How to Improve your Strength and Power

On January 7th, I wrote an article that discussed training for a specific event. This article is a follow-up to the sledge hammer experiment I undertook from the date of writing that article.

The Rationale Behind Improving Your Strength

Let’s recap what we discussed in the event training article. Strength is not a function of muscle size. Your strength on one particular exercise also does not indicate how strong you are in another, completely foreign movement. There are a number of reasons for this, including:

1. Exercise technique; as the way in which you execute the movement indicates how efficiently force is generated, or your strength
2. Muscle conditioning; if your muscles have been trained specifically for strength and power, they will be able to produce a greater amount of force in a shorter period of time
3. Brain conditioning; your brain determines what muscles are recruited, how/when they are stimulated and in what proportions. Effective power generation is therefore a result of finding the optimal balance of muscle groups being recruited.

The combination of these three factors will aid greatly in strength and power generation. Here are some other important factors that will play an important role include:

1. Mindset; your mood, confidence and general mental state will affect your performance.
2. Hormonal levels; an imbalance in hormonal levels may affect power output.
3. Nutrition; good nutrition will ensure that muscles are well recovered and have readily available nutrients for optimal results. Nutritional supplements can also aid in performance.
4. Flexibility; being extremely inflexible may inhibit good technique, whereas being too flexible could encourage energy loss throughout the motion.
5. Sleep; being well rested will aid in force potential.
6. Health; your general health will impact the amount of force you can produce.
7. Recovery; if you are well recovered, your muscles will be able to generate force effectively.
8. Temperature; an excessively hot or cold day will hinder performance.
9. Hydration; being poorly hydrated will inhibit strength and power output

So to obtain an optimal power and strength output, all of the above factors must be taken into consideration.

The Test-of-Strength Experiment Results

On January 7th, I declared myself a guinea pig as I set out to improve a previously dismal score on the “Test-of-Strength” amusement park game. This is the machine that you have to hit with a sledge hammer. As you may recall from the training for a specific event article, my previous best score was 83 (out of a possible 150). This score was not high enough to warrant even the smallest prize (a slinky).

Although I initially set out to train for only a few weeks, there were a few obstacles in the way (rain causing the game to be closed and a weekend trip away). So my training period was extended to be seven weeks. During this seven week period, I implemented various strategies including:

1. Practising hitting technique/aim by using a sledge hammer and a boxing bag (laying down). The sledge hammer was wrapped in towels as to not pierce the boxing bag surface.
2. Training specifically for strength with my resistance training programme.
3. Implementing specific exercises into my weights programme that mimicked various aspects to the sledge hammer movement.
4. Supplementing with creatine.
5. Implementing various recovery techniques (nutritionally and physically) prior to the second attempt.

The cumulative effect of all my training resulted in a final score of 131. This was an improvement of 48 points, or a 58% strength increase in just 7 weeks of training. I was quite happy to have won the second biggest prize (a stuffed toy!). Actually, let me rephrase that; my girlfriend was very happy to have won a blue pony!

This is a very dramatic improvement in a short period of time, especially considering my training history. Untrained persons can expect far more profound strength improvements because their muscles have not been conditioned for strength/power output previously.

I can say with certainty that this score of 131 was not the highest possible score that I could have accomplished on this day. The reason is because I had been practising with a boxing bag on the ground, so I had trained myself to hit a target at approximately half the height of the target at this amusement park game. Further, the sledge hammer was substantially lighter and shorter than what I had been practising with. These factors alone meant that my training wasn’t as specific as what it could have been. Force output could have been enhanced had I considered these factors, or had multiple practice shots to “re-calibrate” my brain for the adjusted conditions.

Having said that, I am very pleased with the results that I obtained and would rate this experiment as a complete success. I will now have no hesitation in attempting this test-of-strength game next time I visit Luna Park (but just for fun next time!).

Share on Facebook

What is Toning, Trimming and Sculpting?

I’m sure that you have heard the terms “tone”, “trim” and “sculpt” thrown around here and there. They are very common terms used regularly to market fitness products or to communicate some form of desirable physical changes. Yet do you know exactly what these terms refer to?

