Laws Of Training (cont.)

2. Overcompensation Principle

Calluses build up on your hands as an adaptive response to friction. Muscle fibers grow in size and strength in response to training. Lacerated tissue develops scar tissue. All involve Mother Nature’s law of overcompensation for a stress response. In other words, it is nothing more than a survival mechanism built into the genetic code of the species.

3. Overload Principle

Related to the Overcompensation principle is the principle that states that in order to gain in strength, muscle size or endurance from any training, you must exercise against a resistance greater than that “normally” encountered. If you use the same amount of resistance for the same number of repetitions every workout, there will be no continued improvement beyond the point to which your body has already adapted.

There is a built-in problem with this principle. Your body is wonderfully adaptable to stresses imposed during training. As you get stronger and stronger, the stress levels required to force added adaptation rise to such a height that your recuperative powers simply cannot keep up. The solution? It is very simple. At this point you must go to a split system of training. Then, perhaps later, a double or even triple split. The only other solution will be for your training progress to plateau (or worse, you will enter a state of overtraining), as you are not affording your body ample time for recovery — and further adaptation — to occur. This solution begs the question of how to “periodize” your training.

International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) 

 

Age Is No Excuse For Infirmity

Dr. DeVries of USC has shown that men and women in their 70s and 80s can achieve levels of vigor associated with people 30 years younger. This means that assuming there are no underlying disorders, exercise can make an 85-year-old as strong as a 55-year-old person. Regular participation in physical activity can raise the fitness level of an active 64-year-old to that of an average, sedentary 30-year-old.

In 1984, Dr. Bortz, co-chairman of the American Medical Association’s Task Force on Aging and past president of the American Geriatrics Society, took all the information he had gathered over many years and compiled them in a review paper titled “Disuse and Aging” for the Journal of the American Medical Association. Bortz concluded that if you recorded a list of all the changes in the human body that are attributed to aging and then compiled a similar list of changes due to physical inactivity, you would notice a striking similarity between the two lists. For example, changes associated with both aging and inactivity include changes in muscles, bones, brain, cholesterol, blood pressure, sleep habits, sexual performance, psychological inventory and so forth. The near duplication of the lists demonstrates that many of the bodily changes we have always ascribed to the normal aging process may really be caused by disuse. It is imperative that older adults understand the significance of this information and are educated as to how to prevent many of these changes with activity.

The founder of the American Running and Fitness Association, Richard Bohannon, MD, says that more than half of all older adults believe they get enough exercise through minimal walking and routine activities. In truth, more strenuous activities provide greater fitness gains and more preventative benefits; with proper supervision, older adults are perfectly capable of training at higher intensities. Gerontologists tell us that once we reach the age of 50 the need for fitness is even more crucial due to the many physiological changes that occur with age.

Another myth of aging is that as you get older, you naturally become more fragile. However, when we look at the bones of older runners, like the runners mentioned previously, we see minimal loss of bone due to the continual force applied to the bones over many years of running. Wolf’s Law, named for the German pathologist who first proclaimed it, states: “The robustness of a bone is in direct proportion to the physical forces applied to that bone.” In short, if we remain active our bones will remain strong. Participation in vigorous exercise and recreational activities regularly over a lifetime can yield rewards garnered well into the later years of life. Adults who lead a sedentary existence lose bone density and increase their risk of fracturing bones in accidents in their homes or of becoming unable to perform daily living activities. People who continue to lead healthy, active lives into their later years are at less risk for such serious and debilitating injuries. Researchers at UCLA performed a study on 4,300 people. Of that population, only 12% who exhibited few or no unhealthy habits became disabled over the next decade. Nineteen percent of those who had many bad habits paid the price by way of illness, disability and death.

Healthy habits not only reduce the risk of fatal heart attacks and cancer, but also reduce other chronic ailments that can be physically, psychologically and financially debilitating. The bottom line is this: The more exercise has been a constant in your life the better your chances are of living long and well.

Older adults who want to maintain physical and emotional independence must engage in regular exercise.

