Category: Getting Rid Of Fat

This category covers things that relate to metabolizing stored body fat. Generally speaking, burning this fat will result in a reduction of body fat levels, which has been linked to improved health outcomes. Lowering body fat is also one of the two main objectives when tackling body composition or aesthetic goals; the other being the creation of lean muscle mass.

Food The Drug

“How do I get rid of body fat” and “how do I gain weight” are two of the most common questions I get. My answer “you eat the right foods at the right time and you avoid the wrong foods at the wrong time, and move more” is an answer I am comfortable giving because it is completely accurate. However, a lot of people don’t like this answer and when I ask them why they they mention that they’ve heard it before and that they are looking for something new or quicker.

And I have a moment when I think that our species shouldn’t be at the top of the food chain.

I think the issue most people have with their relationship with food is that they don’t really understanding the nature of the impact it has on their bodies. Food has drug-like effects on the body. Some foods cause the release chemicals that have a powerful impact on the body – chemicals that require you to have a doctors prescription.

From a body composition point of view, the key chemical to control and manipulate is insulin. In non-diabetic individuals the body will release it when the blood sugar level increases to a certain level; a level that I call the insulin threshold (IT). This occurs because too high a blood sugar level can cause a number of very serious consequences in humans. There are other mechanisms that promote fat storage in human beings, but insulin is the most efficient energy storage hormone that the body releases. If you cross the IT while you are working out, the body will begin to transport energy into the muscle cells to help fuel the movement. If you cross it while you are not working out, the body will transport energy into the fat cells to help fuel future movement.

Insulin is a very powerful chemical that one can control to create desired changes in body composition. When we want to release it, we consume high glycemic index carbs such as dextrose and when we want to keep it steady we consume lower glycemic index carbs or consume very small amounts of carbs. By timing our insulin events we are better able to store the type of energy we need to improve body composition to either lower body fat or increase lean mass.

All foods have some impact on our hormone levels so it is important that we are aware of these impacts before we eat to make sure we are facilitating the desired response from our bodies. Otherwise we are basically reaching into a medicine cabinet and popping random pills.

Food As Fuel and Building Material (again)

Over the last few years I have had the good fortune of working with 100’s of different athletes of different ages, skill levels and stages in their athletic career. I have notice a number of things that are important but probably the one thing I have noticed that ALL successful high level athletes share is an understanding that food is fuel or building blocks and eating does not need to be an experience.

Personally, the switch flipped for my progress when I stopped regarding food as good or bad and instead choose to look at it as bricks, mortar or fuel. Once I stopped looking for experiences out of eating my progress accelerated dramatically – I remain lean all year round, continue to build muscle and have more energy now than I had when I was in my early and mid 20’s.

I have tried to impart this understanding onto ANYONE who is interested in getting more out of their bodies in terms of appearance or performance, but I’d venture a guess that longevity and quality could also be added to the list of things that will improve once someones relationship with food becomes realigned with reality. This understanding in not one that is easy to pass along and, frankly, getting someone to see food as something other than something that should be enjoyed is probably the most difficult task that a strength coach will have to perform as there is a lot of social inertia to overcome. Lets face it, our society treats food as a reward so the association of food and a positive experience is deeply ingrained in our brains.

ANYONE who has been able to overcome the food must be good belief has benefited from it tremendously. The body composition improvements lead to performance improvements which lead to confidence improvements. Without fail, correcting your understanding of what food actually means to you WILL make your life better. The simple act of making decisions that are based on reality will represent a significant movement towards self-awareness and self control. The inverse is also completely true, continuing to eat food for emotional / reward reasons will hold you back from complete self-awareness and optimal health.

Eat because you need to rebuild yourself out of the best quality materials and power your movement with the right fuel. Don’t eat because you like the taste of chocolate, cookies are an easy breakfast or because pizza tastes better than spinach. The easy way is rarely the successful way. If you want more out of your life, do what elite athletes do and eat mindfully.

If you have not yet read my first post about food = fuel and building material you should check it out.

What Phase Are You In?

Spend as much time in gyms as I do and one thing will become very clear to you, most people go to the gym without a clear purpose. There isn’t anything wrong with this – I’d sooner see people go to the gym for the sake of going than have them never go – but going to the gym without a purpose isn’t going to allow you to make the most of your time there.

