If you have read my blog recently,  you will notice that I have not posted anything in a while.

I am currently finishing up my PhD and have been focusing solely on completing my research and writing my thesis.

I will be done in December and will resume, my posts then.  I am still training hard 4-5 days per week and am experimenting with incorporating olympic style weightlifting into my program.

If you have anything you would like to know about leave a comment and I will address it in a future post

One corner says that bodyweight training is too easy and is only good for conditioning.  The other side comes back that weightlifting will tear up your joints and make you big, bulky and slow.  Both of these are false, in reality, it is a poor understanding of each method that gives way to these beliefs.

There is only one way to get stronger and build muscle: You must expose your body to increasingly difficult stimuli and allow your body to adapt (i.e. grow muscle) to the stimulus.  Thats it!  That is the only true principle of strength training, everything else is just a method for getting there.  This post will focus on bodyweight training try to debunk some of the myths and point out both its pros and cons. part 2, will focus on free weights.

Bodyweight Training:

Hannibal for King – a.k.a. “The Calisthenics King”

So bodyweight training gets a bad rap in the gym.  People claim that bodyweight exercises are too easy, that they can’t be used for gaining strength that they are only good for conditioning, etc.  This is a result of not knowing the proper progressions of bodyweight training.  The picture on the left is of Hannibal for King, just youtube some of his videos and you can see how jacked and incredibly strong this guys is.  All from bodyweight training.  Most people stop bodyweight (or never start) training for one of three reasons:

1) The exercises are too hard for them already.

2) They don’t know how to make the exercises harder.

3) They believe that free weights are the only way to “get big”.

So first of all, if basic bodyweight exercises are too hard then you have no business hitting the free weights.  If you can’t do pushups, follow the proper progressions, start with pushups against a wall–> pushups on your knees –> partial ROM (range of motion) reps –> full pushups.  If you can’t do pullups, start with inverted rows –> dead hangs and pullup holds –> partial ROM reps –> full pullups.  A good rule of thumb would be to aim for 2-3 sets of 20 reps before moving on to the next progression (full pullups are much harder than pushups, so 2-3 sets of 10 might be more appropriate).

What happens when you can do full push ups and pull ups?  Well you can go to weightlifting, or you can make your bodyweight movements harder.  How many people do you know that can do 1-arm push ups (with perfect form) or full ROM 1-leg squats (this means hamstring to calf)?  Chances are you know a few.  Now what about 1-arm pull ups or 1-arm handstand push ups?  Most people probably don’t know any.  The point is that bodyweight exercises can get much harder than your standard push up or pull up.  Try doing dips on olympic rings or a suspension trainer.  The first time you try is a very humbling experience.  There are several good resources for learning harder bodyweight movements.

Male Gymnast – strength from bodyweight training

But I want to get big!  Alright, I hear you.  well look at this picture of a gymnast.  He did it all with bodyweight training.   So did the guy in the first picture.  So don’t tell me it can’t be done.  If you want to get any bigger than that, the only way is to take steroids and eat more food.  You cannot expect to get any bigger than these two guys training naturally, regardless of whether you train bodyweight or with weights.  So that brings me to the pros and cons of bodyweight training:

Pros:

• Can be done almost anywhere
• Very cheap (only need to buy a pull up bar or find a park)
• Easier on joints
• More natural movement pattern
• Strengthens the stabilizer muscles (especially with one-arm or one-leg movements)
• Can train more often
• Safer

Cons:

• Progress can be slow and hard to track
• Next progression can be much harder than the previous one
• You have to learn new movements as you increase strength
• Eventually have to buy more equipment (rings, weight vest) to keep progressing
• Once pistol squats (1-leg squats) are mastered, leg strength training will require more equipment (hill sprints, weighted pistol squats, car pushing, plyometrics, etc.)

That’s it for Part 1,  Part 2 will focus on Free Weight Training.  For those of you that think I am all about bodyweight training, my personal approach is actually a combination of the two.  I find this to be the most complete way to train.

Weighted One Arm Chinups

“As to methods there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The man who grasps principles can successfully select his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

This statement by Ralph Waldo Emerson holds true in a wide range of applications.  Whether it is learning a new skill, being successful in business, or losing weight.  The principles are the same, but the method you go about it can be different.  If you want to lose weight, there is one principle, burn more calories than you take in; but there are many methods, low carb, low fat, intermitent fasting, increasing exercise, running sprints, etc.  What I want to focus on in this post is the method of hardcore finishers.  While this is not the only method to lose weight and increase conditioning, it is something I found extremely effective and easy to implement into your current routine.

