Random Thoughts - Specific Training, Specific Results

If I was trying to find a way to train my body to be good at doing something high endurance, with lots of reps, something like 100 press ups or anything resistance exercise. I would look to do the following:

- Minimise muscle tension - to reduce fatigue

- Minimise time under tension – to reduce fatigue

- Minimise range of motion as much as possible – less movement, less work

- Maximise use of biomechanical leverage – free power

- Spread the load over as many muscles as possible – less stress on any individual muscle

- Make use of momentum and elastic energy – free power

I am sure that will make perfect sense to anybody looking at this. However, this is how most people train when trying to gain muscle, not increase endurance. To gain muscle you must do near enough the exact opposite:

- Maximise muscle tension – to increase fatigue

- Maximise time under tension – to increase fatigue

- Maximise range of motion as much as possible – More movement, more work

- Minimise use of biomechanical leverage –No free power

- Isolate the load over the smallest amount of muscle whenever possible – More stress on individual muscle(s)

- Eliminate the use of momentum and elastic energy – No free power

Results are specific, so training must be specific

Common Gym Mistakes and Simple Solutions to them - Part 7

7. Inappropriate Exercise Selection

Firstly, the most common cause of poor exercise selection is the misguided belief that our bodies burn fat from the area of the muscle we use.  This is incorrect so training your triceps is not going to get rid of your bingo wings, sorry.

I have already touched on the over use of isolation exercises, but I am going to say it again. If you are trying to loose weight do you really think that seated bicep curls are going to burn through loads of calories?  Biceps are a tiny muscle, even if you are a top body builder like Phil Heath, and burn few calories and hardly tax the heart and lungs. Your legs are the biggest muscles so squats, lunges, jumps are going to burn calories for fun.

Training for a cross country run on a treadmill is not going to prepare your body for the undulating multi-surface terrain you are going to encounter during the race. The odd treadmill session is fine and productive but you need to get outside and train in similar conditions to the race, regularly.

If you are trying to make your core stronger, then doing 3 sets of 100 crunches is not going to help as that is a cardio workout, not strength (See Part 3). Plus that only really trains one muscle so what about the others? Train the entire core hard, twice a week for no more than 15 mins a session.  Use this for guidance:

http://www.nsca.com/education/articles/core-training-evidence-translating-to-better-performance-and-injury-prevention/

If you play hockey every Saturday there is little point in doing any cardio where you maintain constant speed as that does not mimic your sport. Intervals, Fartlek’s, 10-15m sprints and agility is far more specific along with a basic strength and conditioning program.

Do not miss any part of your body out in your training programme. You are only as strong as your weakest part. Typically guys don’t train legs and girls don’t train arms but most people miss something out. Train the entire body within every 7 days. The easiest way to do this is to do exercises that recruit the most muscles in one go such as squats, deadlifts and presses (chest/bench, overhead) and pulls (barbell rows, lat pull-downs).  Some people consider exercises such as these as ‘only for bodybuilders’ but they are far from it and fundamental exercises that have worked for generations for all.

Often the exercise you want to do the least is the one you need to do the most. Too often people skip the difficult exercise to do more of the easier exercises.


Doing something easy lots of times is not the same as doing something difficult once.

It is rarely wise to copy a workout from the internet, a book or magazine as the author is unlikely to have written the programme for you. Most workouts in magazines are poor, gimmicky and written to fill magazine pages rather than to have helped someone.  Choose exercises that are suitable to your specific goals.

Think of Metabolism and Calories as a Bank Account

Think of Metabolism and Calories as a Bank Account

Many people appear to have difficulty understanding our metabolism and how it relates to weight loss and weight gain. In this post I want you to start thinking of it all like a bank account that you have set up to pay the bills (rent, food, gas, electric etc). If we spend more than we earn there are consequences so we naturally adjust expenditure to cope.

Scenario A

Each week you pay money into the bank account and over the course of the week approximately the same amount of money goes out in bills. Some weeks you dip into your overdraft, other weeks end with some money left in the account. On average at the end of the week there is £0 in the account.

Scenario B

Things are hard so you pay less money into the bank account each week. To compensate you then must spend less so buy many special offers when food shopping, take a shower at the gym and limit electricity use and so on. Life is miserable but you survive and gradually get used to what is going on. Your efficiencies are working well so in fact there is always a small amount of money left in the bank at the end of each week, just in case.

Scenario C

Things are great; you got a pay rise so now pay more money into the bank account each week. You consider getting a better apartment but while you wait you shop at the most expensive supermarket for the best food, you use electricity and water for fun. You are happy and enjoying life. On average at the end of the week there is £0 in the account.

So what on earth has this got to do with metabolism? Everything!! Now lets look at those three scenarios in terms of metabolism.

Scenario A

Each week you eat approximately the same number of calories you burn. So what is going in matches what is going out so fat gain is unlikely (if eating clean). The calorie offset is ZERO.

Scenario B

The classic diet, you eat less calories then you burn each week. Initially this works and some fat is lost but soon the body starts to compensate and becomes more efficient. Energy expenditure reduces, the body becomes more efficient and you get lethargic and are also miserable because you cannot eat the foods you enjoy. You go to the gym but do not realise you are not giving it 100% anymore. You then actually gain fat.

Scenario C

You are now eating slightly more calories than you think you actually need. Your body reacts by using this energy. You are buzzing, full of energy all day and sleep well at night. You are awesome in the gym, you gain lean muscle mass and set new PBs. You are happy and your body weight is stable.

