Muscle Soreness – Why It’s Good

I train at a very high level of intensity, so I am very familiar with muscle soreness (or if you prefer the jargon, “Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness”). It can be a burden when walking down stairs about 1-2 day’s after a good legs workout. But you know what, I love muscle soreness.

People laugh at me when I say that muscle soreness is actually a “good” thing. I mean, it’s uncomfortable (painful some may say), annoying and makes you walk in an awkward fashion. But, you’re looking at it from the completely wrong angle!

You see, when you invest time and effort into a great workout, chances are you are going to obtain some degree of muscle soreness that will peak within the following 72 hours. So really, muscle soreness is a reward for choosing to invest in yourself! Yes, it is like a trophy that you carry around with you ALL DAY LONG! Use it as a reminder of how much you deserve to treat your body with dignity and respect.

Wow…how amazing is muscle soreness?

Unfortunately, the muscle soreness doesn’t last for very long…generally only a matter of days. So make each workout really count! Plus, the more you train, the less muscle soreness that you will generally experience. So make the most of it in the early stages of your training.

Did I mention that I can be REALLY optimistic? But funnily enough, I truly do look forward to obtaining that muscle soreness after a workout.

A quick note, delayed onset muscle soreness isn’t actually an indication of how “effective” your workout was. Here’s some further reading:

I no longer feel DOMS (muscle soreness or stiffness) for a few days after a workout. Does this mean that my workouts aren’t as effective?

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Fat Burning Zone

When I think about the “fat burning zone”, I think of wasted time, minimal results and boredom.  But there is a very long-standing myth in the health, exercise and fitness industry that, sticking to the fat burning zone (which is a low-medium intensity workout) will be an optimal workout to “target” fat cells.  This just isn’t the case.

When considering just fat and carbs as an energy source for cardiovascular work, it is true that, as a general rule of thumb, more fat is utilised relative to carbohydrates in order to fuel your body to perform the actual cardio workout.  Note the word “relative”.

As you increase your level of intensity, relatively speaking, you begin to utilise more carbohydrates than fat.

But hang on a second, you are exercising more, thereby expending more calories.  Therefore, even though, relatively speaking, you are using more carbs than fat as energy, in absolute values, you are actually using more carbs and more fat.

Exercising in the “fat burning zone” may be appropriate if any of the following apply to you:

• Are just beginning an exercise regime
• Have a low level of fitness
• You have an injury preventing you to exercise at a higher intensity
• You have a medical condition that does not allow you to exercise vigorously
• You are looking to enhance your endurance capacity
• You require more recovery from a demanding workout regime

If not, and you are seeking to improve your VO2Max, enhance fat loss or even induce muscle synthesis (gain), then high intensity (possibly interval) training is the way to go.

Personally I haven’t exercised in the “Fat burning zone” as part of my prescribed exercise regime for about seven years (and yes it was seven years ago that I learnt about this truth).

I’ve breezed over a lot of explanations in this post, so for further reading check out:

Staying Fat In The Fat Burning Zone
Cardio & Bodybuilding – Good for Muscle Growth?

For some more advanced reading I would recommend:

Myths Under the Microscope – Fat Burning Zone

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Too Busy To Exercise?

Things have been really, REALLY busy lately.  With the recent launch of our new website design, a high demand for our personal training services, the supplement store and various projects that I’m working on, I have been flat out.  This week I’ve clocked up well over 60 hours already and I still have some tasks to complete on Saturday morning.

Personally, I’m very big on life balance (typical of Gen Y’s).  I am a strong believer that you should also enjoy living your life.  I love what I do, so it’s very easy to lose track of time when you’re having fun.  But I don’t believe that it’s healthy to work “too much” – when it begins to take away from other area’s of your life.  So, as much as enjoyable as my work is, I do try to discipline myself from overdoing the hour count.

In a typical week, I will ensure that I get into the gym 5 times.  I allocate 5 hours in total for this, which includes travel to/from the gym, warm-up and the actual workout.  That’s 2.98% of the time within my week (as a minimum) which I think is a pretty good share.  Plus, there’s plenty of incidental exercise added onto this from personal training sessions.