How I found out about hardcore finishers

Like many people, I started off with one of the basic programs.  (I chose stronglifts 5×5)  I had great results for a while, but like all trainers, eventually hit a plateau both in my strength progress and in my fat loss goals.  So I did what anyone would do.  I poured over forums and blogs and other websites, searching for any knowledge I could get my hands on.  I tried various things but they were either to hard to implement or required a ton of extra time.  One day I found Travis Stoetzel’s website.  Travis, a former football player, owns a kick ass gym in Omaha Nebraska where he trains many athletes including football players, MMA fighters, among other athletes.  I have seen a lot of trainers’ blogs, but this one was different.  What attracted me the most was the combination of his non traditional approach and his attitude.  He can’t be pegged as a trainer that focuses on only one method.  He uses sandbags, kettlebells, dumbells, bodyweight, olympic lifts, traditonal lifts, sprints, etc.  His philosophy is to be as athletic as possible (which is also in line with his core base of clients) and he goes about it with full effort.  His motto is 110% HAM.  If you don’t know what HAM stands for, check out this post where he describes it (note: some profanity in that post).  It is here that I was introduced to hardcore finishers.

What is a hardcore finisher?

It is exactly like it sounds.  It is a quick intense circuit style routine that you put at the end of your workout that will burn fat, increase conditioning and leaving you gasping for air.  After you are finished with your workout, you hit up a 4-6 minute finisher.  Here is an example of one of my favorites.  It is called the 5 minute Man Breaker Challenge:

You grab a pair of dumbells (go lighter than you think)  set a timer for 5 minutes, and hit as many man-makers as you can.  A man maker is the following:

Pushup (on the dumbbells)

Renegade row (each arm)

Power clean

Thruster

All while never letting go of the dumbbells.  Repeat this as many times as possible until the time is up.  Simple, yet brutally effective for burning fat and increasing conditioning.  Go ahead and add it to your next workout.  Just make sure to go as hard as possible and bring a towel, you are going to need it.

Back in March, I saw a post on one of my favorite blogs about bodyweight training (post here).  Besides showing how jacked you could get from bodyweight training (just look at a male gymnast) One quote from that post struck me.

“Olympic Gymnasts for example often train multiple times a day 7 days a week.  They are able to do this because their bodies have adapted to the extreme amount and volume they do overtime.”

This planted a seed in my head that has grown and become the basis for my fitness pursuit.  Your body adapts to the demands placed on it.  The gymnasts body has adapted to the demands of everyday training as well as increased volume and intensity.  So why can’t you adapt to everyday weight training?  As long as you are smart about how you build up your volume and intensity, every day training should be a possibility.  And provided that you get enough rest, eat properly, and take it easy every once in a while, it could have great results.  I read an interview of highly renowned trainer Alwyn Cosgrove and he said the below statement about training frequency.

  “Do you ever notice that every bodybuilder who wishes to bring up a lagging bodypart usually increases the frequency that they train that bodypart? So, if the elite guys are saying the solution to slow growth is increased frequency; what if I have someone who is less advanced than that? If it’s frequency that’s making the good things happen, should my solution not be increased frequency from the start?  …. Look at sprinters. Most of them have lower body development better than 99% of the average guys out there. And these guys run every damn day! What does that tell us? Frequency is king.”

- Alwyn Cosgrove

My own results skyrocketed after switching to 5 day per week training.  (I take Sundays off and Saturdays are hit or miss with training).  I must warn you that training everyday is tough both physically and mentally.  Care needs to be taken to slowly increase volume and intensity in order to allow your body to adapt to the demands placed on it.  Otherwise, it would be a recipe for injury.  I have been adjusting and tweaking my workouts in order to A) get the best results and B) allow me to train consistently.  When I finally tweak the parameters of my routine. I will let you guys know what worked for me.

The only way to achieve your fitness dreams is to change your thinking

For me it happened on a relatively mild December day.  I had been working out on and off for the better part of 2 years.  Like a lot of people, I wanted to be in shape so I would find a new program, get excited and then 3 weeks later miss one or two sessions in the week and then fall back into not working out.  But I had been playing soccer in a pretty competitive league on Saturdays than went most of the fall and had just stopped in November, so I should be in decent shape right?  Wrong!  I walked into the doctor’s office that Thursday afternoon, hopped onto the scale and it read 201 lbs.  Seeing that number made things click.  My weight had gone up almost 6 pounds in the last 8 weeks.  Right then and there I knew something had to change.  But it wasn’t just a want or a dream to become thin.  It became a desire.  A burning passion to get myself in shape.  I told myself that I would be 175 lbs by the summer.  So I then researched online, read diets, workouts, different methodologies.  Anything I could get my hands on I devoured.  After researching I made myself two rules:

• 1) I must stick to any diet or exercise plan for a minimum of 1 month to properly give it a chance to work..
• 2) If I hit a plateau, I need to re-evaluate both my diet and exercise program.  Try and determine where I am stalling and tweak things.