So whether looking at the bank account scenarios or the calorie scenarios I think most people would choice option C. The reality is that overtime the body will adjust to all 3 scenarios and things will even out metabolism wise. So in an ideal world what you need to do is manipulate all 3 scenarios to the positive. However, as we live in the real world most people actually fluctuate randomly or deliberately between Scenario B and C, which is the worst outcome and yet many so called diet exerts recommend this! Lets call this scenario D.

Scenario D

6 days a week you eat less calories than you burn, 1 day a week you are allowed a cheat meal/treat. So during those 6 days your body is firmly in efficiency mode and is doing everything in its power to conserve energy often at the expense of lean muscle mass; you can easily be gaining fat doing this. Any workouts in the gym will suffer; you will not be able to perform at your best.  Those 6 days are miserable but it’s worth it for the cheat day.  Then 1 day a week you overfeed the body with what most likely is going to be crap, calorie dense food. This is the cruncher, your body is still in efficiency mode so will store most of this energy as fat rather than let you use it as energy! Your so-called diet is making you fatter!

What we need to do is manipulate the metabolism by staying in Scenario C for as long as possible. That is for as long as we don’t start gaining fat (a small increase is worth it) in the long run. Each week we increase calorie intake by approx. 5%. This will hopefully be for 6 weeks or more and in this time we will be able to train like monsters, set PBs for fun and increase lean muscle mass. These will be happy times both inside and outside the gym. We then make a calorie cut for 2-3 weeks to shed the fat. This works because our metabolism will be so high that even when we make a calorie cut we will still be eating more calories than we were in the first place. Therefore, the metabolism will stay high and fat loss will be quick and easy. This is reverse dieting.

The expert on this is Dr Lane Norton so I highly recommend his products and youtube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqMBA83S0TnfTlTeE5j1mgQ

Common Gym Mistakes and Simple Solutions to them - Part 11

11. Only Going to Exercise Classes. Which Class is Best?

Classes are fun, they can be productive but what people forget it that all classes are generic, they are not specific (Part 3) to you. You may want to improve your Legs, Bums and Tums (LBT) but that does not make a LBT class specific to you. Your LBT may be far stronger or weaker than those the class is aimed at, for example.

I can understand why, for some people, working out on your own is just not your thing and some people just won’t do it. So if classes are the only thing that floats your boat here is how to get the most out of them.

Firstly, follow all the information in this series of blogs. Just because it’s a class does not mean you can not; Keep it simple, Keep it specific(ish), select the correct training intensity and so on.

Secondly, and this can be tricky, find a way of logging/recording what you do. So if you do a Pump Class then record the weights you lifted for each exercise so you then know what to use next time and try to increase the weights every 2-3 weeks. You could use a heart rate monitor (can be cheap like this one) and record you max heart rate, average heart rate, calories burned etc.

Thirdly, choose a class that is appropriate to your goals. If you want to lose weight then I would suggest going to an Abs Class is not specific, but a good Box Fit class would be.

Fourthly, mix and match, don’t just do the same old class again and again. Our bodies adapt quickly so fresh stimuli is needed for the body and the mind. Some classes are too specific such as Spin and miss out large parts of the body.

Finally, try something new. The class that you think you will hate is probably the class that will do you the most good. All humans shy away from things we don’t like and the gym is no different. Yet, in the gym the reason we don’t like something is probably down to a weakness or inability that will only improve by training that muscle/function etc.

Common Gym Mistakes and Simple Solutions to them - Part 10

10. Logging

Log everything, the more you log the better. Top body builders are all completely and utterly OCD and will log everything. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of them log their toilet output!

For most gym goers keep it simple and log the weights you lifted, the reps, the rest, how easy/hard it felt, warm-up activity, cool down, cardio (distance, pace, speed), heart rate, weight, body fat, calories, macros (macronutrients consumed in %) and so on. Top body builders take regular photos of themselves doing their poses too, how vain!  However, there is nothing to stop you taking some before, after and during photos to keep you motivated and on track.

Then when, for example, 6 weeks into your plan, armed with your log you have scientific and objective proof of your whether or not your program works. Have you gained strength, lost weight, lost fat, improved cardio vascular fitness etc? Your log should tell you in black and white, a factual record.  Without this all you can do is guess and this is where so many people go wrong.

Do not under estimate how important logging is.

Common Gym Mistakes and Simple Solutions to them - Part 9

9. Goal Setting

People who set goals are more likely to reach those goals. You need to put some sort of measurable quantity to what you are trying to achieve. ie

I want to be able to run 2km in less than 15 mins.

I want to be able to squat 50 kg.

I want to reduce my body fat by 3%.

Then set a time limit for this such as 6 weeks.  Every time you reach a goal then set another goal and continue pushing yourself on.

It is no good simply thinking ‘I feel fitter’ my clothes ‘feel looser’ as that is subjective, and training should be objective.

Even if you have no great desire to achieve something, i.e. take part in Race for Life, it is still effective to train based on goals.  What you could do is spend 8 weeks on cardio goals, then 8 weeks on body composition goals and then 8 weeks on strength goals.  Then repeat.

This is important so I will say it again: Experience shows people that set goals achieve more from their training than those who do not set goals.

How to test your body fat?  Use one of these

Bodyfat Monitor