Better Boot Camp!

Boot camp exercise classes are popping up all over the place. All anyone needs to run one is space for x amount of people, and perhaps some exercise tools. At Back2Health, we've come up with the better boot camp.

Our clients are already used to training hard, and training safely (i.e., no ballistic movement, attention to breathing and posture during exercise, etc.). But what they aren't used to is performing in front of up to 4 other trainees, and moving between multiple stations with guidance from fitness professionals at each.

This supervision is not to be overlooked - it is impossible for one trainer to correct and teach more than one person at a time, and the risk of injury is too great for Craig and I to 'let things slide'. Additionally, training in front of more people, and with the feeling of them pushing you along can add a 'fun' element to things, without veering from 'productive'.

So while still early, we think we've stumbled upon something here with these boot camp circuit sessions. Additionally, we think the program has room to grow, with an additional and different session during the week. More to follow...

Damage Control?

So you were feeling pretty good heading into the holiday weekend with regard to appearance: Abs showing some or a lot of delineation, muscles feeling full and hard - in effect, you were looking 'tight' and proud of it. Now, after a long weekend of eating and (probably) drinking, you feel like a bloated cow and are scared to step on the scale or look at your midsection in the mirror.

Well, then don't step on the scale, and don't look in the mirror. Just by getting back on track this week with regularly scheduled workouts and eating habits, all of that 'damage' you think you did this weekend will be reversed. It's been discussed before both in this blog and within the Back2Health newsletter, but bears repeating: the body is very dynamic. It can swing seemingly in the wrong direction for a few hours or days, and then all of a sudden you'll feel and look great again. And, conversely, you can eat a huge 'junk' meal and then a few hours later look better than earlier in the day...but 2-3 of those meals either during the same day or over several leave you in bloat-world again.

So while I try not to give specific advice to anyone that I'm not directly working with, generally speaking the following steps will help bring you right back to where you were - if not improve on appearance due to the metabolic shock of a few days of excess calories:

1. Drink as much water as you can for a few days; this will flush out the system of excess sodium as a result of increased food/drink, which also means that excess water will be released. Hence, no more 'bloated' feeling.
2. Get right back onto your 'regular' eating; no need to diet super hard and deprave yourself of needed calories.
   
3. Get right back into your 'regular' workout schedule. If you train with us, that's 1-3 intense resistance training sessions per week.
   

By week's end, if you follow the above steps, I'll pretty much guarantee that you'll be back to where you stood before the holiday weekend took it's toll.

The Return of the Dreaded Sciatica!*

*The title to this particular blog posting is the title of the email from the client discussed below, received this week.

We had a client return for our services today, after approximately 3 mos. without MedX exposure. He stopped, simply enough, because the sciatica that he had been suffering from due to disc herniation was no longer present.

Since the reduction in pain was the primary reason for starting MedX treatment, I'm not surprised he stopped once feeling well. But, as we've discovered, often times it's not wise to terminate MedX sessions completely after the initial 12-16 weeks. This is because there is, like any other muscle/muscle group, a 'use it or lose it' effect. Train your biceps hard, and they will become larger and stronger to whatever genetically mediated degree possible. The same thing happens with the muscles of the lower back - BUT, and this is a big but - these particular muscles tend to hold strength longer once gained.

In other words, one may find that taking two weeks off from biceps training leads to a slight loss of muscular size and hardness. With regard to the lumbar muscles, this 'loss' is less noticeable when following a period of intense strengthening. In this particular client's case, it lasted about 3 months before he noticed a return of discomfort.

Our goal at Back2Health: Spinal Fitness is to reduce lower back/neck pain as quickly as possible for every client. What this means for most clients is about a 12-16 week commitment to regular, once-weekly sessions using the MedX equipment. After this, however, we recommend a less frequent maintenance program for each individual to keep the pain at bay. Whether this means every other week or once per month is to be determined based on how the client feels. But that would certainly be better than pushing hard for 12 weeks to get rid of pain, taking 2 months off and having pain return, and then needing to go through another intensive 12 weeks of MedX treatment. The goal should be to do as little as necessary to elicit the ideal response.

Media Rant

I've just about had it with trying to get the word out regarding the efficacy of MedX spinal exercise to the media. A few publications have allowed me to mention MedX in particular (one regarding police officer back pain, and the other dealing with back pain in nurses), but mostly I'm asked to remove any/all vendor names. It's a bit difficult to explain why MedX is the best at what it does without actually mentioning the name. That would be like discussing the merits of an excavation company that has the only backhoe in the region - with everyone else limited to shovels - by saying the company uses 'tools'. Could mean shovels, bare hands, or a backhoe - the reader/listener will never know.