The human body is an amazing thing with a fantastic ability to adapt to its environment; it takes an average person about 6-9 weeks adapt almost completely to an exercise program. For this reason, people need to approach their training or gym time in phases that have a distinct purpose and end goal. For example, many gym goers are there to drop a few pounds of fat and increase or tone muscle – basically, they want to look good naked. I think this is a fantastic goal because it is going to help someone feel better about themselves and it is going to improve the quality of their life significantly. The issue with it is that very often, trying to tackle two goals at once will prevent you from making much progress in either one.

For those individuals looking to lose body fat and increase or tone muscle I would suggest that they separate these two goals into distinct phases – one for fat loss and the other for muscle building or toning.

For example, the first 6 weeks are for fat burning and will consist of metabolic workouts aimed at increase calorie burning and cardiovascular fitness through the use of interval training. During this phase you may do 20-30 minutes of varied speed and resistance (or incline) running, cycling or elliptical machine 3-4 times per week along with some strength training – 1 or 2 full body workouts per week consisting of 1 or 2 sets of 8-10 reps per body part. Your diet will be modified and carbs will be reduced. After about 6 weeks, your body will have adapted to the workout and the reduced carb diet and you will move to the next phase with is for muscle growth.

The next 6-9 weeks will be for muscle development. During this phase you may do 3-4 full body workouts per week consisting of 3-4 sets per body part. The rep range will be different on each day and will range from 6-8, 9-12 and 12-15. The exercises will change every 3 weeks and you will lower the amount of cardio you perform. In some cases you will eliminate the cardio to allow your body to become de-conditioned to it so when you enter the 3rd phase, fat loss, you will find the movements taxing on your body again.

You will repeat this cycle of fat loss, muscle building over and over again until you achieve your fitness goals. The good thing about this approach is that you will rarely get stale or bored with what you are doing in the gym because it is changing constantly and when you start each phase, your body will be shocked into adapting to the new stimuli.

If this seems completely foreign to you or you do not know where to start, consider getting in touch with a good trainer to help you plan your workout phases.

Strength Training for Cyclists

As an avid mountain bike rider, I spend a lot of time on the trails. I try to do a couple of races each year – at the participant level vs. the competitive level – and train year round to make sure I don’t shame myself too badly when the gun goes off and there’s a mad frenzy of riders hammering to be the first into the single track. The racing is a lot more fun when you’ve put the time into the practice and training. In fact, while races are won on race day, I believe they are actually won during the off season, in the gym, lifting weights and building strength. There has been a dramatic improvement in my performance once I incorporated strength training for cycling into my year round program. Below are 7 strength movements that a cyclist should perform if they are to hit their peak performance level. Note that this is not a workout, it’s a list of exercises, recommended rep ranges and my rational as to why a cyclist should use them.

1) Bulgarian split squats. Similar to a back foot elevated static lunge except the focus is on moving forward and back vs. up and down. It’s a great movement because it works each leg equally. It focuses a lot on the VMO which is critical for both peddle force production and knee stability – remember, you are going to fall and usually the only thing saving you from hitting the ground is being able to quickly put your foot on the ground to catch yourself. Knee instability at this point is going to increase the chance of falling and injury to your knee. Having the back foot elevated recruits more of the hip flexor muscles which are critical for the knee drive that pulls the peddles from the bottom to the top.

I like to work with a rep range of 12-15 for this movement.

2) Bent over standing hamstring curls – the reason you are bent over is to mimic riding position so aim for 45 degrees of hip flexon. This movement is critical because many riders do not have good hamstring recruitment – in fact, most people do not. Unless someone is moving quickly, these muscles play a role in maintaining knee stability. The hamstrings are made up primarily of fast twitch fibers so you need to focus on explosive contractions and controlled eccentric phases. Given that half of the peddle stroke is made up of knee flexon, you will need to learn how to powerfully recruit the hamstrings if you are to generate the most amount of force.

I work with a rep range of 6-8 for this movement.

3) DB bench press. Strong pec and anterior deltoids muscles are critical for holding the upper body in the right position when riding the rough trails. This movement is good at building this type of strength.

I work with a rep range of 6-10 for this movement and will alter the angle of the bench to include decline and incline pressing.

4) Bent over pronated (palms away) BB row. With trail riding, you are going to have to pull the front wheel off of the ground to clear logs and other obstacles. To do this, you will need a considerable amount of back strength. Bent over rowing is ideal for developing this. It is also great because being bent over places the upper body in the same position it would be in when riding.

