I can’t stress forcefully enough how important the program:
The Weight of the Nation on HBO is. If you’re at all interested in learning about this issue, you need to watch this.
Category: education
Butter is Healthy: 5 Fat-free Food Lies that Made You a Butter-hater! | Nick Tumminello Hybrid Strength Training & Conditioning | Ft.Lauderdale Personal Trainer | Sports Performance & Bodybuilding
No Butts About It! This guy is good.
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Results Orientated Training: the novice in the gym
There are many variables for a beginner to think through when deciding how to start a training program in a gym setting.
The first thing a beginner needs to do (in reality, everyone needs to do this) is decide on a clear idea of what they want to accomplish. Need to lose weight? Build a little muscle? Are you training for something specific, like a New Years resolution to run the NYC Marathon this year? Have you decided to take up a sport or activity like tennis or cycling? All of these considerations need to be taken into account if you intend on actually accomplishing anything in a reasonable amount of time.
For the teenager and young adult, it tends to be mostly about aesthetics and social mingling…wanting to look better and meet people. For the 30’s-50’s somethings it tends to be some combination of aesthetics, mingling, specific training for a new hobby like tennis, and physical health. And once we hit the 60+ category, health tends to take paramountcy, though aesthetics almost always remain in the background. Humans never seem to stop wanting to look better… Keep in mind that there is constant debate among “experts” as to proper protocols and where to focus your beginning efforts. The main thing to remember is that as a beginner you need to develop a foundation of general fitness, as I’m assuming you’re starting from scratch, out of shape, and in a state of complete “de-conditioning”. That means you need to develop a baseline of aerobic fitness (think endurance), and musculoskeletal strength and coordination.
Many trainers will argue that you should start on exercise bikes or elliptical trainers and weight lifting machines, as these pose the lowest risk of accidental injury. I cannot agree with the latter. Weight lifting machines are important tools, but they do nothing to train foundational core coordination among all the normal musculoskeletal interactions that occur in real life movements. They are safer to do in the gym (from the health club’s liability perspective), but many experts (myself included) would argue that learning and depending on machines in the beginning leaves you more vulnerable to injury in real world situations because you don’t learn how to coordinate you body movements and your muscular system when you need to do some actual pushing or pulling. If you don’t know what your doing, hire a good trainer for a few lessons. It doesn’t have to be a long-term commitment if your goal is to learn how to do a few exercises correctly. If you make it a priority, almost anyone can afford 3 or 4 hours of proper instruction.
Also, if you have any pre-existing medical conditions or are starting out in your 40’s or older you should get yourself a good medical check up first. So let me take you through some exercise recommendations for the novice. Commit to 45 minutes/day, 4 times a week. And Don’t tell me you can’t fit that in, cause my bullshit detector will go off. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired after work, or a have a little muscular soreness from a previous workout at this level. Just show up and do the best you can. Any four days will do. Stick to this order. Follow this routine for 4-6 weeks. Don’t get fancy. Don’t improvise. And make sure you eat properly with quality proteins, carbs and unsaturated fats. If you’re trying to lose fat weight, cut down on portion sizes. If you’re trying to build and gain muscle weight, add 1 or two high quality small meals to your day. That’s it. No magic formulas.
- Day one: bike or elliptical for 45 minutes. At level one, get your rpm (bike) or strides per minute (spm; elliptical) to about 80. Stay there for 10 minutes, then gradually begin increasing the level of difficulty by one, every 60-120 seconds (resistance or level) while maintaining a steady 80 rpm/spm. When you start huffing and puffing in order to continue, reduce your resistance down to a more comfortable level (not necessarily all the way down to 1 again) until your breathing becomes almost comfortable and your legs stop burning. Then repeat the process. Do this as many times as you can fit in for 30 minutes, then spend the last 5 minutes cooling down at level 1 at a slower speed. Done. Please read my blog posts on intensity, before starting this workout, here, and also here.