WCVB-5's Chronicle television show was approached via a connection within, but they would only consider doing a story on reducing back/neck pain if other options besides MedX were considered as well. In other words, the story would have to present multiple approaches, and all purportedly of equal value.

No thanks. You can keep your shovel - I've got my backhoe...

As Expected...

After last week's 'off' chest workout, yesterday's session for that body part was ideal. Great mind-muscle connection, crisp contractions, and (perhaps resulting from the lackluster previous workout) excellent arousal during the session led to a fantastic pump and deep fatigue. 24 hours later and my pecs are sore and full. Unless future chest workouts are a struggle, and not simply the odd session here and there, there is no concern (i.e., overtraining, injury, etc.).

It's also interesting to note, although no surprise to this author, that one bad workout didn't ruin the appearance of the muscle in question. Often times trainees treat their sessions in a do-or-die fashion, which is good for arousal and motivation, but if things don't work as planned, that doesn't mean one's physique will fall apart. Most people that train hard, and have at least a few months of such training behind them could stop completely and notice little loss of 'appearance' over at least a few weeks.

Reasons for Bad Workout

Surprisingly, I had a bad chest workout today. This is usually the easiest body part to pump and fatigue, and rarely do I suffer from the muscular 'disconnect' that occurred this afternoon.

As strange as it may sound, I almost felt non-recovered from a full body session last Thursday. Only two exercises were attempted on that day, performed in modified Monster Zone fashion (i.e., not as strenuous due to longer rests between mini-sets, and less regard for completely even fatigue throughout exercise range of motion). Decent pump that day, but nothing fantastic.

Today, three exercises were chosen that usually lead to what I like to call a 'crisp' connection, where its easy to really groove each repetition and dig deep into the target area. In other words, everything usually seems to click. But today, everything felt off; coordination, connection, and then frustration when the first two were noted to be off.

About a minute after each set, a decent pump was noted, but not the usually full and round pectorals that I've noted since implementing the Zone Training method first 3 years ago. About 7 hours later at the time of this writing, some of the usual post-workout fullness is still there, but again not as much as typical. Following chest, shoulders were a little better, but things didn't really click until triceps at the end of session. Appearance immediately after was of somewhat deflated pecs and shoulders, and nicely pumped and hard triceps.

Curious to see what happens with next two days' workouts (different body parts). Will those also suffer as chest (and to a lesser degree delts) did today? Also, due to unusual split, these body parts won't be trained again for 9 days (vs. usual every 7th day). Finally, I haven't been super hungry last 2 days after eating a lot Saturday afternoon/evening (social event). Doubtful that lack of calories in last few days had much to do with things, but interesting to note nonetheless.

Hunger

Something I've noticed in years past, and already noticing this year is that by paying close attention to hunger I can manipulate appearance for the better. By that, I mean that in cases such as currently where I'm eating clean and with moderate caloric intake - but then note being ravenously hungry on certain days - it is actually beneficial to eat a bit more food on those days. In the past, and so far this year, this has occurred on workout days, particularly where 2-3 consecutive days' workouts have occurred - or the day after my 3rd workout.

In every case where I have noticed this pattern emerging, I've looked better (fuller, harder, and leaner) in the days following such an increase in caloric intake.

The Body Dynamic

Strange how dynamic the body is. Last night after dinner, I felt and looked as tight as I have since last summer. In fact, I almost felt beach ready, i.e., plenty of abdominal definition, not much to pinch around love handles, and a hardness of muscularity that I haven't noted yet this spring. This afternoon, immediately after workout, I felt less lean - and 'flat' even though pretty well pumped from workout.

I suspect, that in the next 24-48 hours much of what I'm noticing in a negative light will reverse. But it is interesting that one can look and feel great one day and then like crap the next, particularly when diet and exercise remain pretty much constant.

Diet

In a similar 'step up' fashion to my workouts, my diet is coming around as well. 3-4 feedings per day have consisted of the Nano products made by BioPharma Scientific , along with a breakfast and a dinner of whatever I feel like consuming as bookends around the Nano shakes. Without focusing on appearance, this has allowed room for pancakes and waffles in the morning, and pizza/beer/etc. at night. Certainly not every day has included these food choices, but perhaps half. And even though those aren't ideal food choices for health or appearance, the Nano products are so nutritious and low in calories that I haven't added as much body fat as in recent winters.