Toning, trimming and sculpting are all synonymous in the health and fitness industry. These terms are very general terms and refer to a desirable physical recomposition whereby you obtain more shape and definition. Whilst this may be obvious, what is not so obvious is how this is related to your fitness, flexibility, strength and body composition.

What is toning?

So, what is toning, trimming and sculpting? In terms of physiological processes, the specific definitions that these words take on will vary from person to person. However as a general statement, they generally refer to two separate processes:

1. Muscle gain
2. Fat loss

The primary reason as to why these terms vary between individuals is because we all have different body compositions. So:

• For a large bodybuilder, to tone up may require muscle loss
• For someone who has an above average muscle mass, yet is overweight, they would require fat loss and minimal (if any) muscle gain
• For someone who is underweight, toning may require muscle gain and possibly fat gain too

Of course as you can infer, to tone up is a very subjective term and will vary from person to person. In a general sense, most people seeking to tone will require some muscle development and some fat loss. So let’s discuss this aspect to toning.

Muscle tissue, fat tissue and toning

It is important to understand that muscle tissue is a completely separate tissue to fat tissue. Muscle cells (responsible for force generation and structural balance) perform completely different functions to fat cells (responsible for insulation and energy storage). So to tone, you cannot convert fat into muscle. You must treat both tissues separately by reducing fat mass and increasing muscle mass. In a sense, assuming that you can concert fat to muscle tissue is comparable to alchemists converting other compounds into gold.

Building muscle to tone

In order to develop muscle tissue, some form of exercise will be required. The most effective way to build muscle tissue is to perform some form of resistance based training (or weight training). When you have a focus on toning, your goal is not going to be to bulk up (or build large amounts of muscle). Toning requires a small amount of muscle development to provide the desired shape and definition of a toned body. Fortunately, muscle growth is a very slow process (slow for men, even slower for women due to hormones), so anyone seeking to tone can undertake a resistance training regime without the fear of becoming too bulky.

Losing fat to tone

The other side to the equation is fat loss, which is accomplished most effectively through the implementation of cardio in conjunction with weight training and an effective approach to nutrition. All three of these aspects are (by far) the most effective way to lose fat tissue.

It is a common misconception that you can lose fat from a specific area of the body to tone that in isolation. For example, to tone up the back of the arms or to tighten your stomach. This leads us to believe that tricep exercises (back of the arms) can reduce fat tissue stored in this region and that abdominal exercises (eg. Crunches) can reduce belly fat. However, this is not true. Whilst these exercises may develop muscle mass, you cannot choose an area of the body from which to lose fat. This myth is known as “spot reduction”. It is quite acceptable to go for a run and lose more fat from your arms than your legs (even though the leg muscles are doing all the work!).

Some other toning misconceptions

Due to the amount of confusion with terms that are regularly used in the health and fitness industry, this has lead many of us to believe that toning can be affected by your strength, flexibility and fitness. This is not necessarily true:

Strength: Your strength is a consequence of the effectiveness in which your muscles are able to develop force. Interestingly, strength is not an indication of how large your muscles are. You may be very strong, yet have minimal muscle mass. Thus, your strength does not indicate how toned your body may be.

Flexibility: Flexibility refers to how far you are able to stretch a muscle. When you perform stretching movements, you aim to enhance the flexibility of a muscle (or a group of muscles). Your flexibility has no bearing on your physical appearance. Though flexibility is important for recovery and injury prevention, it has no direct relationship to toning.

Fitness: You can be grossly overweight and quite fit. Your fitness refers to the efficiency of your cardiovascular system and it’s ability to deliver oxygen throughout your body. As a result, your level of fitness does not indicate how toned you may be.

Toning in summary

I hope that this article has cleared up what exactly “toning” refers to. To tone is to shift the fat and muscle balance within your body. Both are individual tissues and thus both need to be considered independently in order to accomplish a toning goal.

Share on Facebook

Feelings of Failure with Weight Loss

If you are attempting to lose weight, how successful are you presently? Are you progressing toward your goals effectively? Do you feel successful with your attempts to date?

Often, this is not the case. For many people, attempting to lose weight can be a tiresome, demanding and up-hill battle. It can seem like no matter what you try, the weight just doesn’t come off (and STAY off).