International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA) 8th Edition Text

 

The Female Knee (cont.)

The other problem is one of ignorance and tradition. Women are simply trained like “girls.” This is unacceptable. Even when female athletes are trained, coaches often use a hodge-podge of techniques driven by “that’s what I did when I was on the team.” Many are taught to be weak. Way too often, sports coaches just throw excessive endurance training at their athletes in the form of long distance running because they simply do not understand the energy system requirements of their sport. They don’t actually know what to do so they just dismiss it as “running far builds endurance.” Unfortunately, it is rarely the type of endurance required unless you happen to be a track or cross country athlete involved in the sport of distance running. Most often you only get bored, fatigued, overheated athletes with overuse injuries and muscles that are too worn out to perform the explosive elements required in most sports.

Things don’t get any better in the weight room. Everyday I fight the notion that “I can’t do that; I’ll get bulky.” Many women have absolutely no idea of the wonderful things they are capable of obtaining in the gym. Those who are involved in sports are often mistreated and under coached. My dream is for everyone who trains to use the same science and the same care and attention regardless of gender and regardless of how many advertising dollars their pro career will be worth. I want to see athletes trained like athletes, plain and simple.

One of the first things I do with all of my athletes, male or female, is to teach them to squat correctly. Just the simple neurological programming of learning to squat with the posterior chain while pushing the hips back gives females a better choice of technique to use in landing. Women tend to decelerate a landing with their quads, which is the opposite of the male tendency to use the hamstrings/glutes to decelerate. I always ask people if they have ever seen a toddler deep-squatting to play with some toys on the floor. Watch them. Head up, chest up, hips back, and the knees are over the ankles. We spend our lives unlearning what is a very natural squatting position. I want all of my athletes/clients to relearn it.

Once people learn to use the posterior chain properly and strengthen it to previously unconceivable levels then landing and decelerating with it become natural. With the exception of the squat/deadlift and its variations, the all time best weapon against knee injuries is the hamstring bulletproofing movement know as the Glute-Ham-Gastroc raise. Many people, even the strong ones, cannot do a single rep at the beginning with the footplate set on its easiest position. This shows you right away how grossly under trained the hamstrings are.

In my years of coaching athletes, I’ve encountered many people with tremendous quad strength, weak hams, and, of course, knee pain. Once they bring up their posterior strength, the knee pain usually disappears. The posterior chain is engaged in this exercise from the bottom of the toes all the way to the back of the head. The large calf muscles cross the knee joint along with the hamstrings from the other direction, and a stronger muscle-tendon junction here would help with increased knee stability.

Training should come at knee stability from other angles as well. Knee valgus, or being knock-kneed, is fairly common and dangerous to the medial collateral ligament. One of the best ways to shore up the knee and prevent, or even potentially alleviate this condition, is to strengthen the muscles on the upper/outer side of the hip. Specifically this would be the gluteus medius/minimus, tensor fasciae latae, and the I.T. band (iliotibial). There are several great athletic movements to help these muscles. No angle should be ignored. The structure of the knee demands that it be strong in all directions. This means making all of the muscles of the lower body strong and ready for action.

One of the biggest things differentiating my training from others is that I don’t consider women to be second-class athletes. They are different, to be sure, but are capable of unbelievable heroics, athletic grace, and beauty. I’m lucky in that I get to see women doing amazing things in the gym and on the field all of the time. I’m not interested in hearing about estrogen and menstrual excuses for knee problems. Furthermore, there have been differences noted in landing technique between male and female athletes. These can be addresses by proper training and are therefore not a huge issue.

I’ve often said that female athletes use brains and heart to accomplish things that testosterone makes much easier. Smarter training will prevail. The real issue lies in the lack of proper coaching. People need to be educated. Our little girls deserve it. Our moms deserve it.