I work with a rep range of 8-12 for this movement.

5) BB squat (front and back). The BB squat is one of the best strength movements someone can perform because it recruits muscles from the entire body, particularly the legs and core. Squatting deep is a fantastic way to develop the strength of the VMO muscles and it’s one of the best ways to develop eccentric strength that is needed anytime you put your feet on the ground to catch yourself from falling.

I work in a variety of rep ranges for these movements. With front squats I’ll do 3-6 reps and with back squats the range will be between 2 and 25. I’ll never do front and back squats in the same workout and like to change them up to keep my body adapting to the different movements.

6) BB deadlifting. I perform this movement primarily to work the core, lower back and glutes, but is also works the legs and upper back so it is a fantastic way to develop full body strength. It is particularly good at teaching you to recruit your glutes as you drive your hips forward to complete the movement at the top. These muscles are particularly important for force production when standing and sprinting.

I work with a variety of rep ranges ranging from 2 to 20

7) Power cleans. This is a movement used to develop speed because it is extremely difficult to clean a weight slowly – it’s impossible to be completely honest. Hip drive is absolutely critical with this movement so it’s a fantastic way to train your glutes to contract quickly. It’s also a fantastic way to training the upper back muscles to be faster along with your legs given that you are lifting the weight of off the ground from a dead stop.

I work with a variety of rep ranges with this movement but do not go above 6 reps. The goal when performing power cleans it to make the bar move as quickly as possible. To ensure that it helps to build speed, it is critical that a set end as soon as the bar speed drops by 10%. While this may seem like a tough thing to figure-out, you can feel any slow down and catching the bar on your shoulders is really tough unless it’s moving quickly.

I encourage you to incorporate some of these movements into your strength training program if you are a cyclist. You will notice an improvement on the trails and you’ll be riding faster than you ever thought you could!

Food = Fuel and Building Material

When any of my clients ask me about changing their body composition the first thing I do is ask them about their relationship with food. What I’m looking for are their thoughts and feelings about eating, how food makes them feel and their motivation for eating. Depending on what is uncovered, the solution to their body composition concerns will be different. Below are some of the things that keep coming up when I talk to people about food.

Eating only when hungry. On the face of it, this approach seems like a good idea. However, it has one major drawback, it body doesn’t always tell you it needs food. For example, many people wake up not feeling hungry and skip breakfast because of it. They may even skip lunch for the same reason. The problem is that the body no longer needs to motivate you to eat because it has begun to use protein for sugar. This destroys muscle tissue, slows the metabolism and robs the immune system of the protein needed to keep it running smoothly. Later on in the day you will feel ravenous and overeat in response to this intense hunger but unless you wake-up and have breakfast the next morning, you are going to repeat the pattern, gaining fat and losing muscle everyday you allow your feelings of hunger to dictate when you eat. Eat breakfast EVERYDAY even if you don’t feel like it. Your body needs the food.

Convenience eaters. One client said that she only ate when she was hungry. I probed a little deeper and it became obvious that she is a convenience eater – she would eat whatever was right in front of her when the hunger started. She suffered from low energy in the morning and tended to eat high sugar foods around 3 PM every day. The solution we came up with was to replace the junk convenience foods with healthier options – she got rid of all the chocolates and candy in her office and now has almonds, fruit, and protein shakes. She also eats breakfast every morning REGARDLESS of her lack of hunger. Her lack of energy stemmed from a lack of fuel and now that she’s filling the tank first thing in the morning she is more alert and doesn’t find herself so hungry around 3 PM when she reaches for the more healthier snacks.

Carbs for energy with sedentary people. Another client tends to eat too many carbs because they say they are “needed for energy”. The problem is that this person is not very active and not active enough to burn off all the food they are bringing it. Their believe that carbs provide the body with energy is correct, but the amount of carbs one eats should be balanced by the amount of activity they perform. If there isn’t much activity one should limit their carb intake and use vegetable sources vs. refined grain and sugar products.