After I set these rules, I started my path to fitness the next day.  I went to the gym and did the workout that I thought would be the best.  That first month was hard,  I only made it to the gym twice a week with all of the Holidays and travel.  But then as I went more and more and started seeing results, I increased to 3 days per week.  By the time, the spring season had rolled around, I had dropped 12 pounds and was at a much more acceptable 188 lbs.  My teammates and even players on the other team, said whoa man, you’ve been getting in shape.

Breaking Through Limits

After being stuck at 188 lbs for about 3 weeks and the calendar flipping to march, I knew that something had to change.  My deadline was getting closer.  So I changed up my eating to an intermittent fasting style of eating that closely followed the warrior diet, and increased the intensity of my workouts.  By the end of the soccer season, about the middle of May, I had dropped down to about 182, only 7 pounds from my goal.  With summer fast approaching and the soccer season over, I decided it was time to change things again.  I increased my workout frequency from 3 to 5 days per week, following a structure similar to Pavel’s Power to the People in order to avoid overtraining.  I also tweaked my diet and cut out as much processed food as I could.  I ate grass fed beef and organic eggs and vegetables while limiting the amount of sugar and grains that I consumed.

Reaching the Goal

On July 4th, I weighed myself at 173 lbs.  I had dropped 28 pounds in 7 months, but more importantly, I had reached my goal.  The added bonus was that I had built considerably more muscle. My arms, shoulders and back muscles were all noticeably bigger and thanks to the fat loss, much more defined.  This however, is where people can run into trouble.  You must have a new goal and a new deadline to pursue.  So my new goal became to drop down to 165 lbs or 5% bodyfat, whichever came first, and to increase my deadlift from 325 to 405 lbs by the end of the year.  I believe that it is important to have a weight and a strength/performance goal.  Focusing too much on weight loss can have a negative impact on body composition, athletic performance and appearance.

How to Stay Focused

Having a goal is important, but you must set yourself a deadline.  Have both a long term and a short term deadline.  The closer the deadline, the more focused you will be at achieving that deadline.  Everyday, you need to do three things; go over your goals and recite them to yourself (out loud is better than silently), visualize yourself already achieving your goal, do at least one thing that will get you to your goal.  You should think to yourself, “Is what I am doing now helping me achieve my goal?”

Doing those three steps (along with actually working out) will plant your desire in your head and will keep you focused on your goal.  This method can be used and is successful for any goal you have, fitness or otherwise.  I developed this way of thinking from Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich.  You can find it for around $8 on Amazon and it is a great book to read.

Good luck on achieving your dreams.  Stay Focused Friends.

Gentlemen,  you have been lied too by magazines and forums claiming that if you train more than three days a week in the gym, you will suffer from overtraining.  That is just total crap.  In fact it is hard suffer from overtraining.  In order to overtrain, you have to work at a high intensity level for a long period of time.  Check out this article in the New York times on overtraining.  In the first paragraph it said the athlete “had been training hard without a break for 18 months”

18 MONTHS!  Not 18 weeks or 18 days, but 18 months.  Most typical weightlifting and training programs have a built in deload week every 4 or 5 weeks.  So unless you are in the gym training hard multiple times a day for several hours each time and skipping your deload weeks, it is highly unlikely that you will become overtrained.

In the article Dr. Steven Keteyian, the director of preventive cardiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, when he was talking about overtraining in runners said the following:

“It doesn’t happen over a two-week period of time, and it is unlikely to strike someone running 20 miles or so a week or doing the equivalent amount of another endurance sport.  Twenty miles is nothing, talk to me when you are running 50 miles a week. If you are a runner and have a steady history of running 40 to 70 miles a week and now you are pushing it to 80, 90, 100 miles a week and your times are dropping and you are feeling sluggish, then I’ll start to listen.”