If you fall into this category, why is this so? Why, when you have the best of intentions, do you not successfully lose the desired weight and sustain this result indefinitely? Why have you yo-yo’ed up and down for the past many years, to be right back where you started (just much more tired from repeated failures)?

A famous quote from Einstein goes something like this; “You cannot solve a problem with the same line of thinking that created it”. Consider this very relevant statement for a while. Does it pertain to you and your current situation?

You are currently facing a very personal and profound problem of losing weight. It may be five kilograms, it may be fifty kilograms – either way, it is a problem of significance within your life. Solving this problem may make you healthier, fitter, more vibrant, more energetic or just happier. But ask yourself – are you trying to solve this weight problem with the same line of thinking that created it? This “heavier you” mentality is exactly why you are at the weight you are at today. The way in which you think (mentally, spiritually and emotionally) transcends into your physical being. In other words, your thoughts result in actions that ultimately dictate the weight of your body.

In order to change your body weight, you need to change your line of thinking. You cannot modify your physical being and expect it to be permanently changed without recalibrating your thoughts (or, the line of thinking that created the problem in the first place). Here are examples of common approaches that you may have taken in the past which serve little-to-no use in changing your line of thinking:

1. Diets (by restricting the foods you eat)
2. Liposuction or other surgery
3. Sporadic bouts of extreme exercise

All of the above suggestions do have their place in society, however they will all be ineffective if you do not modify your thought processes to avoid revisiting this same problem in the future.

Make no mistake about it, changing your line of thinking is the tough part – hence why obesity is such a prevalent issue in Australia. It is possible but ONLY if you decide to step out of your comfort zone in order to free yourself from the restraints of your current thought patterns. This takes both courage and determination because changing the way in which you think about your life in general is a very big step to take.

Let’s get specific here. One of the most important steps that you must take is to rise above your short-term impulses. These “feelings of failure” are what is setting you up for failure with weight loss and ultimately preventing you from being as successful in life as you desire. Here are some examples of these feelings:

1. “I can’t be bothered exercising today”
2. “Work was tough today, I should watch television”
3. “I did a workout this week, I deserve a splurge”
4. “One more packet of chips won’t hurt, surely”
5. “What difference will one more workout make?”
6. “I really don’t care if I’m overweight right now”
7. “Ice cream is much more rewarding than what my exercise session would be”
8. “Why bother eating healthily when you only live once?”

I’m sure you can think of several hundred variations to the above. These feelings all come across our minds from time to mind. You may have the best of intentions, but unless you put these into action you will change absolutely nothing. Just imagine if you were able to modify each of the above self-talk scenario’s above (in order):

1. “I’m not the most energetic, but I have a workout scheduled for today and that’s that”
2. “Tough day at work – nothing like a workout to clear my mind”
3. “One workout down for the week, time to capitalise upon those results!”
4. “This packet of chips is going to take me an hour to run off. It’s not worth it”
5. “If I skip this workout, what’s going to stop me from skipping the next and the next?”
6. “Yes I may feel miserable, but a lot of that misery is attributed to me being overweight and unhappy with myself. So I am going to do something about it!”
7. “Whilst ice-cream may make me feel better, it’s a superficial feeling of satisfaction. Plus I don’t want to deal with the guilt afterwards.”
8. “My quality of life matters. I’m going to make the most of now and stop living my life trapped in a body that I don’t love.”

YOU and only YOU can make the necessary changes in YOUR life to achieve YOUR goals. Do yourself a favour and have a long-hard think about how your current thinking is inhibiting you from achieving your dreams.

Share on Facebook

Is Organic Food Healthier than Non-Organic Food?

Over the past decade, organic foods have become quite prevalent within Australian supermarkets. What was once a highly niche market is almost a necessity for all large supermarket chains. You’d be hard pressed to find a Woolworths, Coles or Aldi without some organic food offerings.

There does however seem to be a bit of confusion as to what “organic” foods are and why they may be healthier than other foods.

Organic foods, by definition, are those that are produced free from inorganic chemical pesticides. Australia has quite stringent laws to ensure that anything labelled “organic” is grown in a highly “natural” environment. This ensures that any man-made chemicals are not consumed when ingesting the product.

