Mail Bag: Nutrition and Ab work. January 21, 2010

Today is Mail bag day.  I received the following response from Adil regarding some questions on my training plan that I posted on 1/13/10.

2010/01/20 at 9:51am

“Hey Michelle,
This is an awesome workout, and very detailed. I also like how you are doing 2 days of upper body, and 2 days of lower body.
I would also like to know what is your diet like that is because when it comes to eating I am terrible. I will tend to stay with the high protein, low carb diets, but that drive me insane and I start losing my temper with everyone.
Additionally, I also like the Cardio format you are using, because it is the same one I do. I will tend to be on the treadmill for about 40 minutes with one minute walking, and one minute running. What do you do for your ab workouts; I tend to do them after my cardio.
Thanks
Adil”

Thanks Adil for posting your response and for your excellent questions.

First regarding diet, I am following Precision Nutrition which is a comprehensive program by Dr. John Berardi.

It’s not a diet, rather it is a nutrition strategy that can be adapted based on an individual’s goals and unique dietary needs.  I highly recommend you check out their website.  In addition Dr. Beradi has written extensively for Tmuscle and you can also check him out on the Fitcast.

Ah those pesky carbs:  I am assuming, and I absolutely could be wrong, but when you say low carb, you mean that you are including veggies and fruit into that equation. If this is the case, no wonder your diet is making you nuts.

Precision Nutrition is not a low carb diet, it is a Controlled carb diet  if your goal is fat loss. This means that you are getting your carb calories from copious amounts of veggies and fruits, aprox 10 servings a day, that equates to 5 cups and starchy carbs ie: grains, bread, potatoes etc ONLY after a training session.  Therefore, my suggestion is if your current diet is hard to sustain, start eating more veggies and fruit, mostly veggies and see how you feel. And check out the precision nutrition website.

ABS: Before I answer your question about abs I have to address the general issue of ab training.   First and foremost a flat stomach is a function of diet.  Doing a gazillion crunches and leg lifts will not give you a flat stomach. There is no such thing as spot reduction.

Personally I feel most people put too much time and energy in abs training.  One of the most popular classes at our gym is a 30 minutes abs class. There is no reason for anyone to spend 30 minutes doing abs.  In fact, if time is money then you just made an investment with negative returns, and who in their right mind would knowingly do that.

I know what you are thinking, if a 30 minutes abs class is a waste of my valuable time, why do they offer them in my gym?  The reason, because that’s what members want.  Gyms are in the business to make money not necessarily to deliver results.  Can you get healthy and fit in a commercial gym? absolutely, if you do your homework.

If you are looking for the biggest bang for your  for your training buck, you’d be better served by doing a well constructed 30 minute full body or split body ie: upper/lower done in a circuit fashion that concentrates on the big compound movements with supplemental work for abs, arms build into the circuit.

So Adil, getting back to your question about what I do:  I don’t like bunching up my ab/core work in one segment.  It’s boring and if I leave until the end I won’t do it.  Instead  I build the work into  my program.  Primarily concentrating on  the big compound lifts: squats, dead lifts, lunges, overhead pressing standing not seated, bench, rows, chin/pull ups with supplemental work for smaller body parts such as arms, shoulders and abs/core incorporated into my circuits.

The ab/core work I do is predominantly to develop greater stability and force production enabling me to lift more weight: Currently I am doing the following exercises:

Excellent article by Eric Cressey: 5 Programming Strategies for Quick Results: demonstrating the following:

Pallof Press: anti-rotation, stability

Ball Rollouts: stability

This article by Chris Shuggart: The Evolution of Ab Training: explanation of:

Full Contact Twists: Power

And the following do double duty:

Pushups: chest, core

Close grip pushups: triceps, core

I hope that answers you question, and thank you for reading a Knitted Brow.

Be well Train hard

Michelle

My current training program January 13, 2010

Because I promised and I try to keep my promises, here is what my current training program looks like. Unfortunately, I’m really technologically deficient and have not figured out how to find and post videos so I can’t show you examples of the particular exercises. However, I am trying to learn so if there is anything I mention that you would like me to find a video example of, please let me know and I will do my best to comply.

My training split is broken up into 4 days: 2 upper body days and two lower body days. I designed the plan to be mostly in a circuit fashion.  The foundation of my exercise selection is first to build strength using the major lifts to hit the major muscle groups first. Generally I will include one or two of the following exercise in my first two circuits. The other exercises in my circuits are chosen because they are important for maintaining the integrity of my joints, core work, stretching and supplemental arm and shoulder work.

Bench-chest

chin up/pull up-back

Rows: back

squat: legs

deadlifts: legs, back

Lunge variations: legs

overhead press: shoulders

Here it is:

Day 1:

a1: barbell bench

a2: single arm bent row

a3: wall slides

B1: wide grip lat pull

b2: push ups

b3: jump rope: 30-60 seconds working up to 60 seconds

C1: single arm push press (shoulders)

C2: Palloff Press: anti rotational exercise

c3: face pulls: shoulders, external rotation very light weight.