Fat avoiders. A common habit is to avoid fat as much as possible. This believe stems from the antiquated notion that fat makes people fat. The issue with this belief is that it is only true if one eats a lot of fat and too many carbs or eats too much in general. Your body uses fat for most of its activities. Other than high intensity movement and brain activity, both of which rely on sugar, the body is constantly using fat for energy. Keeping this in mind it’s clear that the need for sugar is reduced if one is not involved in high intensity movement. Since there’s a trend for very active people to be leaner, there’s a very good chance that you won’t be looking to alter your body composition if you need carbs because you’ll be active enough to burn whatever you are eating.

Carb avoiders. The inverse is also present – there are people who are carbophobic and will eat as few carbs as possible. This often presents a problem because many of these people are active and require sugar for fuel. By eliminating it, they are forcing their body to breakdown protein to generate sugar for intense movement. Often, the body will use muscle tissue as the protein source which will result in a reduction of lean body mass. This is not a good thing because gaining muscle is an active process requiring energy and time. When we use muscle for energy we are taking a step backwards in the body composition game. The key is to eat sufficient amounts of carbs to fuel the intense movements and to eat them surrounding the workouts. From my personal experiences, I have found that I can ride further and faster if I eat carbs before my rides and if I consume dextrose and whey during the ride. I also grow more when I consume dextrose and whey before and during my weight workouts. But if I have a huge feed of pasta on an off day, I get tired and probably fall asleep soon after.

Infrequent eater. Another approach is to eat large enough meals so that you only need 2 or 3 of them per day. This does help fight off hunger because large meals require more time to digest. However, the longer something stays in your stomach, the longer your body is going without the nutrients the meal provides. It is possible for someone to have lower blood sugar while having a full belly. Remember, food doesn’t impact the body until it leaves the stomach and begins to be absorbed into the blood stream in the intestines. Smaller meals that require less digestive time are better for body composition than larger meals that require a lot of work to break down.

Certain food avoiders / eating too much of one type of food. Many people eat the same foods day after day, rarely switching out foods or adding new ones. The problem with this approach to eating is that it boosts the chances of not getting all the nutrients your body needs. As much as I like my oatmeal, I NEED to eat blueberries every now and then to boost my antioxidant intake. However, if I ate nothing but blueberries I would suffer from low protein and likely end up getting sick. The main reason I hear for avoiding food or eating too much of one type is that of preference – “I don’t like blueberries” or “I like chicken”. While I can relate to liking particular foods, people who eat solely for enjoyment reasons need to adjust their thinking to regard food as fuel and building material.

Changing your body composition can be a challenge but by making a few changes in the way your approach and think about food will make this challenge a little less daunting:

  1. Food is fuel and building material for the body. It is fine to eat for enjoyment occasionally, but most of the time when you eat it is for nutrition.
  2. Eat breakfast EVERYDAY regardless of your hunger.
  3. Eat smaller meals every few hours.
  4. Eat only as many carbs as you need to fuel your activity level and eat them surrounding your activity.
  5. Surround yourself with healthy foods so when you get hungry you reach for them.
  6. 30% of your food calories should come from healthy fats. 0% should come from trans fat.
  7. Eat a variety of foods and try to eat seasonal foods from your geographic environment because they contain a lot of what is needed to thrive in your environment.

UPDATE – I took a second pass at this topic a few months later in the post titled Food As Fuel and Building Material (again).

Functional Training for New Strength Training Athletes

Functional training is taking the strength and conditioning world by storm for three very important reasons. First off, it’s fun. If you have never dragged a sled or flipped a tire, you don’t know what you are missing. It may sound kind of silly but the first time you get under a tire, drive your hips forward and heave it over you’ll know that you’ve found something that you’ll want to do again and again.

Next, there is less muscle soreness in the days following a functional workout vs. a traditional strength training workout using barbells, dumbbells and bands. The reason for this is that there is little or no eccentric contraction to most functional movements. The eccentric phase is the lengthening phase for a muscle – with a squat, it is the movement from the top to the bottom and this tends to be the phase that causes the most damage and subsequent pain. With functional movements, this phase is all but eliminated. For example, when dragging a sled, the load wants to stay still. No matter how much weight you put on it, it is never going to pull you backwards.  The same applies to tire flipping, sledgehammer swings and battle ropes – basically you are breaking inertia and that is it.