There seems to be a very common misconception with organic food, being that it is healthier in regards to it’s fat content, or cooking process. For example, Aldi sell “organic chips”. Whilst it may be easy to assume that these organic chips are low in fat and therefore healthier, this is a completely incorrect assumption to make. Upon investigating the nutritional composition of this snack, they were 20.2% fat. In comparison to a package of Arnott’s Shapes at 14.5% fat, these organic chips were therefore 39% higher in fat than an alternative non-organic snack.

As you can see, organic does not refer to the macronutrient (fats, carbohydrates, proteins) contained within a food. Organic only refers to the elimination of inorganic chemicals used.

Whether or not organic food is healthier than non-organic food is a raging debate among nutritionists. Although it makes sense to eliminate all unnatural chemicals from our diet, there is no consensus among professionals either way due to the lack of evidence in this field. It really comes down to personal choice; do you wish to consume inorganic substances in your diet? If you do not, you also need to consider that organic foods cost more to produce, therefore this may weigh heavily on your budget.

Share on Facebook

How to Win the BodyBlitz 12 Week Transformation Challenge

So, you’ve made the decision to enter BodyBlitz? Are you looking to win the monthly prize…or even the yearly grand prize? If so, you’ve come to the right place.

In 2005, I won the male Australian BodyBlitz competition, run by Australian Ironman. Australian Women’s Health & Fitness run the female version of this competition (both magazines are owned by the same company, Blitz Publications). To give you an idea of my change over 12 weeks, here are the before and after photo’s:

Jay's Winning 2005 BodyBlitz Transformation Photos

Yes, these photo’s are legitimate and were good enough to play a role in winning the 2005 title. So how do you obtain a similar result to give yourself every chance at being crowned winner?

First things first – if you are serious about winning Bodyblitz, you need to give this 12 week period one-hundred percent effort. As a fitness professional, I do not recommend this approach for just anyone. If you have struggled with your weight for years and cannot adhere to a basic exercise/dietary routine, it may be wise to opt for a less demanding and sustainable approach. By all means, you can still enter the BodyBlitz challenge as a powerful motivational tool. However actually winning the competition means that you need to put in that little bit more to surpass the transformations of everyone else.

One hundred percent effort requires dedication to both an effective exercise and nutritional programme. It requires you to remain accountable to yourself and give every workout everything that you have. It means intensity, dedication and consistency. This is very important to understand before you begin the BodyBlitz challenge. If you enjoy a challenge, then this approach is for you!

In addition to this, you must also understand that there is no particular “way” to win BodyBlitz. The prior winners (myself included) have all followed an approach that is optimal for their own body’s. This article is not about what exercises you should perform, nor what foods you should eat; as this will vary from individual to individual based on your goals, preferences, genetics, training experience etc.

Now that we have established the premise of this article, we can discuss how you are actually going to win the competition. I would strongly recommend that you obtain at least some training experience prior to embarking upon this challenge. It is important that you understand how your body works, how to exercise safely and effectively. This is not a necessity – many winners have had no training experience in the past. I do however feel that this personal experience will only aid you in your endeavours.

It is also important to determine your specific goals. It is not sufficient to think that you want to lose some weight. You need to be specific and measurable when developing your goals. Furthermore, you need to write them down and set a deadline. You may be interested in reading an article that I published on goal setting.

Next, a plan is necessary. How are you going to accomplish these goals? Over a 12 week period, you have a very limited amount of time. You cannot afford to waste a single workout, so you need to ensure that every cardiovascular and resistance based workout is fine-tuned for maximum effect. You also need to plan out your dietary approach to ensure maximum results. Also, how are these plans going to change over the 12 week period? Of course you cannot plan every little detail out before you begin the challenge (plans change and you need to be flexible), though it is important to have some idea of how your training and nutritional plans will be adapted over the course of the BodyBlitz challenge.

Part of planning is planning your supplementation strategy. For maximum results, you may consider the basics; protein powder, creatine, dextrose and vitamins. Glutamine and weight loss supplements may also assist you in accomplishing your goals. Ensure that you purchase all of your supplements prior to beginning the challenge – there is nothing worse than running out and minimising your results! Of course, these are very general recommendations and your supplementation strategy will vary greatly depending upon your goals.