Bob Jodoin is an ISSA master trainer, a New York strength master trainer, a NBFE fellow, and a former director of strength and conditioning at Total Performance Sports. He is now a strength and conditioning coach as well as a personal trainer in sunny Orlando, Florida. Bob serves as a strength and conditioning advisor for youth sports to the Winter Springs Pop Warner Midgets, the Wild AAU 13U baseball, and M-PACT Sports. He can be reached at bobjnys@aol.com.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

 

The Female Knee

Being a father of 3 one boy athlete and two young female athletes, this article is probably my most favorite of all time.  I will break this into two sections so follow along.

“Girls are stronger. Boys are stinky” This is what my 6-year-old little girl says when asked who is stronger. I want her to understand from a young age that women are not second-class athletes. My baby girl is never going to be sent over to the pink dumbbell rack and the treadmill and told to lift light while the boys are overtraining the squat. She’ll be under the bar with the boys, and if they give her a hard time, she will only have to say, “Don’t make me call my Dad!”

Sports opportunities are on the rise, and female athletes keep gaining more recognition. It isn’t near enough, but it’s slowly getting better. There are many incredible role models out there. Female athletes are my heroes because they do things with their brains and heart that the males need testosterone to do. They are fierce! This is all a good thing.

The bad thing is that female athletes are tearing up their anterior cruciate ligaments at an alarming and epidemic rate. This is sad, wrong, and most likely preventable, at least to a much greater degree than what is currently happening. Any sport where female athletes need to decelerate and change direction on their feet shows an ACL injury rate some eight times more than in male athletes.

The whole issue really came home to me when a good friend of mine, Dr. Jack Barnathan, DC (ISSA director of fitness sciences), gave his talk on female ACL injuries. I found the problem to be absolutely outrageous, especially when I learned what the medical community was doing about it.

I’m going to do something about it. I’m doing something about it right now. My strength does not lie in the lab or in the halls of academia. I do my work in the gym. I teach women how to squat.

First, I want to identify one of the problems. Bodybuilding is a sport. I give my iron brothers and sisters respect because they work hard and are more dedicated to diets than probably any other group of athletes. There are techniques used in bodybuilding that serve a special purpose for correcting issues of symmetry and proportion. Their primary goal is isolation. However, these techniques typically have no place in athletics. The human body is not meant to work in isolation but is rather a remarkable machine that does its best work when working in concert with different aspects of itself.

One of the biggest demons rears its ugly head in the name of isolating the quadriceps muscle group. This is the sinister and malevolent creature known as the leg extension machine. Since the predominant media force comes from the bodybuilding magazines, the public has learned all of its technique and terminology from them. Unfortunately, this includes our athletic and fitness community.

The bodybuilder, when posing in the mirror, is very concerned about the biceps, quads, rectus abdominus, and the pectorals. These muscles are not, however, the most important for athletic human movement. The more important muscles are those of the posterior chain, the ones that you cannot see in the mirror. The posterior chain starts at the heel and continues up the back of the leg right into the muscles of the lower back. As a group, they are under trained. This is one problem.

Bob Jodoin is an ISSA master trainer, a New York strength master trainer, a NBFE fellow, and a former director of strength and conditioning at Total Performance Sports. He is now a strength and conditioning coach as well as a personal trainer in sunny Orlando, Florida. Bob serves as a strength and conditioning advisor for youth sports to the Winter Springs Pop Warner Midgets, the Wild AAU 13U baseball, and M-PACT Sports.

Elite Fitness Systems strives to be a recognized leader in the strength training industry by providing the highest quality strength training products and services while providing the highest level of customer service in the industry. For the best training equipment, information, and accessories visit us at www.EliteFTS.com.

 

Being Sedentary Can Be Hazardous To Your Health

The following list includes information and facts regarding the adverse effects associated with physical inactivity.

