When most think of carbohydrate loading, the classic method of low carb consumption coupled with bouts high intensity exercise followed by a high intake of carbs a few days before competition comes to mind. The result, according to the theory, is super-compensation of glycogen storage in the muscle cells and liver. The theory holds that one must deplete their glycogen stores prior to consuming or loading carbs in order to facilitate super-compensation.
The average person’s total amount of muscle glycogen is approximately 300 – 500g depending on their gender, size, and level of training. The liver stores between 60 and 120g. A linear relationship exists between the depletion of muscle glycogen and fatigue during exercise. With less glycogen to produce glucose, hypoglycemia begins to affect the athlete. Typically, a person with a blood glucose level below 70 will start to feel light headed, lethargy, and have cold clammy skin. A highly trained athlete, on the other hand, can train at much lower levels than 70 for long periods of time.
As with all training topics there is conflicting evidence on what is the best method to achieve super-compensation of glycogen stores. studies are reporting similar results to the classic method, which so many athletes swear by, without carb depletion, while tapering their training (1,2,3). One thing is for sure, carbohydrate levels play a key role in training and competition success.
In order to figure out what works best for you, try different methods and keep a detailed journal. We all process carbs the same way, but we metabolize them at different rates. Keep mind, studies on training are by no means the end all be all. There are too many variables in most training studies to be reliable. Athletes, especially endurance athletes are over-trained. It is my opinion that athletes who are achieving super-compensation without depletion coupled with bouts of intense training, are doing so because they are over-trained and under-fed before starting the process.
The body is constantly working to stay in homeostasis. Physiology shows us glycogen storage is finite; the body needs a reason to super-compensate. Achieving a glycogen depleted state over a period of time produces an insulin sensitive environment, which is essential for more than normal levels of glycogen storage.
1. Eur J Appl Physiol 2002;87:290-295
2. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2003;285:E1304-E1311
3. Int J Sports Med 1981;2:114-118
The question, “What’s best workout for building strength and muscle?” has been the subject of heated debates for years. My answer is always the same. There is no one workout that is the best. There is no one workout that works for all. However, there are training principles that do apply to everybody.
Anatomically and physiologically we are identical. A bicep is a bicep and has the exact same function from person to person. An aorta is an aorta. Our anatomical structures may have different shapes and sizes, but they all function the same. This holds true for all tissues in our bodies from blood to hormones. If this weren’t true medicine could not exist. How could an anesthesiologist do his job if everybody were different?
Therefore, in order to get bigger, stronger muscles the same stimulus is needed. That stimulus is short, intense training sessions. Why short? Because we have known for centuries the body can either train long or train hard. A perfect example is to compare distance runners to sprinters. Because of the types of training, one is emaciated looking and one is muscular. Remember you can not sprint a mile. Is it difficult to run a mile, yes? But it is essentially impossible to run a mile with 100% intensity.
The other factor one needs to take into consideration for building bigger, stronger muscles is recovery. How much or how often can you train? Or better yet, how much “should” you train? Here is where the differences in genetics lie. Our muscles need the exact same stimulus in order to cause a chain of events that forces them to adapt by making bigger stronger muscles. However, the rate at which we are able to recover from these intense bouts is as different as the shapes and sizes of our bodies.
So what are you to do? If you’re training using the typical muscle building routine, which is 3 or more working sets per exercise and 4 or more sessions a week, and not getting anywhere, change it. First, reduce your sets per exercise by half and only train each body part once a week. If you still don’t make gains or you plateau after a short while, reduce your sets again. Remember, if you’re training with 100% intensity and you’re not making gains, you’re not recovering.
More is only better when it comes to sex and money.
Managing health is very important, especially for women as they are more prone to diseases with increasing years. In today’s modern world, when there is hardly much difference in professional lives of men and women, we can see a number of businesswomen, who are single-handedly managing their businesses and running them in an excellent way. But with their busy schedule, they cannot find enough time to spend on health, and are looking for some ways to manage their fitness while running on a tight schedule.
There are some easy ways for today’s businesswomen to keep in shape:
Walk: Give your car some rest and walk to the store to buy your groceries. And no! No Internet grocery shopping. With ‘all the comfort of buying groceries at home,’ it gets a bit too comfortable, and plays havoc with health.
Stairs: Next time, use the stairs to go to your office and apartment, instead of using the elevator. Yes, it’s a little huff and puff, but certainly good for your health.
Diet: Stick to a healthy diet, and eat less of fats, and lay more stress on the veggies.