- Day two: Hit the weights. Start with Dumbbell Squats. You won’t know how heavy to go because you’re a beginner, so do a warm up set of 10 reps and see how hard it is to finish. If it feels less than a moderately intense effort; 7/10 on a ten point scale; then grab a set of light dumbbells and try again after resting 60-90 seconds. Keep trying until you determine that correct starting weights to use. Then do 3 sets of 10 reps with 60-90 seconds rest between each set. If you don’t know proper form, find a bench or low medium platform and sit on the edge of it while holding your weights. sit with good posture, then stand up strongly, slowly returning to the sitting position on the edge, without relaxing completely, and repeat. You are doing a “box” squat and all you need to do is remove the “box” when you get used to the movement pattern.
Push ups come next. Do a warm up set of 6-10 reps, rest for 60-90 seconds, then try to complete 3 more sets, 10 reps (or as many as you can finish if you can’t finish 10) each, with 60-90 seconds rest in between each set. Push ups can be done modified (on knees) if proper form cannot be maintained.
Next up are Lat Pulls . Since a 1st timer won’t know how much weight they can pull, the first set is an experiment. If you’re a male, try loading 50% of your body weight; if female try 30%. Attempt to complete 10 reps. If you cannot, make it slightly easier and try again after resting 90 seconds. If you completed 10 reps, and could have continued to do more, make it slightly harder, so that 10 reps becomes a real challenge (see this link on intensity). Do three fairly intense sets (7/10 perceived exertion), 10 reps each.
Now it’s time for dumbbell shoulder presses. Like all the others, you first need to determine how heavy your dumbbells need to be. The same intensity rules apply. If you’re female, grab a pair of 7.5 or 8 lb. dumbbells, a male should grab a pair of 10-15 lb. dumbbells. Try to do 10 reps. match the weight and the reps to the desired 7/10 intensity, and make any weight adjustments (up or down) you need to in order to get the proper workout. complete 3 sets, 10 reps each, once the correct weight has been determined. This exercise can be done seated or standing, but avoid supporting you back against anything, if possible. Doing it without back support will enhance abdominal conditioning as well as the other associated muscles of the core.
That is the whole weight lifting workout. Every major muscle of your body has been stimulated to adapt and get stronger. Once you’ve really learned it it won’t take more than 30 minutes to complete. If you have energy left at the end, hop on an elliptical, bike, or treadmill and move at a moderate pace for an additional 15 minutes to get a little extra calorie burn and endurance training.
- Day three repeats day 1
- Day 4 repeats day two
Always remember to follow the intensity rules I’ve laid out in my previous blog posts (linked above, and here, here and here), for both weight training and cardio/aerobics training during the 4-6 weeks you will follow this beginner routine.
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Results oriented training part 2: In The Beginning
The most important things you can do to ensure your children grow up with the best chances for future physical fitness are:
1. Let your infants crawl as much as possible. Crawling is one of the most necessary elements to develop neuromuscular coordination and proprioception. Do not try to force your child to walk sooner than necessary. They will get up when they’re good and ready. Remember, the vast majority of their future life will be spent sitting down, so let them develop those muscles and coordination skills early and innately.
2. Encourage any natural inclinations for athletic activity, matching your level of encouragement to their personal inclination; do not try to enforce your higher enthusiasm or desire beyond their own. This will lead to resentment, rebellion, and eventual refusal to participate.
Most children will enjoy sports if given the chance and proper encouragement; minus the unrealistic expectations of adults. But some will absolutely abhor them, simply because they are so dis-inclined of those natural gifts that make anything we do joyful. I never liked math, and avoided studying something that seemed so alien to me, while literature and history was engulfed by my mind. Why is this concept easy to understand while the physical equivalent is somehow so difficult? I was always a good enough athlete that I enjoyed overcompensating for whatever physical gifts I lacked. But most children never will like participating. It will be emotionally painful and physically uncomfortable. That’s reality, as is occasionally failing at things and not doing well at more things. Understand that creating the right environment using yourself as an early role model is no different that a child growing up watching their parents read a lot. Those children are far more likely to become readers themselves, though they are unlikely to ever become Ernest Hemingway.