• Inactivity and poor diet cause at least 300,000 deaths a year in the United States.
• Adults who are less active are at greater risk of dying of heart disease and developing diabetes, colon cancer and high blood pressure.
• More than 60% of U.S. adults do not engage in the recommended amount of physical activity.
• Approximately 40% of U.S. adults are not active at all.
• Physical inactivity is more common among women than men, African American and Hispanic adults than whites, older than younger adults, and the less affluent than more affluent individuals.
• Social support from family and friends is consistently and positively related to regular physical activity.
• Inactivity increases with age. By age 75, about one in three men and one in two women engage in no physical activity.
• People with disabilities are less likely to engage in regular moderate physical activity than people with no physical disabilities, yet they have similar needs to promote health and prevent lifestyle-related diseases.

International Sports Sciences Assoc. (ISSA)  8th Edition Text

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

 

WEEKS OFF

Wow!  Taking any amount of time off will make a person feel like they are completely out of touch with what’s going on anywhere. 

That’s exactly what I have done over the past few days.  I’ve posted but I’ve had these last couple posts in my Manage file for several weeks. 

Due to the effects of my surgery I haven’t trained in 2 weeks and I’ve lost 5 pounds as a result, which doesn’t make me happy. 

I have not had any contact with any of the people I train.  Which really seems like it puts me out of touch.  I may not be, but I feel that way. 

I haven’t read anyone else’s entries, which, now I’m behind.

 I guess the reason I am writing this is because life changes on a daily basis and unless I am up on current events in my life and others’ I can miss some very important information. 

Oh well, I hope you all are still on the correct path to your goals and didn’t allow the distraction of yet, another holiday, foil your plans.

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

 

MYTHS

Myth #2: Strength training will stunt the growth of children.

It still amazes me that parents won’t hesitate to get their young children (6-7 years old) involved in sports such as football, gymnastics, basketball and soccer, yet they feel that participating in a strength-training program is damaging to their children’s bone health and will stunt their growth. Nothing can be further from the truth.

The fact of the matter is that running, jumping and tackling can create loading on a child’s body which is up to ten times greater than most strength training exercises. In other words, the physical demands on a child’s body are far greater on the athletic field compared to the weightroom. Parents who don’t let their children participate in resistance training are actually increasing their children’s risk for injury on the athletic field.

There have even been position stands by such organizations as the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine and the American Academy of Pediatrics suggesting that children can benefit from participation in a properly designed and supervised resistance training program. Position stands recommend that prepubescent children shouldn’t lift maximal weights; they should lift weights that can be lifted for at least six repetitions with proper form.

Strength training in this manner can be the most potent exercise stimulus for bone growth and development. In fact, research has shown that young weightlifters have greater bone densities than individuals who don’t lift. Thus, the positive benefits of resistance training for bone health, injury prevention and improved athletic performance are far greater than the risks.

J. Defranco           #3 of Top Ten Traininig Myths

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD! 

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

Learning to Change III

cont… The second stage of change is called conscious incompetence or waking up. This is when we suddenly realize how much more there is for us to know. This is the single most important step to change – the broadening of our awareness. Fortunately, once we get to this stage, we seldom ever go back to the first one. It can sometimes be difficult for us to admit that perhaps there is a better way to do what we think we’ve been doing well all along. “New ways” require change and change is difficult because it takes effort. That’s why we sometimes simply dismiss them without ever trying them out for ourselves first. The “new way” poses such a threat that we’ll even attack the person sharing it with us. Einstein once said, “The more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.” Socrates said something similar: “The only thing I know, is that I know nothing.” And as far as discounting a “new way” simply because we heard it first from someone who is less experienced or less effective than us, we’ll do well to remember the adage: “Wise men learn more from fools than fools ever learn from wise men!”