As you progress through your challenge, you need to measure your progress objectively. Measure and weigh yourself weekly. To compliment your measurements, take fortnightly photographs and assess your physique visually as objectively as possible. If the figures are not changing in the desired manner, you need to make some changes to your approach. You must also analyse your progress with your resistance and cardiovascular results. If you are stuck in a plateau, there may be something wrong with your training and/or nutritional approach.

Ultimately with the BodyBlitz challenge, it comes down to your photo’s and your essay. If you do push yourself during this period of time, I promise that you will learn A LOT about yourself. The changes that your body undergoes will be a physical manifestation of how you matured on the inside. This will show through in both the photo’s and the essay.

If, after reading this post, you feel that you are ready to give the BodyBlitz challenge a real serious go, then I would strongly recommend that you read my book, written as a “how-to” guide for the BodyBlitz. The paperback book spans over 200 pages and discusses every aspect to this challenge. For more information, please check out How to Transform the Average Joe in 12 Weeks.

Share on Facebook

Why Don’t People Put Their Weights Back in the Gym?

And now for the beef of the week! It’s not often I blog with a beef, but I feel that this is a very important topic for discussion from both a safety and a general consideration point.

Why don’t people put their weights back in the gym?

Today I was training in my usual gym, performing a weights session. I walked into the weights area and there were dumbbells spread all over the ground. The EZ bar had been left unattended on the ground with 20 kg on it. The squat bar was left with 80kg on it. The smith machine had 60kg left on it. The 25kg dumbbells were in the 17.5kg dumbbell position, the 35kg dumbbells were in the 20kg dumbbell position and the 7.5kg dumbbells were no where to be found (all four of them). And this isn’t even a big gym!

For years I have pondered upon the ultimate question, why people do not put their weights back in their correct position in the gym. Wouldn’t our weight lifting sessions be a blessing if we didn’t have to dodge obstacles, send out search parties for missing equipment and perform inter-set sets when unloading someone else’s weights?

From a safety point of view, it is critical. All it takes is for one person to trip over a dumbbell to hurt themselves. Further, they could trip over something and fall into someone performing an exercise, causing a severe injury. Further, it is very dangerous leaving very heavy weights around for someone else to put away. It’s not uncommon to see someone leave hundreds of kilograms on a piece of equipment for the next person to unload. This is a major safety issue when the next person is quite weak and cannot handle a 20kg plate in a safe manner.

It also should come as common sense that this is common courtesy for fellow gym patrons. Be bothered to put the weights back in their correct place, it really isn’t that hard.

Ultimately it is the gym’s responsibility to ensure that the weights are in their correct place for OH&S. Some gyms are better than others (my regular gym isn’t all that great, yet the gym where we train clients is excellent). I really think that whilst we should be diligent in returning our weights to their correct places, so too should the gyms that we train at.

If you have any thoughts on this matter, please post it up in the comments section below!

Share on Facebook

Is the Food at Subway Healthy and Good for Weight Loss? A Review.

There are so many food choices available on the market nowadays that it can be excruciatingly painful trying to ascertain what is “healthy” and what is “garbage”. There are low-fat, low-joule, high protein, sugar-free, lite, fat-free and plethora of other marketing terms used to communicate that a particular product is healthy.

So, I have decided to use Subway as a case study in this blog post. Subway’s catch phrase is “Eat Fresh” and a few years ago they began marketing within Australia quite heavily as a fast food chain that was highly appropriate for people seeking to lose weight. Do you remember Jared? Jared Fogle was somewhat of the “Subway mascot”, who lost a phenomenal amount of weight, as shown in Subway’s advertising campaign.

But the question at hand here is not whether or not Jared lost weight on the Subway diet, rather, whether or not the food at Subway is healthy and if the food at Subway is good for weight loss. In other words, is Subway’s marketing campaign accurate with the message that they seem to be implying?

As with any marketing in the nutritional field, it is not wise to rely on what the marketing campaign purports. Just because something may be low in fat, doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily “healthy”. After all, jelly beans are low in fat, but they are high in sugar and have a high glycemic index (or have very fast absorbing carbohydrates). Milk chocolate may have a low glycemic index, yet it is full of sugar and very high in fat. Low-fat butter may be lower in fat than regular butter, but it may still be 40% fat (and not the good fats either). So a good understanding of nutrition is vital when ascertaining whether or not food is actually “healthy” for you.

