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"I'm going to start going to the gym, but I would really like to lose some weight first."

This is actually a line I've heard several times! People are always in search of the "perfect" time to start a fitness program. It's always "I'll start when my kids are back in school." Or "I'll start when work slows down." The bottom line is there is never a perfect time to start your fitness program. There will always be obsticals. The kids will always get in the way. Work will always be busy. There may even be a little snow on the ground (insert sarcastic gasp here). Whether your goal is fat loss, getting stronger, increasing muscle mass, or just looking better naked; the perfect time to start your program is, and will always be, RIGHT NOW!

"The most important key in achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move." - John Wooden

Chocolate Milk as a Post Workout Supplement?

The benefits of post workout drinks have been known for many years. The ingestion of a carbohydrate/protein mixture within thirty minutes of working out has been shown time and again to increase the body’s ability to recover from exercise. The problem is that supplement companies have taken this knowledge ran with it. They have pretty much flooded the market with their version of recovery nutrition. So, a very common question I get, as a personal trainer, is “What kind of recovery supplement should I take?” People are usually shocked when I tell them to save their money and go get some chocolate milk! Think about it, what’s present in most post workout shakes? I’ll tell you: High glycemic index (GI) carbohydrates and fast absorbing protein. Hmmmm kind of sounds like chocolate milk to me! The only difference being the milk protein (casein) is a slower absorbing protein, but that has not been proven to be significant. The most important thing you get from the drink is the carbs anyway.

To further prove my point, I would like to show you this. The study was performed on cyclists and compared chocolate milk to a carb replacement drink (I’m assuming it’s something like Gatorade or Powerade) and a fluid replacement drink (pedialyte?). Here’s another article in which the author compared chocolate milk to Biotest’s Surge Recovery Drink. For recovery and price, chocolate milk won on both occasions. The only area where Surge was superior was convenience. Most people don’t like carrying milk around in their gym bag.

Here’s another way to look at it: These two didn’t have Biotest or Waxy Maize and they seemed to do just fine!

Resistance Training the Myocardial Infarction Patient

I’m going to preface this post by stating that I am not a physician. I’m a personal trainer and sports performance coach. You should consult your physician before starting any exercise program.

This post is kind of a follow up to one of my previous posts.

I’ve noticed that the most common prescription at cardiac rehab centers is walking for their patients following a myocardial infarction (MI or heart attack). While I know that it is important to implement cardiovascular training, I've always wondered why they aren't doing resistance training. Are they afraid they'll valsalva causing them to have an aneurysm and stroke out? What about EPOC? I've always thought that the heart is a muscle and you should exercise it as such. So, I did some research and found that cardiovascular training combined with strength training elicited the best results. In this study published in the Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, they state:

"Combined training soon after MI improved aerobic and muscle fitness more than cycling alone, and was performed without complication."

In this study, not only did the test subjects increase muscular strength, their VO2 max (maximal oxygen uptake) also increased more so than the group who just did cardiovascular exercise. So, for the MI patient, find a qualified trainer and start picking up those weights!

10 Things I like

I've been writing quite a bit about things that I dislike on here. So, for a change of pace, thought I'd write about some things I like. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. Ab Rollouts – I’ve become a pretty huge fan of this exercise. After reading most of Stu Mcgill’s research, I’ve come to agree that the main function of the abdominal muscles is for isometric and eccentric contractions. Basically, it’s for stability. So, over the last year, I have pretty much phased out all versions of crunches and sit ups from my training programs and implemented a progression of swiss ball, ab wheel, and barbell rollouts. Let’s be honest, do we really need to get better at bringing our ribcage closer to our abs? Don’t think so. And guess what, I don’t have any current clients with back pain…..NONE!



Apparently, the Simpson and Ludacris are also big fans of rollouts

2. Deadlifts – I’m pretty sure that deadlifts can cure AIDS. Ok, maybe not, but I like them that much. Think about this: How many times per day do you have to bend down and pick something heavy off the floor? Isn’t that something you would like to get better at?

3. The Overhead Press – How many times do you find yourself lying on your back, pressing weight off you? Hopefully, it’s not that often. So, the obvious choice for a functional press would be an overhead press with the feet firmly planted on the floor.

Axle Press

4. Planks – Planks are a great exercise for torso (core). I use them as part of my movement prep. Here’s a torso stability video I put together that includes rollouts, pollofs, and planks.

5. Pollofs – Pollof presses are one of my favorite exercises for rotary stability. These are very beneficial for baseball, football, and golf athletes, as well as the general population.

6. Glute work – Love doing glute work. Most people today spend their entire day in the seated position. This will result in weak or inhibited glutes. For most people, that means knee or low back pain. As an added bonus, most clients like it when you make their abs and glutes sore!

7. Face Pulls – Face pulls are a great exercise for scapular stability. I see a great deal of clients who present a protracted shoulder girdle. Adding in this and other scapular stability exercises will greatly reduce the occurrence of shoulder pain. Here's a great video from the diesel crew on face pulls.

8. Horizontal Pullups – I like Charles Staley’s 180 rule. If you want to do the correct thing in the gym, do the exact opposite of what everyone else does. I guarantee that if you walked into commercial gym right now, most of the male patrons will be bench pressing. So, in opposite land, this means you have to do horizontal pullups and bent over rows. Most people don’t get enough of either.

9. Foam Rolling – Along side proper hydration and nutrition, Self Myofacial Release (SMR) is one thing that I have found to aid tremendously in recovery. A foam roller is the cheapest massage you’ll ever get!