Finally, functional training gets you results that are useful in sport. Traditional BB and DB work makes an athlete stronger and they can then use this strength in their sport, but there isn’t a direct relationship between BB strength and skating for example –performing a dead lift will make someone much stronger but the strength they gain is general and needs to be assimilated in order for it to be put to use. Functional movements however more closely resemble the movements one performs during athletic competition. Sled drag crossovers, for example, will increase the strength of the muscles responsible for the crossover movement which will help to increase the power of this movement. Another great example would be Russian Boxes – two 35 degree ramps that slope towards each other. The action of jumping off of the outside leg from one box to the other is very similar to the skating motion. This functional movement is excellent for improving ones skating power.

Given these facts, I recommend functional training for everyone – from the young athlete to the older adult who is looking to keep their mobility into their later years, and everyone in between. In fact, I believe that functional training is particularly useful for those athletes who have never done any formal strength training before because they already have some experience with the movements – most sports have the athletes run, twist and jump and these are all facets of functional training – the learning curve for functional training is much shorter making these types of workouts production very quickly.

When functional workouts are paired with proper nutrition the results are fantastic! Body composition will improve dramatically as decreases in body fat are coupled with increases in lean body mass. On-field or on-ice performance will also improve dramatically as stronger leaner athletes are able to produce more relative force – this translates into harder hitting, higher jumping, and faster running or skating. Proper nutritional habits will fuel the body correctly meaning it can function optimally – higher sustained energy, higher force generation and quicker recovery from intense efforts.

If you have never done a functional workout before, you have no idea what you are missing!

Tri-sets – My Experiences

The most recent training method I used was tri-sets. This is a grouping of 3 exercises for the same body part, performed in sequence with 10 seconds rest between each exercise. Once the third exercise is completed, you wait between 2 and 3 minutes before moving on to the next tri-set or exercise. It’s an accumulation type method that boosts your work capacity while also increasing lactate tolerance to a small degree. It will make you grow but won’t really add much strength.

Exercise selections – with tri sets, you are moving from a weaker ROM to a stronger ROM for exercise 1 and 2. For example, incline press followed by flat or decline press, or incline DB curls followed by standing BB curls. You do this because it helps keep the load as high as possible for each exercises.

The third movement should be something that is significantly easier for new to moderate trainees or something that is tougher but with fewer reps or less weight for the advanced trainee. For example, trap bar deadlifts, DB split squat, hack squats as a beginner or intermediate tri-set and front squat, back squat, front squat for an advanced trainee. When the first and third exercise are the same, we call this a double tri-set and it tends to increase size gains over the traditional tri-set, but it has a much larger intensity cost and should only be performed by people who have the capacity to work that hard.

Some examples of what I did were, for back, lean back supinated chin-ups, neutral grip pull-ups, and lean back supinated chin-ups; wide grip pull-ups, mid neutral grip pull-ups and narrow grip supinated chin-ups; weighted pronated mid grip pull-ups, bend over DB row, standing rope to neck. For chest, 45 degree DB press, flat DB press, and 45 degree DB press; 70 DB press, 30 DB press, DB flies. For shoulders, seated military press, seated Arnold press, and medial DB laterals.

Tempo and timing – the goal is to get about 30-50 seconds of time under tension for each segment of the tri-set. When we include rest time we are looking at about 4:30 to 5:00 minutes of time for each tri-set. This means that you can train two body parts in about 30-40 minutes leaving enough time to do some accessory or structural balance work.

I’ve been doing tri-sets for about 4 weeks now and am getting ready to change things up again. My work capacity has definitely increased and I’ve been sore in the days following my workouts – an indication that my body is adapting to a new form of stimulation. It is a good method that I will come back to in a few months. It’s also a mentally challenging approach because the sets are so long – up to 2 minutes.

The main error people make when performing tri-sets is not adhering to the rest interval of 10 seconds between segments. There is a tendency to take longer and while I can understand why someone would, it lowers the effectiveness of this approach dramatically. Keep in mind that the 10 seconds is only long enough to move to the next exercise, it isn’t long enough to get a drink or have a conversation. But with 2-3 minutes rest between sets, you should have plenty of time to do all of those other things.

I have given it to some of my clients and they have experienced the same things I did – growth, pain and a boost in work capacity. Try it out if you are looking for a new challenge.

Another Case For HIIT

In the debate of steady state cardio vs. high intensity interval training (HIIT) I am torn. I hedge my bets by doing both; mainly because mountain bike riding and RPM are HIIT and road riding is more steady state cardio. But fence sitters tend to annoy binary thinkers so my lack of endorsement or a condemnation for one doesn’t sit well with many people. The long and the short of it is that the body will adapt to whatever you throw at it so you need to keep changing things up to make sure you are getting the full benefit from exercise.