Weight loss prescription: For women on busy schedule, there are a number of drugs available that can help you reduce your weight, and lower the blood pressure that builds up due to incompetent employees or a vicious boss. But make sure you take only the right drug- one with no side effects. One such drug is Xenical. It reduces weight, brings down blood pressure, and also reduces the amount of anti-diabetic medicine (in case you are taking).
You can try these techniques to lose weight and stay fit.
A highly overlooked, but very useful tool for progressive resistance training is – Tempo. I will even go one step further and call tempo an essential tool for attaining optimum results from weight training. Yes, it’s true one can attain results performing reps just like every other hack in the gym, but I’m talking about optimum results.
If you’re going to spend the time in the gym, why not get the most out of it. The biggest reason most people who weight train don’t use tools like tempo is shear laziness. Performing a set to momentary failure, to the point where you can’t possibly get another rep is grueling. Few people have what it takes to train correctly, achieving 100% intensity. Hence, the legions of frustrated people in gyms across the US. Like any endeavor, doing your best takes hard work, focus and dedication.
So what is tempo? Tempo goes hand in hand with “time under tension” or TUT. TUT is simply the amount of time a muscle in under tension. To develop the optimum amount of muscle in the shortest amount of time, a set should last between 20 and 60 seconds.
Tempo is the speed of your reps. It is expressed and recorded by three or four digit numbers representing the seconds required to complete a rep. Example: 402 (four, zero, two) or 50X0 (five, zero, explosive, zero). Using the bench press, the first digit is the speed in which the weight is lowered (negative). The second digit is the amount of time one pauses once they’ve reached their chest. The third digit is the amount of time one takes to raise the weight (positive). The forth digit, if used, is the amount of time one takes before lowering the weight again. If an “X” is used, it means explosive, or as fast as possible.
Is it really necessary to count each rep in order to build strength and muscle? No. Is it necessary to lift under control and to vary your speeds to get the best most rapid gains per your genetics? Yes. When you perform an exercise under control, the muscles are truly doing the work. “Slower”, not “slow” speeds make the muscles work harder by eliminating momentum and bouncing. There’s nothing impressive about performing a bench press by allowing the weight to drop, bounce off your chest and then barely being able to complete the lift.
If tempo is used properly, the target muscle group is truly performing the exercise. Tempo forces one to lift in a very controlled manner, but like any training tool it should be used as an adjunct to your weight training program.
Bending over to pick something up can be a very dangerous move if done with a rounded back. Most people in their lifetime will have an injury to the lower back. One way to help prevent such injuries is to do the good morning.
Performing the good morning is an excellent choice for strengthening and building the posterior chain, which includes the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. The glutes (butt) and the hamstrings are responsible for hip extension while the muscles of the lower back (erector spinea) are contracted statically.
Because of the large degree of hip flexion, the gluteus maximus and the hamstrings are utilized throughout the movement. The glutes work in unison with the hamstring to extend the hips in the concentric (raising) part of the movement. The hamstrings, located on the back of the upper thigh, become more involved as you begin to decrease the degree of hip flexion while raising the weight. The erector spinea, which run the length of your spine on both sides, are statically contracted throughout most of the movement, keeping the normal curvature of the spine. A static contraction of the rhomboids and the trapezius muscles help maintain the shoulders.
Extension of the body occurs when the upper body, torso and pelvis rotate up and back. The biggest mistake I see with this movement is allowing the back to “round” and magnifying the kyphotic (upper back) curvature while de-emphasizing the lordotic (lower back) curvature. I need to add that a slight curve of the upper back will present no danger and will happen to most while using heavy weight, but if you look like a big question mark (?) while performing the exercise, that’s a different story.
I am not a huge fan of using partial reps, but will use them sparingly with experienced lifters to “through a wrench into their workout”. When I prescribe them they are performed after the client has already reached momentary concentric failure during a set. But, because partial reps place such high demands on the recovery ability of the muscles being worked, I caution against using them more than once every 4 workouts per body part. In reference to this belief, I received an email from an intermediate lifter claiming a study (J Strength Cond Res, 2004, 18(3), 518-521) proved partial reps should be incorporated in his workout instead of full range reps.?
I did a little research, as always, and found the study the gentleman was referencing. This study was conducted over a 10-week period using the bench press as the criterion measurement. Subjects were divided into three groups. Group one trained with full range of motion sets. Group two trained with partial range of motion sets. A partial range of motion was defined as two to five inches from full extension of the elbows. Group three trained with a combination of both partial and full range reps. All groups were pre and post-tested with a full range of motion one rep maximum. No differences were found between the groups. So should we or shouldn’t we use partial reps?