Today I received an enquiry from a person seeking our online personal training services.  One major issue this person was trying to overcome was being too busy to exercise.

Now, this isn’t a rare concern.  Many of us work long hours.  I can name a handful of people who typically work 70, 80 or even 90 hours in a week (not to mention looking after a family too).  I don’t know how they do it and keep their sanity!  But my hat goes off to them, this certainly would take a lot of discipline.

As far as I see it, being busy is no excuse not to exercise.  Yes, it is a very valid point, but there is always a was to fit in some “me time” into the week.  Exercise is exactly that – “me time”.  You are investing time into yourself.  This investment pays big dividends that transcends into other areas of life, such as improved self-esteem, increased self-confidence, enhanced mood, better productivity, greater focus, decreased stress and anxiety.

Ultimately, exercise should be right up the top of the priority list for anyone who feels that they are “too busy to exercise”.  Try sitting down and planning out your week.  A great idea is to combine tasks.  For example, a client of mine trains a netball team, but she joins in and makes it a workout for herself as well.  Another example could be to exercise during your lunch break, or as part of a family leisure activity such as cycling.

A final thought.  Even if you slot in 20 minutes, 3 times a week, that still only accounts for 0.6% of the total time that you have in the entire week!  When considered from this perspective, does being too busy to exercise still seem as strong an argument?

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The Weight Loss Secret

I really hate titles such as “the weight loss secret”.  So it could be said that I’m being a little hypocritical by entitling this post exactly that.  But in doing so, I am trying to make a point.  In my years as a professional in this industry, I am still yet to find any “secret” to weight loss.

Have a think about it.  If a weight loss secret really existed, then, considering how many millions of people worldwide wanted to lose weight, it wouldn’t remain a secret for very long!

So what really is the “key” to weight loss?  (Yes, key and secret may be interchangable…but I’m just further emphasising my previous point).  Well there are many facets that you need to consider such as education, motivation, inspiration, accountability, planning, mindset, application etc.  But the number one aspect to weight loss that is of the upmost importance is:

CONSISTENCY

Well duh you may say.  But think about it.  Consistency sounds so simple in theory – find something that works then be consistent with it (of course, you would have to make modifications as your body conditioned itself too).  But how realistic is it to stay consistent?  Have you ever found an approach that worked and then applied it diligently over a period of time?  Or, have you tried something, stuck with it for a few weeks and then given up?

Just look at all of the successful athletes, physique competitors and even “gym junkies”.  What do they all have in common?  They are all CONSISTENT, which yields great long-term results.

If you’re interested in reading up on this topic, I highly recommend reading an article I published entittled “How to Lose Weight“.  It’s commonsensical, straight forward and easy to understand.  But hopefully it bring some clarity to the subject of weight loss and it’s application in the real world.

So in summary, there is no weight loss secret (a little more emphasis just to finish).

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Vibration Machine Review

Last week I was inspired to spend a bit of time researching and reviewing this new vibration machines that have hit the consumer market in the past twelve to twenty-four months.  Today I allocated the time (5 hours) to research the topic and write a full-on article (2,213 words!!) discussing these vibration machines and their effectiveness in regards to weight loss.

After sifting through a number of studies, I was actually quite surprised as to how long they have been around.  Did you know that these machines have been around since the 1960′s?!  Okay, they weren’t available for consumer purchase, but they were actually in use for completely different medical applications (as I have explained briefly in the review).

Apart from this, I was also quite intrigued by the potential benefits these machines have in regards to athletic power, various medical applications and rehabilitory purposes.  But upon researching their applications into weight loss, I wasn’t surprised when I found several articles concluding how ineffective this much hyped vibration technology is.

But do have a read of the vibration machine review and I really welcome your feedback.  All of these issues (and more) are discussed in detail.  I really hope that this article can be a real eye-opener for the typical consumer that has considered purchasing one of these vibration machines in the past.