10. T – Spine Mobility – Increased thoracic spine mobility will have a tremendous impact on your ability to overhead press. It will also lessen the rotary stress on the lumber spine, which will result in less occurrence of low back pain. Mike Boyle wrote a great article with T – Spine mobility drills here.

There you have it. 10 things I like and incorporate into every training program I design.

Thanks for reading!

Merry Christmas!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I am very thankful for everone who reads these posts.

Exercise Myths

These are 10 myths that I come across on a daily basis:

1. Spot Reduction Myth - I would say that one of the most common statements I hear in the gym is, “I want to get six pack abs. What’s the best exercise to do so?” The truth is that spot reduction training has never worked and never will. Muscle and fat are two separate tissues. You can’t strengthen one to remove the other. It would be the equivalent of saying, “I am going to make my biceps stronger by doing calf raises.” Better visibility of the abdominal musculature requires bodyfat reduction. The only way to lose this bodyfat is to burn more calories than you take in. This is called the law of thermogenesis. Basically, this law states that calories are a unit of energy and fat is the storage form of that energy. So, you must be at a caloric deficit to shed those extra pounds around the midsection. The bottom line is, eat less and move more. I recently attended a conference that had many of the top trainers in the field presenting, and one of them commented that he was recently asked which exercise is best for the abs. He replied, “Table pushaways!” So, as it turns out, instead of doing a million crunches after your workout, you may be best suited doing some high intensity interval training on the treadmill.

2. Women Get “Bulky” By Lifting Weights - This couldn’t be farther from the truth. Women get “bulky” by eating too much, not by lifting too much. Matter fact, resistance training has been shown time and again to aid in weight loss by increasing the resting metabolic rate. Check this out. This means by including resistance training (mainly circuit and interval training) in your routine, you will burn more calories just by existing. Simply put, women do not have the amount of testosterone and growth hormone required to get “bulky”. Those freakish women who look like men are “supplementing” their testosterone levels.

^^She lifts weights^^

3. You Can Lose Weight By Excerise Alone – Nope. Notice I said in #2 that it AIDS in weight loss. As in, it will help you lose weight. You still have to eat right!

4. You can Lose Weight By Diet Alone – Nope again. When losing weight by diet alone, up to 40% of the weight lost can be lean body mass (muscle and bone). Check this out. So, for weight loss, you should use a combination of exercise AND diet.

5. Machines are Safer Than Free Weights – The problem with most machines is they do not require you to stabilize the weight. Also, they assume that we all have the same range of motion. Further more, most selectorized pieces of equipment require the exerciser to perform the lift in a seated position. We spend most of our day seated. Why should we go to the gym to do more seated activity? I should, however, say that I do like Freemotion and Star Trec’s line of cable driven machines.

6. Resistance Training Will Stunt a Kids Growth – False. Eric Cressey wrote a great article about it here.

7. Once You Get Past Age 50, You Can't Do Plyometrics - Yep. Apparently, Once you reach a certain age, you'll never have to jump or do anything athletic ever again. (Note the Sarcasm) Eric Beard's take on this:

8. Squats are Bad For You - This has been a very hot topic for the last few weeks in the fitness industry. Dave Tate had the best response to this statement. He said, "There are no such thing as bad exercises, just bad programming." By this he means that you shouldn't just throw out an exercise because it may not work for that individual. Instead, you should design your program to fit the capabilities of your clients and athletes. For example, I have a six foot six inch tall basketball player who has long legs and a short torso, squatting is probably going to do more harm than good. For that athlete, we don't squat. So, it's more like squats are bad for some people.

9. Deadlifts are Bad For You - No, having a weak core is bad for you. One of my goals, as a personal trainer, is to get my clients better at daily activities. I like to make them fuctionally strong, and it doesn't get much more functional than picking heavy stuff up off the floor. People are generally injured during a deadlift when they are not strong enough to lift the weight they are attempting. It's not so much that deadlifts are bad for you, it's that what YOU ARE DOING that is bad for you.

10. You Have to Be Fat to Be Strong - This is a common myth in the powerlifting and strongman world. The fact is, fat is in no way shape or form performance enhancing. Fatter doesn't equal stronger. Proper training, sleep, and nutrition do.

You have to get fatter to get stronger? Mariusz beggs to differ.

Well, there you have it ten myths exposed. Are these the only myths? Nope. I'm sure more will come about soon enough.

Thanks for reading.

Waist circumference and not body mass index explains obesity-related health risk

Wow, it's been a while since I last posted. Been very busy getting things rolling with Nunn's Performance Training. Good things are coming! Anyways, ran across this study from the American Society for Clinical Nutrition that states that waist circumference (WC) is a more valid tool for determining obesity-related health risk than body mass index (BMI). For those of you who don't know, BMI is a measurement of a person's height and weight. It does not account for the amount of adipose tissue (fat) a person may have. Here's the results:

Results: With few exceptions, overweight and obese subjects were more likely to have hypertension, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome than were normal-weight subjects. After adjustment for WC category (normal or high), the odds of comorbidity, although attenuated, remained higher in overweight and obese subjects than in normal-weight subjects. However, after adjustment for WC as a continuous variable, the likelihood of hypertension, dyslipidemia, and the metabolic syndrome was similar in all groups.When WC and BMI were used as continuous variables in the same regression model, WC alone was a significant predictor of comorbidity. Conclusions: WC, and not BMI, explains obesity-related health risk. Thus, for a given WC value, overweight and obese persons and normal-weight persons have comparable health risks. However when WC is dichotomized as normal or high, BMI remains a significant predictor of health risk.

Am J Clin Nutr 2004;79:
379–84.

So, obesity related health problems are better explained by WC than BMI. For the entire study, click here: http://www.nunnstronger.com/General%20fitness.htm