But the evidence for in support of HIIT is starting to grow. Short Bursts Of Exercise May Fend Off Disease by the Globe And Mails Paul Taylor reports on a study that tested the impact of HIIT on insulin sensitivity.

The body releases insulin in response to an elevated blood sugar level and this hormone will help facilitate the transport of sugar into the body tissue (fat cells when the muscles do not need it or into the muscles when their levels are diminished. With people who have normal insulin sensitivity, the amount the body releases is appropriate and blood sugar returns to normal levels quickly. However, obese people and type II diabetics are not as sensitive to insulin so their blood sugar levels do not drop as quickly as they should so the body releases more insulin. Blood glucose in high levels is very damaging to the body so being insulin resistant is a long term health risk.

The study revealed that 4 blocks of 30 second intervals of high intensity effort followed by 4 minutes rest was enough to improve insulin sensitivity by 23% in health but sedentary males. These improvements were seen after two weeks of 2-3 sessions per week. The reason for the improvement is that the efforts were high enough to spend most of the stored glycogen in the muscles therefore increasing the need to sugar transfer into the muscles.

The author of the article draws some conclusions about HIIT being better than traditional gym work for lowering heart disease risk that may not be accurate given that insulin resistance is only one of the factors associated with heart disease. The conclusion also fails to consider the positive cardiovascular impact of longer duration exercise.

However, this study is good news for the pro HIIT crowd and anyone who has only less than 60 minutes to workout per week. And it’s more evidence for my belief that intensity is the key component to any exercise routine.

What People Want To Hear

After work on Thursday I met up with Travis who I used to work with at SST. He has started a personal training company call DNA Fitness based out of Burlington and has been interacting with other trainers who work with private clients. At SST we primarily worked with athletes who were driven to succeed but lacked the knowledge to create the right program to achieve optimal fitness. His new venture is different and he is starting to get exposure to the psychology of fitness.

“What do most people want out of a trainer?”

In most cases people who are not innately active want to hear that it isn’t their fault that they are out of shape. They want to be told that they are fine and that there is something unique about them that makes it impossible for them to stop eating unhealthy food, to start exercising and to get into better shape. For those who seem to love to exercise or tend to make more-healthy food choices the knowledge is there that they have control over these choices.

Let’s be honest here and say the way that someone looks is a reflection of their choices in almost every instance. Obese and unhealthy people do make the choice to eat poorly and move as little as possible. For them the realization that they have complete control over their choices has not yet been made. They are looking for validation that they are victims of something that is out of their control. In fairness this is a characteristic of most human beings, it just tends to manifest itself differently in people.

The toughest thing for a trainer to do with these types of clients is to teach them that it IS their fault that they look the way they do and to help them see that they CAN do something about it. Frankly, I found teaching this lesson to be one of the most draining things you can do because there is 10-40 years of thought inertia to overcome. It’s a task that is compounded in difficulty by the human tendency to seek out information that validates their belief and to outright disregard evidence to the contrary. Never underestimate the power of denial.

In most cases a doctor is a better person to teach an individual that their state of health is a result of their choices and too often it comes in the form of bad news – a test revealing cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or a heart attack. The news is a shock to them, but not necessarily a surprise.

What can a trainer do to help their clients hear what they don’t want to hear?

People learn better by doing, particularly when they are not open to learning; which is the case with people who hold victim beliefs about their fitness abilities. If a trainer can get a person moving and eating a little better, their client will notice some results. This is often enough evidence to help them see that they CAN do something about it because they HAVE done something about it.

Let the client know that human beings are 99.9% genetically identical. Since almost everyone has the same potential to achieve a certain level of fitness, by achieving it themselves, a trainer can effectively BE the proof that it can be done. I have found this to be one of the more effective ways to show people the light.

Let the client know that the body has a strong desire to keep doing what it has been doing and that as a part of the body, the brain is the same way. Thoughts are going to be sticky and it is going to require a lot of effort to change the thoughts and to change the behaviour. It could be months before they find working out to be a fun activity simply because they have found doing nothing to be a fun activity for so long.