Read our Vibration Machine Review here!

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Body Fat Calipers

Well today I spent most of the afternoon putting some new products up (body fat calipers, digital body fat calipers and an fitness & exercise measuring tape) which I’m really excited about because they have our own brand name on them!

But the remainder of the afternoon I detailed up a new article, “Body Fat Caliper Instructions” and also developed a new calculator (Body Fat Calipers Calculator).  Just a note with the calculator, I haven’t had enough time to test it out fully, but it will be fully functional tomorrow!

The main reason why I spent all this time and effort stocking these new calipers, providing an informational guide and developing the calculator is because body fat scales just aren’t all that accurate.  Sure, they are convenient, but even the best brands have a 2% error reading.

The beauty about calipers is that you can isolate different skinfolds (or points) on the body and see how they change over time.  Whilst you may only see a slight overall bodyfat reduction, you may see a huge reduction around the abdominal area as your waistline decreases.  Calipers just provide that little bit more information, a little bit more accurately.

Professionally, I only use calipers when assessing clients for these aforementioned reasons.  I would never rely on scales to produce accurate results.  That said, body fat scales are better than no body fat reading at all (so don’t go throwing them out after reading this post!).

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Fitness Advice

Every now and then you hear some fitness advice.  This may be directly to you, or to someone else within your immediate vicinity.  The funny thing in the health and fitness industry is that “every man and his dog” is a fitness guru.  So as a result, I’ve heard some real dooseys over the years.

I remember when I was in London about three years ago and I was in a supplement store.  I was just browsing and there was an assistant helping the girlfriend of a guy who wanted to bulk up.  The girlfriend asked the assistant which protein powder was best.  The assistant showed her two tubs.  Tub A was a good quality powder for 30 pounds.  Tub B was a good quality powder for 40 pounds.  The assistant explained that they were practically the same, but Tub B presented a nutritional table of amino acids.  Therefore, she explained, Tub B was of better value because Tub B had 20 amino acids, but Tub A didn’t have any amino acids.

Here’s the funny thing – amino acids in protein molecules are like letters in a sentence.  You cannot have a sentence without letters, just like you cannot have a protein without amino acids!  Both tubs did in fact contain all 20 amino acids – as nearly all decent quality protein powders have.

Another one was in a gym more recently where a guy came up to another person in the gym and advised him that whilst his squats were good, he was pulling down on the barbell that was rested on his back.  This would in turn increase the amount of weight that he was moving, so he was just making the exercise harder for himself.

For those who are familiar with Newton’s third law, you would probably find this amusing.  If you didn’t do physics at high school, try standing on a scale with a 20kg weight on your back.  Now pull down on that weight…funnily enough it remains 20kg and your scale weight (bodyweight + 20kg) doesn’t actually increase

The morale – watch who you seek advice from.

Also I’m very interested in the stories you’ve heard over the years!

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Exercise & Recovery

This week has been full-on, both mentally and physically.  Physically, I had four intense weight and cardio sessions from Monday through Thursday.  This is in addition to the physically demanding face-to-face personal training component to my responsibilities.  Plus, I the workload has been HUGE this week – which is a really good thing because that means that I’m helping plenty of people.

Today I actually feel quite drained.  Whilst I did want to go in for a legs session, I have decided not to.  What I’ve learnt over the years is that you do need to listen to your body and be able to identify when you “need” a rest.  Well, today I needed a rest.

It all comes down to recovery.  This is a concept that not too many people naturally appreciate, particularly when it comes to muscle gain, fitness or weight loss.  The notion of “more is better” can be extremely counter-productive, because our bodies need time to recover from the physical stress of exercise.

At the end of the day, if you continue to hammer your body, it will shut-down.  Initially you may feel fatigued or moody, but then you could become sick with a minor illness.  Injuries are far more prevalent when you don’t allow your body to recover.  At a more extreme level, you could actually become quite ill and be hospitalised (I’ve seen it happen).