If we don’t fall victim to simply dismissing a “new way” when we first hear about it, then we are likely to move into the third stage of change: conscious competence or choosing change. This is where we struggle to master a new skill. This is usually the most awkward of the four stages because we feel the stiffness and strangeness of trying something new or different. This is also the stage where most children excel and where most adults fail. By “adult”, I mean anyone who has a fairly well formed definition of themselves and their perceived role in life. Also, adults have an intense need to defend those definitions. In general, a child does not think that falling down or making mistakes equals failure… they just keep trying and trying and trying until they get it. But for an adult, it’s not cool to fall down. It’s too embarrassing to look foolish, it’s too painful to fail. That’s why, for us adults, change is so hard and why we resist it so much. We’ll try something new once or twice and if we don’t meet with instant success, we start making excuses such as, “Yeah, that may work for him but it doesn’t work for me” or “I have special needs that no one else has” or “I gave it a fair try but I knew it wouldn’t work” or “Well, it just wasn’t me.” Instead, we need to follow the example of children. After each fall, we need to ask ourselves what we learned, what could we do differently to get a better result, and how quickly can we get back up and try it again. Take it from someone who personally knows: if you fail enough, it stops hurting! to be continued…

Patrick Gamboa -International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA)

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

I AM SMART

ME: So, how much weight do you want to lose?

Friend: What will you have me doing?

ME: Exercising and changing your eating habits

Friend: What do I need to eat?

ME: Well, you need to eat things that grow, and eat things that eat things that grow. 

Friend: Can I eat cheetos?

                                                      

 

IT’S ON YOU

EVIDENCE, CONSPIRACY, URGENCY, TRUTH, WHO KNOWS?  Is there any surprise these days that health care costs are at an all time high?  DECEIT, MISDIAGNOSIS, MANIPULATION, LIES, WHO KNOWS?  Has anyone ever questioned how or why when we need costs to be at an all time low, they are at an all time high?  TRUST, ILLUSION, SECURITY, VULNERABILITY, WHO KNOWS.  Are we all frustrated with how things are going in the medical field in regards to care, treatment, prescription costs?  DESTITUTE, WEAK, HUNGRY, FIEND, WHO KNOWS?  Are we all going to take care of ourselves by exercising, eating right, resting, avoiding stress, managing stress, encouraging others, or, are we going to depend on the institution to do it for us.  FREEDOM, ACCOMPLISHMENT, JOY, SUCCESS! 

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

http://www.cashquests.com/

 

OKAY, I’M FINISHED BEING A BABY

 

It’s all good, I think!   

 

MORE MISINFORMATION II

After going through the glycemic index with a friend of mine and explaining how it works, what foods to stay away from, then adding a post on the subject, today I get an email with an attachment.  Don’t get me wrong my friend wasn’t questioning anything we discussed, however, the article was extremely confusing and could have raised concern and credibility issues if she didn’t fully trust me.  Earlier in the day, I receive an adverse comment to my glycemic-index post, and what made that so bad was this person was missing the entire point of my article.  Here’s the comment.  Did I mention I got up at 5:30 this morning. 

Imagine how many people have read this article and had questions regarding this misinformation.  The title itself will give a person a preconceived judgement of the entire article, not to mention, it is somewhat difficult to follow.  Articles like these are the reasons why people are confused and do not know who to trust in the weight-loss industry.  Understand how the media has misguided people into believing what they want you to believe.  It’s amazing, and it’s the reason why I will not post inaccurate information.  

This post is not about the glycemic index, just a quick tutorial in regards to processed foods. 

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

IF I DON’T KNOW…

  For those of you who have consistenly read my blog and commented on the various posts that I have written, I want to say, I really appreciate your interest.  I  do enjoy writing so it is extremely gratifying for me to see that some people actually want to hear what I have to say.  What’s more important is I have the opportunity to help a large number of people, without having the expectations of anything in return.  I have a couple of affiliated links on here, and if people use them I would appreciate it, but in actuality, I could care less.  They are on here for reference and convenience.  (I don’t even think I put the HTML code in correctly, I had to delete the first couple of characters to get it to link).  LOL!  

Anyway, if I post anything on this blog I want all of my readers to understand that it is 100% irrefutable information.  If I don’t know it, I know somebody that does, and if they don’t know it, they know somebody that does.  In other words, I will not write anything based on my opinion, beliefs, or what I ‘think’ will work.  I’ve had the pleasure of working with many people and in my short time of blogging, I have met some really interesting and neat people.  I spent about an hour last night putting together a plan for a friend of mine who wants to get stronger and lose a few pounds.  After that I decided to read up a little more on how carbohydrates affect our insulin levels and where certain foods rate in the glycemic-index. 