I think Travis is going to do well with his new business because he is knowledgeable and because he cares about people. I have always known him to tell people the truth and not just tell them what they want to hear and these are the reasons why I would trust him to train my family.

What I Learned At SST – Part 2

Here is part two of the What I Learned At SST article – you can read part one here.

  1. GVT, GBC, and rest-pause. Taught well by Charles Poliquin, Larry passed along a few program pointers to me that made a world of difference in my body composition. German Volume Training, German Body Composition and rest-pause are a few of the methods that I was able to incorporate quickly. Basic GVT is 10 sets of 10 reps (or 10 sets of 8 or 6 reps with the same weight) super setted with antagonistic opposite movements. 10 sets of 10 is mentally draining because after 6 or 7 reps your mind is screaming “that’s about enough work for now”. GBC is lactate inducing workouts which are more metabolic and help to boost growth hormone – great for making you feel very sick. Rest pause is a 3 part set with 15 seconds of rest separating each of the 3 parts. The goal is to give your body enough recovery to allow for a few more reps. While not as mentally tough as 10 sets of 10, it is a fantastic method for boosting performance in the later sections of a climbing attack on the trail.
  2. How to dead-lift and squat. Probably the most important things I learned while at SST to be completely honest. My body grew once I started doing these movements consistently – not surprising given that they recruit more muscle than any other movements. There’s something special about driving from a deep squat to lock-out on rep 6 of what should have been a 5 rep set or pulling twice your body weight from the floor. These movements have given me a huge increase in strength for my standing attacks or climbing on the bike. Plus, it’s pretty sweet to actually know how to do them.
  3. Training should be cycled with the athlete increasing focus in one area of training while maintaining fitness in all other areas. Basically, if you train for strength from September to February spend some time maintaining your cardiovascular fitness and lactate tolerance.
  4. The enthusiasm of younger athletes is contagious. Most young people are not bitter and have not yet learned to be cynical towards the world. In fact, most of them haven’t realized that you can be anything but passionate towards the things you do. When you observe someone engage their work-out or their life with passion you cannot help yourself from adopting some of this passion. Any time my management role would start to get me down I would leave my desk and hit the floor to coach some of the athletes. Almost immediately my stress would be gone and I would be reminded why I took the job in the first place – because I want to see people achieve their potential. Without fail this would lift me up and allow me to focus on the important stuff.
  5. I am happier when I get evenings and the weekend off. I really do enjoy sleeping in, but it’s tough to get up and get your day going when you don’t have to start work until 11:30. I don’t sleep in until noon on weekend and seem to have accomplish more each day waking at 5:30 am vs. 10:30 am.
  6. Great people can make bad first impressions. Given that it was a great place to work, a lot of people applied to work there. I got to look at a lot of resumes and interview a number of different people. The best hire I made was Sean and, for one reason or another, his resume had spelling mistakes on it. I passed on it initially because it figured the spelling mistakes were an indication of how he would pay attention to detail. However, I ended up calling him, bringing him in for an interview and we hired him immediately. Sean turned out to be the best hire I made while I was there and he is a truly remarkable individual who pays special attention to needs of the athletes. How he is in real life is nothing like how I thought he would be, but given that his first impression was made with a resume with spelling mistakes I made the same call that most other people would. Looking back I’m really glad I didn’t hold onto this judgement too strongly.
  7. Hamstring and rotator cuff muscles are primarily fast twitch fibers and should be trained accordingly. For these muscles I rarely take the reps above 10 and usually keep the sets around 8 reps. My cycling pedal stroke changed when I learned that hamstrings are fast twitch. When I stand-up and ride, I try to use my quads, glutes and hip flexors to push and pull and I move between 60 and 80 RPMs. When I am sitting on the saddle the pedal rate is faster – around 75 – 100 –  and I focus on tightening my core to stabilize my hips. The end result is that I really feel the hamstrings working when the RPMs go above 80 and this takes some of the focus off of my quads. Since I didn’t train rotator cuff muscles before I started working at SST, learning that they are fast twitch didn’t have any practical impact on the way I trained them; I just started training them.

SST is a fantastic place to work and those who put in the time to learn while they are there DO learn a lot. It’s a tough job but the environment is conducive to self-improvement if you’re willing and able to invest in yourself. I was lucky to have had the opportunity to work with so many dedicated athletes and hard working strength coaches, and of course Larry, Laura, Jermane and Grant.