Because the meals between breakfast and dinner are ideal, there isn't much to focus on besides cleaning up those two feedings. Instead of going all out at first, I've removed some junk foods (beer, pizza), while still including some others (pancakes, pasta). One could look at this as though there are various 'grades' of food quality - carbs specifically - and I'm gradually bringing up my individual grades and subsequent GPA.

Keeping in mind this 'GPA' concept, one could look at each meal individually and say that pancakes 4 mornings per week would lead to a higher grade for meal #1 than eating them 7 days per week - all other meals being equal. Old fashioned oatmeal is certainly a better choice than the refined carbs in pancakes/waffles, so again this would bring my grade up. At the moment, oatmeal is probably ingested 3-4 days per week, while eventually it will be consumed most likely every day. I suppose this GPA concept is similar to Weight Watchers, where points are attached to individual food choices and the sum is then viewed as being ideal or not. However I have no experience with this method, so I cannot say for sure.

A note on carbs: they aren't all bad and if one wants to look one's best they need to be included in some manner - particularly those that take a while to digest (oatmeal, sweet potato). Bodybuilders seem to get this better than those low carb advocates that are simply focusing on weight loss. The quantity/quality of them, i.e., Whether carbs are included in the first one or two meals of each day and/or after an intense workout (I think this is absolutely necessary) is up to the individual to decide; not from a book, not from this blog, etc.

To quote Brian D. Johnston, president of the International Association of Resistance Trainers (IART): You will find, as a result of the Principle of Individualism, that few people will be able to direct you properly... if at all. This is what you want to consider when it comes to training or nutrition: take the idea of what is proposed and play around with it. Do NOT try to follow the idea specifically unless you want to do so for a short time. Manipulate it and watch how your body responds. Do NOT wait for someone to give you an answer as to how to manipulate it since that person cannot know your body and its reactions anywhere near what you can. (1)

Moving back on track, my progress has been noticeable, but nothing dramatic. More delineation in the upper and middle abdominal region, while the lower ab area and ring around my waist still allow me to pinch more than I would like to see in a bathing suit. That is always the last spot to go, and to reiterate my goals, I'm hoping I can work around it this year without looking too stringy - but to do so will take some ingenuity to 'trick' my body into dropping body fat and not muscle.


(1) http://discussionboard.teamhitonline.com/user/Discussion.aspx?id=158129

A little background on my workouts

For the past 2.5 months (since Xmas, really) I've been alternating one week consisting of one full body workout, with another week consisting of a three-way split. Part of this was due to the lack of desire to train hard around the holidays, while also seeing this as a way to back off the demands somewhat and ideally not lose much in the appearance department. So far so good, but there is absolutely a difference in fullness/hardness during the weekends following the higher volume weeks.

The single session usually occurs on Thursday simply due to scheduling ease, while the three weekly workouts are performed on Tues/Wed/Thurs. In years past I've always left a day between each session (i.e., Mon/Wed/Fri) for 'recovery', but in talking with a few others that have attempted training three days in a row, the metabolic effect seems to be better. That is, there's not an 'up-down-up-down' effect, instead a continual climb ('up-up-up') before dropping off. I'm still getting four days off each week - certainly enough for optimal recovery, and particularly with an 'easier' schedule every other week.

Moving toward my goals outlined in the previous post, total workout volume will increase - but not via more exercise during each session. Instead, two consecutive weeks of three workouts will be incoroporated for every week of one workout. This will last approximately 6 weeks (2 cycles of 2:1), followed by another increase to three consecutive weeks of three workouts for every week of one workout (2 cycles of 3:1). Unless something goes wrong, I expect that I will be able to then move to three workouts each week through mid-July (6+ continuous weeks).

The goal with each workout within the three-way split is maximum pump of the target area in minimal time. At this point I have a good idea of what that will entail, but of course things don't go as planned every time so adjustments can be made on the fly. For example, 3 exercises performed Zone Monster Set style for chest pump that area maximally 90% of the time. If during the other 10% something doesn't click, and an additional exercise needs to be added, so be it. But each body part of each workout needs to reach that goal before terminating the session. During full body workouts, one set per body part (9-10 exercises) will suffice.

Summer's not too far away...

