Kendall's Journey part 2

Kendall describing what brought her to need some more training and guidance.  

Preparation for success!

A continuation of how I approach nutritional coaching.  This time it is how do I figure out your calories and macro-nutrients (Carbs, Protein, Fats) and how do you organize a week long meal preparation for success.  

Attack him where he is unprepared

Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected. 
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War

When you think about working out and many of the gains that you'll receive, either through strength, growth, or weight lost, we need to keep our bodies in a state of confusion and unpreparedness.  The more efficient you are in something, the less effective it will be to achieve the desired result, especially when it comes to body modification, less so strength changes.  

Go to any gym and you'll see people mindlessly doing the same thing over and over again.  It's not difficult to see why, it's what they know.  It also minimizes the soreness and pain that come with change.  Change isn't easy, but it's necessary to improve.  

The changes don't need to be large to be effective.  If you're lifting 20lbs weights for 10 reps, do 12, or go up to 25.  If you're running a 10 min mile, do a 9:55 min mile.  None of these changes are large, but they can have a profound impact especially when you do it over and over again.  

Your body is a constantly changing machine.  With each day/week/month/year there is something different about it as you put food in, movement out, and bear all of the emotional burdens that come with life.  Your body can be prepared for anything and will adapt to do so.  Hit it when it's not ready.  

Kendall's Journey

My client & friend Kendall shares her journey from where she began to when she decided she needed something more.  

Nutritional Coaching part 1

An overview of the dietary recall, a key tool to help with nutritional coaching.  With this you have to be as honest as possible so that it can be determined how many calories you're actually taking in is.  

All warfare is based on deception.

The title for this post has been taken from "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese general.  This text can be applied near universally to all aspects of our lives.  I chose to open my series on fitness, nutrition and how it can be related with the opening quote.

Deception is a tricky thing, obviously.  With regards to fitness & nutrition, everything can be deceptive.  We are led to believe that running (fitness) or kale (nutrition) is the key to successful body composition and health.  This is deceiving because they are in fact, healthy options, but nevertheless they're options only.  I know many who hate running and are very fit people.  I personally hate kale and I'm really not that unhealthy.

The industry thrives on deception, on making things larger than they appear (or smaller).  Go back several decades and the thoughts on women and weight training would get you laughed at, now it's recommended
and encouraged to prevent osteoporosis.  At the advent of weight training machines, they were promoted as superior to free weights such as barbells and dumbbells.  However, you look at any program that any athlete trains in, at least the good ones, they use free weights to train.

When we engage in fitness, regardless of the format, we are deceiving our bodies....or at least our minds are.  We convince ourselves that it is the right thing to do, sometimes we are right, and others we aren't.  The right answer is everything is beneficial in some capacity.  Weights make us stronger, running improves our bone density and cardiovascular fitness, fighting sports make sure we realize that we are not invincible.

We are at war with our health, our media for projecting their thoughts into it, and our way of life.  Each deceives us in its own way, some of which may be beneficial in the long term, others are much more flash than substance.  The more you learn about what you can do the better your lives will be.  

Upcoming series'

One of my OCD tendencies is that I like to do things in series, if I am fortunate enough to do so.  With that, I've decided that in the next several weeks you'll be seeing three different series being played out here.  I've actually begun one of them already and have the next two scheduled to begin next week.

The first is the "Art of War" series.  This uses concepts from Sun Tzu's classic text in a fitness and nutrition context.  This book is often cited in virtually everything from literal warfare to business methodology.

Next is my online training series.  This is more of an instructional piece showing you what I do for online training and how it's accessible for everyone.

Finally is an interview series.  I'll be sharing the success story of one of my clients which will hopefully inspire you.

This all begins this upcoming week.  I hope you enjoy.

How do I learn about you?

A walk-through of how I go about learning about my potential clients for online personal training.  This is to show you how in depth I will look at you as my prospective client.

Please share with anyone who may be interested.....or just share in general!

Not what, but why?

Maybe about a month ago or so, I briefly posted about clients or members asking about "which muscle does this work?"  As I thought more about it, I realized that many people just like the more "sciencey" answer, but it serves no real good for them.  A better question to ask, yourself and a trainer, is "why is this exercise or series of exercises appropriate for me?"

Just knowing what muscle becomes activated serves no real purpose.  As a trainer, I look more at balance between planes of movement.  This may be contrary to what other trainers look at, but I always look at movement first, which is much more skilled.  The muscles come next, as if you cannot move correctly then targeting certain muscles may not serve a purpose.  Of course, if an obese individual comes to me for training, it does change somewhat to how I approach it.

