also, resistance exercise machines that are totally stable and can be performed with very slow movements are great — performed in the right way, they are nearly isometric.

I avoid anything with instability — including most free weight exercises and DEFINITELY instability devices like inflatable balls and instability boards for two big reasons:

1. To the extent that these exercises destabilize you, they do not allow you to target more intensely. The instability required different muscles to take over intermittently, which gives other muscles rest. There is not sustained effort in one targeted muscle group. No muscles can be thoroughly exhausted in the manner described above.

2. To the extent that you train more intensely with such activities, and get closer to real muscular exhaustion, your risk of injury increases.

If you want to get the most intensity out of your workouts (and therefore the most results), I recommend focusing on activities that are simple — activities that you can completely master and perform totally in control all the way to muscle fatigue with little to no risk of your technique falling apart — even if your muscles become so tired that they simply cannot move at all.

Such intense exercise, performed properly, will take you less time, get you more results, and give you lots of extra strength.

THEN you can go enjoy all of the fun activities you like to do–such as biking, skiing, tennis, hiking, swimming, etc.

As a major bonus, you’ll never have to worry about exhausting yourself during your fun activities — you can just enjoy them, knowing that you already got all the exercise benefit you need.

(And if you don’t believe this, wait until you see the video footage of our clients in our LA gym describing what types of improvements they’ve seen in their performance since switching to once-weekly training the way we do it. We’ve been recording some amazing stories; we’ll put them online soon.)

Your next action exercise:

1. Take a piece of paper and pen, and draw two columns: “High-Intensity Exercise Activities (that I can take to muscle failure)” and “Fun, Non-Exercise Activities.”

2. Write down all of the activities that you do, and put each into the appropriate column.

Now evaluate at what you have.

If you end up with an empty “exercise” column, then perhaps it’s time to think about adding one 20-minute per week block of intense, purposeful *exercise* to your week.

That’s all it takes to be consistently improving your strength, cardiovascular health, bone density, and many other factors of health — if you believe the studies I’ve read and the clients I’ve worked with.

3. Write down, “Considering what I’ve just thought about, my next action to improve my fitness routine is …” and finish that sentence, based on the simple advice in this newsletter.

If you take action on this, I bet that you’ll start feeling stronger and healthier, looking more attractive, and enjoying your recreational activities more.

Comment below, and let me know how you’re using this tip … or if you have any questions.

-Chad

P.S. If you’d like a personal trainer in Los Angeles to teach you optimal exercise activities for a once-a-week routine, and also to help keep you accountable every week, click on the “introductory session” link and find out if you qualify and are a good fit to work with us.

I was doing personal training with a client in my LA gym yesterday who commented on how difficult it is to keep going on an exercise when it gets so intense that it feels like “the gas tank is near empty,” and “I might not be able to do another rep.”

This is a common feeling among people who train intensely.

(And if you want to get more results, you want to be training intensely.)

Now, as soon as my client said this, I realized that I personally look at this situation differently–and in a way that makes me both feel more comfortable, and also allows me to get more intensity (and results!) out of my workouts.

I’m want to quickly share what I do with you, so you can use it today:

My goal when I’m lifting a weight is NOT to see how many reps I can do, but, instead, my goal–the thing I’m trying to achieve–is to specifically get the “gas tank” to empty.

When your body produces results, it does so in proportion to how much you used up all the strength in a muscle. Your body does not know or care how many reps you did. The latter seems important because reps are easy to count, but it is simply the wrong goal.

Reps are one way to exhaust your muscles, but exhaustion itself is far more important then how many reps you did.

To illustrate just how much more important, you can do an isometric exercise, with no movement at all, and still exhaust your muscles–and still get amazing results.

When I sit down on any weight machine, my goal is to “empty the tank” on the muscles I am targeting as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Because my goal is to get the tank to empty, and NOT to do more reps, I feel more and more satisfied to the extent that my muscles start feeling more exhausted.

Further, I have no desire to cheat or rest during the set, because this would seem to be moving me away from my goal. AND it also would make the set last longer. I don’t want the set to last longer–I want to “empty the tank” sooner and be done with it.

This both gets me more results and gets me done with each exercise faster.

Please try thinking about this today or at your next workout, and let me know how it goes.

So, the next action is to do this right now: take a piece of paper and pen, and write on the paper: “Focus on ’emptying the tank’ on the muscles I’m targeting. Work to achieve this as quickly and efficiently as possible. Do NOT worry about how many reps I complete.”

Now, place this piece of paper with your gym shorts, your gym bag, or wherever you are sure to see it the next time you go to the gym to work out.

Then comment below and tell me how it went. I look forward to hearing about your experience.

-Chad

There are few things more frustrating than not being able to lose weight.