Here’s an insighful article on recovery that we had published some time ago: Recovery 101: Creating the Ultimate Physique 

Unfortunately I’ll be away this weekend so I’m not going to get a change to train legs (ideally I would love to train them tomorrow).  So, Monday it is!  That will give me ample time to rest up and hit it hard next week.

Have a great weekend!

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Males and Females in the Gym

As soon as you step foot in the gym, nine times out of ten you will notice that the majority of females are in the cardio section, whilst the majority of males are in the weights section.

Today I was performing some weight training and noticed this.  During my 30 minute workout, 2 females entered the free weights area.  This was compared to over 10 males who were in this area (including myself).  Taking a look at the cardio section as I walked out, there were at least ten females and not one male.

I find it interesting.  Here’s what I think based on the conversations I have had with colleagues, friends and clients, in addition to my own observations (and of course I could be wrong):

Why many females avoid weights like the plague:

1. They feel intimidated or uncomfortable by the swarms of males…okay this one is understandable.
2. They are afraid of gaining too much muscle.  From my experience, this is due to a complete misunderstanding that weights necessarily result in large amounts of muscle mass.  Especially for females and thus low testosterone levels, this is not going to be the case.  Weight training can actually assist fat loss and toning significantly!  Check out this Q&A: I am a petite woman. I want to tone up but I’m scared of getting too big by lifting weights! 
3. There is a stigma that cardio is more suited to females relative to weight training.
4. Many females just prefer cardio…that’s a personal choice, but weight training has some tremendous benefits.

Why many males avoid cardio like the plague

1. Many feel that cardio will inhibit their muscle gaining ability.  I disagree whole heartedly in my article: Cardio & Bodybuilding – Good for Muscle Growth? 
2. Weights are the “manly” form of exercise…give HIIT cardio a go
3. Many guys just prefer weights…fair enough I say, but cardio does have a range of benefits.

I just found it interesting how there is such segregation within a typical unisex gym environment.  As far as I’m concerned, there is no right or wrong…it’s all about training for yourself.

Whilst on the topic, here’s another good article worth a read, Mens vs. Womens Training

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Ignoring Pessimism

This morning as soon as I woke up, I posted up onto Twitter, “most of the greatest achievements in the world were declared impossible by someone, before they were accomplished by someone else”.

That was over 12 hours ago…but I’m a very (very) strong believer in this approach to anything that life throws at us.

I’ll admit, I am an optimist.  I don’t believe that anything is “impossible”.  Any problem that I am faced with I will see as a challenge, rather than a reason to give up.  And I am a strong believer that this is the mindset that you must have if you are to be successful with any endeavour, be it accademic, business, financial, health, fitness or weight loss.

The reasons why I have such a strong opinion on this matter is because of three very distinct experiences during my life.

1. The chronic fatigue bout that I experienced back in 1998.  That was 8 months of feeling sorry for myself until I eventually came to the realisation that I had the power to change my life for the better.  I wrote about this in an article, “My Transformation – Exercise And Diet Just Isnt Enough”

2. Achieving my HSC result in 2002.  I wasn’t happy with my results in year 11 and I knew that I under-achieved.  So I set myself the goal to obtain a UAI of 99 in year 12.  I told some friends and family…and yes, as you can imagine, I had a few people laugh at me and even tell me that it couldn’t be done.  But low and behold, I did it and actually surprised myself with a UAI of 99.55.

3. Winning the BodyBlitz 2005 Competition.  I again set myself the target to win the Australian BodyBlitz competition run by Australian Ironman Magazine.  When I told people how seriously I was taking it, I again had people laugh, tell me that I wouldn’t win (to my face!) and even try to sabotage my efforts by attempting to force me to eat junk.

What got me through was believing in myself and ignoring the negative influences of others.  No matter what you do, you will be discouraged by others for whatever reason (often because of their own low self-esteem!).  But you know what – stay positive.  Set realistic yet challenging goals and work toward them.  Anything is possible, but only if you believe that it is.

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