Having said that, I would like everyone to take the opportunity to visit Mendosa’s site on glycemic-index.  Read his blog, learn about the foods that are good for you and the ones that are killing us as we speak.  Learn how diabetes is a disease that kills and how being overweight and/or obese puts us at a risk for various other diseases and possibly death.  Learn how he has prevented complications and maintained a healthy lifestyle as a diabetic, and how he has managed to implement healthy eating habits and exercise so that he can enjoy the quality of life he deserves.  There is a wealth of information on this site and I would encourage everyone to add it to your favorites, it may save your life.   

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD! 

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

STRENGTH DEVELOPMENT

I have been inspired to write this post from a person I don’t even know who told me I was wrong in my thinking on myths.  There is no way I am wrong because if you notice at the bottom Joe D. is the author.  Occasionally I will use other sources to add other reliable information to my blog.  However, I always acknowledge where these articles come from.  I will start out by saying that not only is Joe D. correct, I am also correct or I would have never posted his myth. 

Let me first explain that in order to do any type of aerobic conditioning (plyometrics) you have to have some sort of muscle development.  For example, think of the time you or a person you know broke a leg and had a cast put on it.  What happens to the muscle?  The muscle begins to atrophy (loses muscle), right!  Depending on how long the cast was on or how long a person has gone without using this damaged limb, will determine what a person can or cannot do after the removal of this cast.  Let’s say the cast was on for 8-weeks.  Who does a doctor send you to after the removal of this cast?  A physical therapist right! (Which most people fail to follow through on).  Does a physical therapist have you go out and jog (plyometrics) a mile before they have you do resistance training to rebuild the muscle.  Of course not, even though the bone is healed (and in most cases stronger than before, due to the calcification around the break area), you must develop a level of strength to engage in any high impact plyometrics (running).  We have all seen the knees buckle on a baby that is learing to walk and using the coffee table to hold themselves up? 

Knee pain, joint pain, and lower leg muscle tension is a common concern for most runners, especially if you haven’t developed any level of strength (not in all cases).  Now, take into consideration that both legs have been inactive for a prolonged period of time and are weak in comparison to a person’s overall bodyweight.  Please consider, if you’re overweight or just beginning a fitness program, beware of any type of high impact plyometrics (especially running off/on concrete) before building a solid foundation of strength.   

 LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining

 

FEW DAYS OFF

  At least once every month I slack off for multiple days by not training, eating right, or participating in any type of physical activity.  There used to be a time when I would feel totally guilty with this type of behavior, almost to the point where I would become discouraged and turn a few days off, into a few weeks and even as long as a month.  Naturally, I would justify this behavior by saying things like;  “I needed the time off”, “rest is good”, “I’ll get back on track”.  I could do that in my twenties, but unfortunately, I am  no longer youthful, energetic, and as resilient as I once was. 

My downfall started on Saturday when I decided to play in a fundraiser Texas Holdem tournament, where I thought I would be a favorite to win a 96 player tournament.  Ha!  I lasted a total of 1 hour 20 minutes and found myself on the rail eating another piece of fried chicken.  I had already eaten 4 pieces, a slice of pizza, and drank almost 4 cans of coca-cola (ugh).  Oh, I forgot the jo-joes.    I didn’t mind the amount of food, because I figured I would train Sunday and everything would be fine.  Needless to say, I forgot it was Mothers Day and training was not an option.   

My point is, I still have these weekends where I engage in this type of inactivity, overeating, and ignoring healthy food choices.  What’s even more mind boggling is once I get started, I cannot stop.  I continue to make unhealthy food choices and I always find a way to justify my behavior.  On another note, today is a new day without distractions and justifications.  Nobody is perfect and as long as we all realize that, then even if we have a few down days we can still rebound if we stay positive and our focus remains on our goals.

LIFT HARD!  TRAIN HARD!

www.fitnessgenerator.com/mcgheetraining