Coming back to Subway and whether or not it is healthy (or good for weight loss), it really depends on the actual food that you consider. Subway have a variety of foods available, all with completely different nutritional compositions. I have downloaded the nutritional information off the Subway website and am using this as my point of reference in writing this Subway review.

Let’s begin with the Subway cookies. The choc-chip cookie is 215 calories having a total of 10.5g of fat. It’s loaded with 18.2g of sugar. Other cookies from Subway are comparable and it really is a bit of a no-brainer that these cookies should generally not be consumed if you’re looking to follow a healthy approach to nutrition.

The salads, wraps and subs at Subway generally depend on the foods that you choose to add into the salad. The meat and sauces that you choose to add on can have a profound impact on the healthiness of the meal you consume. So rather than considering each item individually, let’s look at some of the fillings instead.

To begin with, all the vegetables are great at Subway! They are all fresh and packed full of nutrients. Plus, most of them are practically neutral in regards to net calorie intake. Go for your life with the veggies!

The ham, roast beef, roast chicken and turkey options are quite good, being minimally processed, relatively low in fat and good protein sources. These are all options on the “6 grams of fat or less”. Placed in a salad, you’re eating a very low calorie and high nutrient density meal. For example, a turkey salad without sauce equates to 107 calories (less than half of a choc chip cookie!). Yes, this is quite a healthy meal.

A low-fat 6-inch sub isn’t too much of a concern, assuming that you choose the correct bread and filling. Subway have just introduced a multi-grain sub, which would be a much better option than most of the breads that have available (being white breads). Multigrain will generally not only have a lower glycemic index, but also be more nutrient dense due to the wholegrains contained within the bread. A “6 grams of fat or less” sub will generally set you back around 200-300 calories. The exception is with the sweet onion chicken teriyaki 6-inch, being 352 calories; not a good option for weight loss. The high calorie content is due to the high sugar content in the sweet onion sauce.

Now, onto the Subway no-no’s for weight loss in this review.

There are a variety of add-ons that can really boost up the calorie content. For example, cheddar cheese adds in 42 calories to a 6-inch (double for a footlong). Bacon adds in 45 calories. Chipotle Southwest sauce adds in a whopping 98 calories from a very high fat content of 10.3g on a 6 inch sub! Thousand island dressing adds in 82 calories on a 6 inch – again, definitely one to avoid. The sauces at Subway can really boost up your calorie intake – so if you’re seeking to lose weight, be aware of the effect that this will have on your dietary program.

This is where it really pays to do your nutritional research. Something that is often conceived as low-fat is actually quite the opposite at Subway. Consider this – a tin of tuna in springwater found in your supermarket is typically around 80 calories. Meanwhile, a 6 inch sub at Subway with tuna contains 393 calories! Total fat content (with no add-ons) is a whopping 16.5g primarily from the tuna!

What may come as a surprise (I know it did for me) are some of the non-low-fat subs and how calorie dense they actually are. You may be shocked (and appalled) at how high in fat (and calories) a footlong meatball marinara with a couple of additives has. Let’s consider the following recipe:

1. Footlong Meatball Marinara
2. Cheddar Cheese
3. Bacon
4. Ranch Dressing

I chose these because I know someone who likes to order a footlong with this recipe! Let’s consider the calorie content of each of the above ingredients:

1. 956 calories
2. 84 calories
3. 90 calories
4. 120 calories

Total equates to 1250 calories. To put this into perspective, a Big Mac from McDonalds is 540 calories (according to the American McDonalds website). This footlong sub would be the equivalent of consuming 2.3 Big Macs (in calorie consumption terms)!! Alternatively, 1250 calories is possibly more than a female seeking to lose weight would consume in an entire day! I feel that this is fairly obviously not appropriate for anyone seeking to lose weight, let alone eat in a healthy manner.

So the lesson here is to do your research. Yes, there are certainly very healthy options at Subway, yet there are also very unhealthy options too. The same reigns true for nearly all food outlets and restaurants. It is most important to familiarise yourself with the foods that you consume from a nutritional point of view and to never (ever) rely on the marketing that is fed to you through advertising campaigns.