- Dr. Steven Keteyian

While this article focused on runners, the principles can be applied to any The truth is, your body adapts to the stimulus provided.  The guys in the gym 5 or 6 days a week are almost always in better shape than the people who are in the gym 2 or 3 days a week.  The only exception to this rule are the people taking steroids.  When you are injecting synthetic testosterone, your body does not need as much stimulation to grow.

Take caution when moving to a 5-6 day per week workout.

Your body is awesome and can adjust and adapt to many things.  But make sure that you start off slow and work your way up.  Jumping in with too much too soon is a recipe for disaster as you could easily hurt yourself.  Not to mention, you would be extremely sore.  To start off with training everyday.  Follow something like Pavel Tsatouline’s Power to the People.  There are a couple guidelines to training everyday (or nearly everyday).  Pick a handful of exercises that hit the large muscle groups.  Deadlifts, squats, overhead press, dips, pull ups, rows, etc.  Start off at a relatively light weight and gradually increase the weight used each training session.  After about 4-5 weeks (or earlier if you start feeling really fatigued) take a 1 week break where you do you do some new exercises.  Kettlebell swings and body weight exercises are good to use that week.  After that week is over, start the cycle again but at a higher weight.

I was able to add 100 pounds to my deadlift in 3 1/2 months using this kind of method.  I deadlift every time I hit the gym, so normally 5 days per week.

Some important things to remember:

Get enough sleep – In order to train everyday you need to be well rested

Eat proper foods – Organic grass fed beef, eggs, pork, liver.

Have fun with it – Weight training should be fun.  Change things up, use Fat Gripz, more reps, less reps, substitute or add on exercises

Listen to your body – If you are fatigued, back off for a day, just don’t make it a habit

That’s all there is too it.

Is muscle confusion really all its cracked up to be?  Turn on the television you will see plenty of infomercials for products that promote the benefits for muscle confusion.  Products such as Beachbody’s  P90X and Insanity are two of the more popular workouts that base their workout structure on this principle.  But do you really need it and is it effective? Lets look at learning the skills of weightlifting compared to the skills of other sports.  Yes, I said skill.

When I was in college, I took a golf class.  I thought it would be a fun way to get a credit hour and learn some golf.  Keep in mind I had never golfed before in my life.  To my surprise, the first two weeks were in a gym, with NO GOLF BALLS!  My first thought was WHAT!?! I thought it was ridiculous.  I thought you learned golf by going out to the range, getting your driver and hitting it as hard as humanely possible.  Fortunately, my instructor knew better.  The first week was spent learning proper technique for the swing, including foot placement, hand position, movement patterns, etc.  This at first was very hard to remember and took a lot of thought each time I set up and swung the club.  Eventually the swing became easier and we moved outside and started hitting balls at the range with half and 3/4 swings.  No full power drives yet.  Then we played a couple of par 3 courses, which still did not require a full power swing.  After we played a couple rounds what happened next?

The instructor told us “It is time to change your swing.  You need to learn how to hit a different way.”  What?  But that makes, no sense, I just learned how to swing this way.

Did the instructor really say that?  Of course not.  At that point we kept the same swing mechanics and started gradually increasing the power of our shots.  So why do exercise programs insist on switching things up as soon as we learn how to do an exercise?

1) Money.  By convincing you that you need to change your exercises in order to continue to see results, you will buy the latest program every 4 or 8 weeks.

2) Fat Loss.  Changing exercises is actually good for fat loss.  As your body becomes accustomed to an exercise it adapts and becomes more efficient at it.  The more efficient you are, the less calories you burn.  So all too often, people start a program, are inpatient with the results, and then switch programs.  So in order to try and avoid the fat loss plateaus, they change up the exercises to something else that you are inefficient at.

3) Avoid Boredom.  One of the top reasons people stop working out or switch routines is boredom.  Many people don’t like doing the same exercises day after day so they try something different.

What to do about it then?

This depends on your goals?  Do you want to look lean?  or jacked?

Personally, I would rather look Jacked.   If you are overweight and need to lose some weight quickly, it is fine to start off with one of the muscle confusion type programs.  The best program I found for burning fat was the Xtreme Fat Loss Diet by Joel Marion.  I dropped 15 pounds in 25 days.  Notice how it is called diet and not workout.  The biggest contributing factor in weight loss will always be nutrition.  You can check out my review here.  But if you want to get jacked, you need to lift like a big boy.  That means Squats, Deadlifts, Overhead presses, weighted dips and pull ups, etc.  And you will have to lift heavy and often.   Look forward to my upcoming post on how to get jacked and lift like a man.

Until then get stuff done.