Day 2:

a1: front squats

a2: lateral raises

a3: hip stretch

b1: walking lunges

b2: hammer curls: biceps

b3: med ball stomps: grab a med ball lift above head and throw it down to the ground as hard as you can.

c1: full contact barbell twists: I really need to find a video for this, just no way to describe it

c2: close grip pushups: triceps

c3: 20 kettlebell swings

Day 3:

a1:Pullups

a2:Incline dumb bell bench

a3: overhead squat: using a very light body bar this is more to work joint mobility

b1: cable seated row: close grip

b2: jump rope 30 seconds

b3: band front raises

c1:standing cable fly: chest

c2: straight arm press down: back

c3: kneeling scarecrow: shoulder

Day 4:

a1: deadlift

a2: behind the head band pulls

b1: bulgarian split squat

b2: scapular push ups

c1: pull throughs

c2: cable rope press downs: triceps

c3: cable rope bi-curls

D1: stability ball rollouts.

My reps range is in the 8-10 depending on the exercise.  I either try to go up in weight or do more reps from the last workout especially for the big exercises like squats.  Rest for 1 minute between sets, however I will take rest from 30-60 sec. between some exercises as needed. For example after squats, deadlifts and lunges.  If you are working at high enough intensity you will need the rest before moving on to another exercise.

You will notice I do have some ab/core  and arm work built in to my circuits but I don’t devote a lot of my training to these areas as they will be worked doing the bigger stuff.

I also added in some metabolic work to jack up my heart rate: kettelbell swings and jump rope

For warm up, generally do some foam rolling and a little mobility work to get everything moving.  I don’t do any static stretching either before or after although it wouldn’t hurt to try and get some in.

For cardio (I hate that term because, weight lifting is cardio)  work, I have been hopping on the treadmill for about 30 minutes after lifting. On upper body days, I do a 2:1 walking running intervals.  I’ve been working on getting faster during the 1 minute runs, but I’m not sprinting.  On lower body days, running just isn’t possible so I”m doing a 2:1 walking/fast walking on an incline interval.

I plan on having a 5th day of just cardio hopefully start swimming on sunday but if not, 40 minutes of treadmill on sat.

Pretty much all work is done using free weights and the cable station. Exeptions are the lat pull down and the assisted pullup/chin up. although I can do about 4 non-assisted chin ups, I want to be doing sets of 8-10 so have decided to utilize the assisted pullup/chin up machine. My goal is to transition back to doing unassisted chin ups once my bodyfat decreases.

So far so good.  I really like this program and intend to keep it for 4 weeks then change it up.

If anyone has any questions or comments, you know the drill.

Also, if you have any topics you would like me to blog on, please let me know.

Be well train hard.

to lift or not to lift: I’m just too exhausted November 18, 2009

Today I want to discuss an interesting paradox related to training that I always found intriguing.

That is I’ve had some of my best training sessions on days that I just didn’t feel like going to the gym.  Either physically or mentally exhausted and it took everything I had to drag my sorry ass onto the weight floor.

I have a rule about training, if I’m not sick ie: fever, chills, even a cold, OR as long as the idea of training doesn’t make me want to vomit, because lets face it there are days, where I’m really that emotionally and physically drained that even the thought of picking anything off the floor makes me want to hurl.  Baring all the above, my rule is to at least try.

After a warm up and a few sets, if my mood hasn’t changed for the better I will give myself permission to pack it in for the day but at least I tried.  However, more likely than not I end up having one of my most productive training sessions.

My theory is that because I have to use so much concentration and literally break things down into the smallest parts ie: take each exercise, each set and even each rep at a time, I am putting everything I have into that one moment without any thought as to what will come next.  It’s as if each rep is of singular importance even if I can only do one and do it well.

for example, i’m working on a new program to increase strength, it requires me to squat 3 days a week 5 sets for 5 reps each training session adding 5lbs.  That’s 15lbs by the end of the week, which if you’re a 6ft 240lb guy isn’t a lot but at 110lb and barely 5ft tall female it can be.  Currently I am approaching the upper limit of my ability on the squat.  Friday I was scheduled to do 110lbs for          5 x 5.  This was my second attempt as I was not able to make the reps/set scheme at this weight on my previous attempt.  I was very tired and really wasn’t sure if I would make it this time but I was going to do the best I could.

After doing my warm up sets, I loaded the weight on the bar, got under it and told myself it’s only 5 reps, take it one rep at a time, it’s only 5lbs more than the set I Just did piece of cake. so 1st rep down to the box good, up breath next done and good, 3, 4, 5. excellent.1 set down all 5 reps big smiley face. Next set same thing, 1 rep, 2 etc 5 reps good and I proceeded to talk my way through a full 5 sets for 5 reps and with each exercise thereafter.

The point I’m trying to make is: sometimes the best thing is just break things down into the smallest parts and put 100% behind accomplishing that both in mind and body, without any thought to what comes next, move on to the next thing repeat and at the end you’ll find you have accomplished much.

Now go lift something heavy.

Until next time

Michelle