If you don’t feel confident in analysing the nutritional composition of foods, I highly recommend that you sign up to our free weight loss course where we discuss food in detail and interpreting this information for your own personal use.

Share on Facebook

Drinking a Protein Shake After a Cardio Workout

It is very common to question whether or not you should consume a protein shake after a cardio workout. Protein shakes are typically associated with a post-weights workout drink to enhance muscle growth. But what about a cardio session?

Rather than dealing with whether or not you should have a protein shake after your cardio workout, let’s actually consider what a protein shake is. A typical post-workout protein shake (whey based protein powder – for example, whey protein concentrate and/or isolate), if highly refined source of dietary protein extracted from cows milk. The benefits include:

1. A higher quality source of protein
2. A purer source of protein
3. A faster absorbing source of protein

Whilst it is common to assume that a protein shake is necessarily designed to build muscle (after all, protein shakes and bodybuilders tend to go hand-in-hand), you may be missing out on many benefits by not consuming a protein shake because of this assumption. These high quality, fast absorbing proteins are highly effective in:

1. Boosting the immune system
2. Enhancing recovery
3. Enhancing your fitness
4. Enhancing fat oxidation (or fat breakdown)
5. Obviously, enhancing muscle development

Of course, your training needs to be specific to your goals – a protein shake will not aid in you accomplishing your goals if your training is not appropriate.

Following an intense bout of cardiovascular exercise, your body will be in a state of recovery. A protein shake will encourage the recovery process by providing your body with the appropriate nutrients needed to repair damaged cells. A faster recovery will encourage a greater fitness improvement response. It will also facilitate fat loss and minimise muscular breakdown after your workout.

Of course, protein powder in isolation may not have the greatest benefit in a post-workout shake (be it cardio or weights). By combining this with a fast-acting carbohydrate source, insulin release is encouraged which enhances protein uptake into cells. Examples could be dextrose or waxy maize (including BSN Volumaize).

Share on Facebook

Training for a Specific Event – Why Strength or Fitness is only a Minor Factor

If you want to be exceptional at a specific event, you need to train your body specifically for that event. Some examples could be sprinting, bike riding, discus, long-jump or boxing. The exercises that you perform as part of your training need to be specifically targeted to the type of event so your body can exert maximal force in the most efficient manner possible.

When you undertake a completely foreign task – for example, throw a javelin as far as possible, you are going to be very inefficient at that particular movement. You may be extremely strong, but this is by no means a determinant as to how far you will be able to throw a javelin. Here are three primary considerations that will determine how far you could throw:

1. Your technique. Obviously technique is crucial. Someone with half the strength of someone else may be able to throw the javelin twice as far, just because that are able to generate force in that specific motion four times more efficiently. This covers everything from body positioning, to how you breathe.
2. How your muscles have been conditioned. If you have been training specifically for power, then you will be able to generate much more force in a short period of time, as is required for a javelin throw. Someone with good endurance capacity would not be able to accomplish this, as their muscles are more effective at lasting for long periods of time with a continual and relatively lower force output.
3. How your brain has been conditioned. Your brains forms neurological connections as you learn a new technique. If this technique is foreign, your brain will be unable to communicate with your muscles effectively. Thus, force generation will be minimal. With a mathematics equation, the more often you perform it, the more efficient you become at solving the problem. The same would reign true for any physical movement.

Other considerations such as fitness, mindset, nutrition etc. would also affect the end result of your javelin throw. However let’s focus on these three aspects listed above in this discussion.

So, how do you become extremely efficient at all three of the above aspects; technique, muscle conditioning and brain conditioning?

1. Technique will improve from practice, practice and more practice. If you wish to throw a javelin far, you need to throw a javelin. You need to be taught correct and efficient technique too.
2. Muscle conditioning will partially come from actually throwing the javelin. More importantly will be the resistance based training work that you perform in a gym. In this particular example, you would want to focus on heavy weighted, power based exercises. Many of these exercises would be compound in nature (recruiting multiple muscle groups simultaneously). You would also perform exercises that mimic the general motion of throwing a javelin, to enhance your strength in this motion.
3. Brain conditioning will come from the combination of actually throwing the javelin and the resistance based work that you do. Both of these activities will teach the brain how to interact efficiently with the muscles being worked.