Since I proposed the "why" question, think about what your goals are.  If your goals are to lose weight and you end up doing a lot of things that only impact small muscles such as your biceps (front of your upper arm) or your calves (back of lower leg), then you're likely not going to get anywhere anytime soon.  These muscles are small and don't have a high energy requirement and thus losing weight is probably going to take an eternity.  However, if you do barbell front squats, you generally use most of the muscles in your entire body to do the exercise and obviously with more muscle you have more energy use.

If your goal is to jump higher, than knowing what muscles are required isn't all that practical, but how to get them to simultaneously activate is.  This also comes with practice, confidence, and being able to contract your muscles when needed to accomplish your goal.

There's a lot to training more than just muscles, consider asking why before anything else, and learn what later.  

My training routine

Since I'm not currently looking at any competition to guide my training, what do I train for and what do I do?

I usually have two major training "seasons," which are the fall/winter season and the spring/summer/fall season.  Within each, there are many variations due to workflow, and thus I don't often get to work out when I would desire.

Most of the time, the fall/winter is the time for me to build muscle mass & strength.  This is ideal since going outside often doesn't happen due to the sub-zero temperatures, snow, ice, or combination thereof.  Most of the time the programs that I use are built around four lifts, the squat, dead-lift, overhead press, and bench press.

Right now, we're in the spring/summer/fall season and one of the principle drives for me at the moment is fat loss & weight management.  I have battled my entire life with my weight and so while I can put on some muscle in the previous season, I also put on a lot of fat mass.  Right now, my training routine is largely running & cardio centric.  I also lift 2x per week rather than the 4-5 days in the other season.

Since I have a training partner, most of the time, we usually reserve Mondays for a faster, shorter run.  Tuesdays & Thursdays are lifting days which center around the lifts I previously mentioned.  Wednesdays are usually some non-impact related cardio such as a bicycle or elliptical, this is my least favorite day but I trudge on with it.  Lastly Fridays are usually a longer, slower run so we can burn some additional calories.

All of this helps out tremendously, as well as the nutritional goals that I've set, which largely consists of eating less than I had been and also eating slower.

There you have it, my general training schedule.  This does omit any sparring or boxing/kickboxing that I do, which is usually inconsistent.  

I train so I can drink beer and not be fat

It's a lot true.  There's many reasons to why I train, one of which is so that I can drink beer and not be super huge.  I really don't drink all that often either, mostly just Fridays and/or Saturday nights.  This is a far cry from some time ago where it was most nights, with perhaps those two being the nights off (I doubt it).

However, most of what I desire as a result of training conflicts with alcohol.  There's research out there on the effects of cardiovascular responsiveness and red wine consumption, which is generally positive.  However, the effects on strength is generally negative, usually resulting in either the reduction or stagnation of it.

This isn't to say to go out and only drink wine because you want the cardio benefits, it's just a side effect of the wine consumption.  I just enjoy the taste and relaxation effects of beer, which is why I generally choose it.  However, I attempt it strategically so as to not sabotage my lifting, or weight management for that matter.

So think about the real reasons that you train.  Is it to look good?  Is it to lift heavy things?  To beat the zombies?  Or is it realistic, to keep up with your kids and to not feel like every little thing you do hurts?  

Nutrition Challenge

As I talked about what I'm doing nutritionally last week, I thought to challenge you all to something that you can do relatively easy.  Unlike most nutrition plans, which force you to omit certain foods, I would like for you to time how long it takes for you to eat each meal, and write that time down.

This challenge is simple, for the first 3 days time each meal that you consume.  I use the stopwatch function on my phone, which sits there and allows for me to view it while I eat.  Next, write those times down on a post it or in a notebook, or share it in the comments section.

For any meal that you eat in under 15 minutes, these will be where you focus on first.  My suggestion would be to time for 10 minutes, and chew slowly, set the fork down between bites, and enjoy your food.  After 10 minutes, sit for 5 minutes.  This time can be spent engaged in conversation, messing around on your phone or whatever, just don't eat.  If you're still hungry, set the timer for another 10 minutes and continue with what you've done.  After, do not eat for 5 minutes and continue the cycle if you feel as if you need more food.

This process should allow for you to feel full.  Which in fact you are.  If you're anything like I am normally, I eat super fast.  To give you an idea of how fast, I can eat a foot-long sub in under 10 minutes if I want to.

This process isn't easy, but it does allow for much more wiggle room than conventional dieting goes.  It also is the way we as humans should be eating rather than the quick & ravenous way we normally eat.

Good luck!