Do you want to be slimmer and see muscle definition, but your weight won’t budge?

Fix This: Lack of Support

People who exercise alone are less challenged, less accountable and are more likely to fail.

Who would rush to the gym if no one was waiting for them? Who would push themselves if no one was paying attention? Exercising alone is a recipe for disaster.

It takes time to transform your body from flabby to fit, even though you want it to happen overnight.

Remember that it took time to put the weight on, so it will take time to take the weight off. When you find your patience wavering, or when you encounter a frustrating plateau, it is great to have someone there who is committed to keeping you going.

* Find a workout partner who is equally or more committed than you (or work with a fitness professional) to guarantee your results.

* Remember that anyone can have one great workout, but that won’t get you the body you want. The only way to achieve your goal is by consistently exercising and eating right, plain and simple. Agree with your workout partner up-front that you will never let each other off the hook for lame excuses.

I’ve learned all kinds of tricks over the years that can make your workout more effective while also saving you time. But none of that does any good if you do nothing.

So this week, I challenge and encourage you to set up a system of real accountability, even if it is just one workout per week–yes, you can get great consistent results training just once per week…if you really do it every week.

Get that in place, and the next simple tip I share to increase the effectiveness of your routine will be worth a whole lot more to you.

-Chad

(And if you want to hire a trainer to accomplish this, I of course suggest trying our LA gym and Los Angeles personal trainers, as I think you’ll be impressed.)

As the second month of 2010 comes to a close, where do you stand with your resolutions? Have you made progress or did your motivation fizzle?

Most people wait for motivation to strike them like a lightning bolt. Well, I have news: motivation isn’t something that happens to you – it’s something that you create for yourself.

Now, in the people I’ve worked with, I’ve noticed 3 key challenges that seem to keep most people from achieving and maintaining their physical fitness goals for life:

1. They don’t have enough time.
2. They don’t know what to do at the gym.
3. They can’t stick with a healthy workout/dietary routine consistently.

I’m going to discuss the third one today…

If you find yourself not consistently “sticking to it,” it might be because you don’t feel motivated.

And if you don’t feel motivated to achieve your goals, it may be due to mental roadblocks.

By simply dealing with the roadblocks, the path to the body you want may suddenly seem clear, and you may feel your motivation and excitement return.

Read the following 8 Mindset Tips and see if any of them strike a chord with you:

1. Commit to using all past (and future!) failures as data to learn from–strategies that didn’t work for a good reason, and why. Commit to never again misinterpreting failures as evidence that you can’t do it and it’s hopeless. The story goes that Edison invented superior light bulbs by a process of eliminating thousands of strategies that didn’t work.
2. You can have the body of your dreams, but first you must give up the belief that you can’t.
3. Decide what is important in your life, and focus on that. Get clear about your goals, and visualize yourself accomplishing them.
4. If you don’t know exactly where you want to go, you will likely end up someplace else.
5. Commit to developing the habit of dealing with, understanding, and conquer each negative thought/emotion the moment it enters your mind, when it is weakest.
6. Focus on small, attainable goals, rather than just one monumental goal.
7. Convince yourself that exercise is rewarding, really understand what it means to you, and it will feel rewarding.
8. Excuses or results: you can only have one, and you must be willing to turn your back on the other.

(If you’re suddenly sick and tired of making excuses, and want to take action right now … I’m not going to “leave you hanging” as they say–you can contact us today to get started on a results-driven fitness program. Here’s a link to learn about and apply for our introductory workout experience)

Creature of Habit

What do you do every night before getting into bed? You brush your teeth. It doesn’t take much thought since it is such an ingrained habit.

Imagine if exercise was as much of an ingrained habit as brushing your teeth. Imagine how quickly you would achieve your fitness goals…and then continue to steadily improve beyond them for months and years into the future.

Here’s how to make exercise a habit: 1) Exercise consistently each week; 2) Put it on your schedule as a must – not a maybe; 3) Log your workouts track your progress; and 4) The ultimate way to create the habit of exercise is to get someone else to do all of these things for you – talk about guaranteeing your success! (find an accountability partner or hire a trainer)

Now, if at any point in this newsletter you thought “yeah, that makes sense,” I want you to do something right now…

I’d love to see you write down that one thing you realized while reading this newsletter–yes, actually write it down on paper. Yes, right now. Okay, now write down the next action you are committed to doing, TODAY, as a result of what you realized.

Great, now go to it!

-Chad

P.S. Remember those 3 major challenges I mentioned above?

1. too little time
2. not knowing what to do
3. having difficulty following through

…if those struck a cord, we offer a complete solution to all three at my personal training facility in Los Angeles. Contact us today if you want to get started.