Depending upon your chosen activity, the exercise prescriptions will vary widely for peak performance. Hence why it is important to hire a personal trainer to guide you to success.

–

Now that I have covered the basics, I would like to provide a real-world example of this conditioning. I am personally the subject of this experiment which will conclude at the end of this month.

I’ll begin with the background. On new years eve, I was at an amusement park where there was an old fashioned “Test of Strength” stall. Basically you are given a rubber-coated sledge hammer and you have to hit the base as hard as possible. An electronic light moves up the tall display to show how hard you have hit the target. I decided to give it a go.

I had never had a go on one of these before, nor had I ever used a sledge hammer. Picking up the sledge hammer was a surprise enough as I did not realise how heavy they were!

Hitting the target proved a challenge. It was not that the sledge hammer was too heavy, but rather the movement felt foreign and awkward. I had no idea how to hit this target effectively, so I just tried to bring the sledgehammer over my head and down onto the target, in a similar manner to how other people were hitting it. I also did not feel confident that I was going to actually hit the target, so upon coming down onto the target, I backed off the force somewhat just to ensure that I was actually going to make the target.

The results were poor. Whilst other males with a fraction of my training experience were able to obtain over 100 on the score board, my scores were 79 and 83 respectively. Suffice to say these scores did not even warrant a slinky prize!

This does not come as a surprise though. Apart from having never used a sledgehammer before and having poor technique, my training prior to this had been hypertrophy (muscle building) based and not strength based.

A side note on the scores, the 4 point improvement is a prime example of the “brain conditioning” explained above. Of course, there is only minimal improvement in a single hit, but that is a 5% improvement in a more fatigued state.

So, I decided that I’d set myself a challenge over the next month. Over the next four weeks, I will train specifically for this event. I will do this by:

1. Learning correct technique and practicing this using a sledgehammer and a tyre.
2. Training specifically for explosive strength in the gym, with some specific movements that mimic those when using a sledgehammer.

In late January, I will be at a music festival where they typically have this game available. There, I will give it another shot with improved technique/confidence and more specifically conditioned muscles and mind. I will be sure to post an update on my results!

Share on Facebook

Reviewing the Latest Exercise, Fitness & Health Science Research

Last year, our website introduced a brand new Exercise & Fitness Research Reviews section in which we regularly discuss new and exciting studies that have been carried out within the scientific community. We feel that it is very important to consider the latest fitness research, as all our training principles that we teach are based on results obtained objectively through the scientific community.

What I would like to discuss in this blog post is how to sift through the latest scientific research for your benefit in your health and fitness endeavours. There is often conflicting research that comes out of a lab, so how do you know what is accurate and what isn’t? For example, one day you may hear that margarine is better than butter. The next day, a new study will conclude the complete opposite!

At university I studied advanced science with a major in biotechnology. There were obviously a large number of studies that we needed to review and in doing so, it enlightened me as to the importance of taking one study at a time and never making any assumptions, such as any one particular study being correct over all others with conflicting conclusions.

You don’t need a science degree to understand the general concept of most scientific studies. However you do need to entertain each study with a fair degree of scepticism. Scientific studies are not perfect, especially those that deal with biology. Biology is such a complex topic; there so many simultaneous chemical reactions occurring with an organism that a scientist cannot possibly accommodate for every single variable. So, whilst one study may conclude that a particular training method may be the best approach for one particular goal, another study may conclude something different. This may be due to different testing environments, procedures, attention to detail, recording methodologies etc.

I’m fairly confident that you probably don’t wish to subscribe to a scientific journal and read through all the latest results from the lab. So the point of this article is to read abroad and look at multiple reports, rather than any one in isolation. If you hear something on the news that scientists have determined that “such and such” is the best way to lose weight – do your research before implementing this into your lifestyle. Yes, one study may have come to this conclusion, but there may be 100 others that disagree. Almost without exception, the media will portray scientific studies in a news bulletin in a highly biased manner without the reporter having done substantial research.

Share on Facebook