There are several problems I find with this study that are common to many studies trying to illuminate the most efficacious training principles. First, and perhaps most important, inexperienced, recreational subjects were used. Inexperienced subjects can achieve gains in the first few months on just about any program. Second, the length of time the study was conducted was entirely too short. six, eight or, like this study, 10 weeks is just not enough time to show the efficacy of a particular training protocol. And third, the intensity of the exercises or perceived exertion is not mentioned or monitored. Are the subjects going to failure on their sets? Are some subjects pushing themselves harder than others? Are the subjects training in the same manner on exercises other than the bench press? This study like most training studies shows nothing.
Like a great set of developed arms, a well developed chest always gets attention. Chest and arms are the most frequently worked body parts in any gym across the country. You never hear of anyone skipping a chest workout to do legs, but frequently hear people skipping their leg workout. Most of this is due to shear laziness, but some is because chest is much more fun to work.
In their quest for an “Arnold like” chest many people look for that one exercise or that one workout that, like magic, will give them the chest they want. Unfortunately, genetics, as with all body parts, determines the size and shape of ones chest. This doesn’t mean, however, that one can’t improve upon what they have.
Do not get caught up in the game of trying to make your muscles look a certain way. You will consistently be disappointed. Instead concentrate on making the best of what you’ve got. You can do this by hitting the chest from a variety of angles. It is also imperative you “feel” the muscle being worked. Concentrating on feeling your chest work is as important as performing the exercises. And last, using TEMPO to increase muscle tension is essential and will help to improve your concentration level.
Learn more about these and other guidelines to build Perfect Pecs.
46 million adults have been diagnosed with arthritis. 9% of these individuals claim arthritis limits their physical capabilities. 21 million people alone suffer from osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, the incidence of arthritis is on the rise. There are things you can do to ease the symtoms.
Exercise can be a great way to deal with the aches and pains of arthritis. But it’s important to perform the right exercises under a doctor’s supervision.
Here are suggestions about exercising if you have arthritis, courtesy of the University of Washington School of Medicine:
If you have a physical or occupational therapist, he or she should participate in creating your exercise plan.
Your exercises should put minimal stress on your joints, especially when you first start out. Don’t overdo it.
Try a combination of both therapeutic (designed to help ease symptoms and improve joint function) and recreational (just for fun) exercises.
Use other methods to ease symptoms, such as using heating pads and ice packs, eating a healthy diet, taking medication as prescribed, and maintaining a healthy body weight.
Are you interested in getting in shape and losing some weight but you’re bored and find it hard to get motivated. Do you need something new, something exciting? The RealRyder just might be what the doctor ordered.
The RealRyder was released earlier this year and is revolutionizing indoor cycling. The RealRyder ABF8 vision began 15 years ago when competitive cyclist and RealRyder International co-founder, Colin Irving, saw a need to improve the performance of the stationary bike to simulate the real bike experience. Colin shared his dream and joined industry expert Sean Harrington, whose fitness contributions include the Heart Mate Stationary Bike, and pioneering of Nautilus as a successful fitness club chain operation, to bring this product to market. Rich Hanson, who helped bring the Stairmaster to market, is also largely involved in RealRyder and its current success.
Unlike fixed stationary bikes, the RealRyder Indoor Bike has a patented articulating frame which allows the user to ride fluidly in three dimensions. The RealRyder leans 45 degrees to the left and right which simulates turning and banking on the road so you can get the benefits of riding outdoors, inside. Riding indoors is no longer just a leg workout, it’s a total body experience.
Is performing cardio the best way to lose fat? There are 3 things to keep in mind about cardio when trying to get leaner. One is that it doesn’t build muscle. Two, it doesn’t preserve muscle while losing weight. Both are extremely important if your goal is not only to get leaner, but to stay that way. As we lose weight the body does not discriminate where the weight comes from. We lose muscle along with fat, especially on a low calorie diet. And performing cardio accentuates this phenomenon.
Lastly, unless you enjoy cardiovascular training, it’s just not worth the time. The work to benefit ratio is dismal to say the least. Unless you’re willing to bust your butt and perform 60 – 90 minutes of cardio a day, which will hinder your muscle building capacity, cardio is not worth it.
Will training your abs using the right exercise our equipment give you washboard abs?
Is reducing your calories the best way to lose weight?
If I’m not sore a couple of days after a workout, did I not train hard enough?
Get the answers to these and other common fitness myths in my Fitness Myths Busters article.