So it's time to start thinking of bathing suit weather. And with that comes bathing suit appearance considerations. As was discussed in our newsletter (March '09), everybody starts this process at different points relative to 'peak condition'. I gauge three things:

1. Maximum abdominal delineation (i.e., six-pack)
   
2. Minimum love handle/skin pinch from bathing suit
3. Achievement of #'s 1 and 2 without too much of a loss of muscular hardness and fullness

Number 3 is the hardest for me to balance, while the first two are relatively easy to accomplish - particularly if paying no heed to number 3. What tends to happen is I become very lean, but then suddenly I seem to 'shrink' with regard to muscularity. This summer I'd like to be better prepared with regard to this aspect - in effect 'staying ahead' of the curve. More on this as the weeks mount and I come closer and closer to the appearance I want.

So this blog space will detail the steps taken during the next 3+ months leading up to my birthday (June 20th). Every few weeks - or more frequently if something pops up that's worth documenting - I'll note where I stand relative to my goals. I think I can upload some pics along the way as well, provided my ancient digital camera still works...

Crunchless Abs

Had a good laugh when this informercial came on the other night:  

For fun, and since I'm in the mood to tear apart some junk-science (instead of turning the blind eye that I was so well versed in from years of health club employment), let's break down some of the 'wisdom' on the above linked website.  

Developed by noted fitness expert (name withheld), her unique exercise method focuses on each core muscle like a laser, targeting your upper abs, those hard to reach deep lower abs, your left and right side obliques, and wrapping all the way around to your lower back.

• Unique exercise method? Looks like a combination of pilates and aerobics classes to me.  What comes around goes around...just steal it from someone and re-brand it - great!  
  
• Targets the upper abs and lower abs? Sounds like crunches...left and right obliques? Sounds like crunching/twisting movements. Lower back? HA! Good luck without pelvic stabilization.  

Best of all, you won't be doing hundreds of crunches, because now you can workout with the new 
Crunch Free Abs™ method. Just spend 10 Minutes a Day to sculpt those firm, rock hard abs you've always wanted.

• I'm all for not doing hundreds of crunches, as it's possible to target the area effectively with whatever medium chosen (crunch, machine/cable flexion, etc.) in a much more efficient way.  
• Ignoring the appeal to emotion at the end of the last sentence, 10 minutes per day?  How about once, maybe twice per week? How easy are these workouts that they can be completed multiple times per week?  One set on our MedX Ab Isolator makes me concurrently want to vomit and never train abs again.  One set less than once per week.  So probably 10 minutes per year... :)

Our abdominal core is an amazing anatomical composition of 12 muscles that wrap around us like a girdle and when properly trained, holds our midsection in flat and tight. However, recent research shows that standard floor crunches train only 2 of these critically important core muscles.

• No debating the physiology outlined above.  And certainly crunches do not target the entire 'core', as it's become trendy to label the muscles that support the spine along the midsection...as this fitness expert so wisely points out next:

"I see it all the time, especially in women who often have that lower pooch sag. Regular crunches just don't target all of the muscles in your core. Targeting your entire core requires a new way of thinking; a new way of exercising that doesn't involve crunches." - Fitness Expert

• Lower pooch sag? Exercise can only do so much - particularly when most attempts at fixing the problems fail.  Example: when reminded to 'pull the bellybutton into the spine' during ab exercises, an individual will notice a distinctly higher quality of contraction.  How many are aware of this?
• Targeting the entire core requires a new way of thinking? What, like evading reality and making up stuff? Seems to works for the government, so why not the exercise and rehab industry?

Look, this is simple stuff.  In order for the abdominals to contract, the spine must flex to some degree.  The greater the flexion, the higher the degree of contraction (particularly if the hip flexors are neutralized).  In other words, one must CRUNCH.  Looking at the positions these models assume during the informercial, spinal flexion is occurring - they are crunching! Just not performing traditional floor crunches...they apparently like to assume awkward positions and distract the viewer with silly hand and leg movements.  Hey, everyone needs a hobby.

In order for the obliques to contract, one must rotate the torso - preferably while having the hips locked (to prevent further movement via the hips and unload the obliques).

In order for the lower back to work through it's full ROM (72-degrees), once again the hips must be neutralized (to prevent the stronger hips and thighs from dominating the movement).  

All these things are possible via the MedX Core line of equipment at Back2Health: Spinal Fitness.  In addition, we can strengthen your neck to better withstand everything from computer work to a car accident - and all in about 10 minutes per week.

Finally, if you wish to see your abs, you need to eat appropriately.  Perhaps extra activity is necessary as well in moderation - assuming one is already performing challenging resistance training 2-3 times per week.