3. Be as fit as possible, yourself, and be seen enjoying fitness related activities as your children grow up. You want to maximize your chances of having an overweight child who develops adult onset diabetes at 11 years? Be unfit and disdainful of physical activities yourself.
4. You will never be able to eliminate junk food completely, so be wise. “Junk” foods are treats, and should not be allowed in uncontrolled portions. Don’t leave them around in easy access. A treat isn’t a treat if it’s normally accessible.
The next post will take us into the ages most commonly found in gyms and health clubs.
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Developing a bullshit detector
This blog post has nothing to do with exercise and fitness, directly, but has everything to do with critical thinking, the nature of pseudoscience (and that pervades my industry), and how easily under and mis-educated people can be fooled into believing almost anything.
Read it, even if you believe, and think about why you believe so much that you know can’t possibly be true.
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My training philosophy
People always ask me what training style I follow. My answer usually perplexes them…
“I’m not a yeller”, I might say, (my spinning adherents might disagree, but that’s a different environment).
“Whatever seems to suit your needs, if it’s within me”, is another common answer I give.
Or, “observational and fact based training”.
None of these answers is satisfying for most prospective clients. That want to know what kind of “system” I adhere to.
One certifying body; NASM (national academy of sports medicine) has actually created a rigid model they expect all trainers to conform to, and all trainees to accept. They are ridiculous, and their concept is ludicrous. That’s fodder for another posting.
Nick Tumonello, a fitness educator, has posted on his blog 7 tips from Bruce Lee that will make you a better trainer. These words of wisdom from the late martial arts master cut to the chase of my philosophical beliefs when it comes to training, and most other aspects of daily life. Click this to read more.
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Leg press: yay or nay
The fitness industry is a cross current of trends, scams, and classicists who stick to tried and true methods. The “experts” are constantly re-evaluating what exercises you should, and shouldn’t do, labeling the “bad” ones as non-functional and contraindicated.
It’s almost always bull. Here’s a great posting from a great fitness educator, about the leg press machine:
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/is_the_leg_press_worthless
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Results Oriented (Purposeful) Training
Over the years I’ve been asked to train people for almost every conceivable reason, but in general, most seem to fall into the following categories. I plan on spending the next few weeks writing a post/week about each of the following topics with sample routines, that can be followed by those of you without access to me. In the near future, I hope to be able to offer enhanced services, including personal, customized training routines for a nominal fee to individuals who are geographically, or otherwise incapable, of meeting with me in person. Until then, the sample routines that will be posted in the next few weeks can be used and adapted as you all see fit. Keep in mind, that you need to make sure you know how to perform each exercise movement properly. The site ExRx is an excellent resource and has free to view video of most common exercises being performed properly.
The general main categories, and sub categories, as I see it:
1) General health and fitness for the sedentary person: novice
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Youth
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Young adult
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Middle age
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Senior
2) Total Body Conditioning: intermediate to advanced
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Cardiovascular and musculoskeletal fitness
3) Body shaping: beginner to the advanced
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Weight loss
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Toning and Body Sculpting
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Body building
4) Power and strength training: advanced
5) Athletic performance: advanced, sports specific and functional training
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endurance
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Strength
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Speed
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Agility
Feel free to comment on the categories, and let me know if you feel I’ve left any out, or why you might not fit into any of the above. If I agree, I’ll update my categories, or explain why I disagree. Keep reading!
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Exercise Science? part 2
Science is a rigorous, no-nonsense, discipline. A few months ago, a research team of physicists at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland reported that they had measured and recorded subatomic particles that traveled faster than the speed of light. This is the most revolutionary discovery in the history of modern physics. It completely destroys Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity and undermines the whole scientific consensus of how the universe works. The reaction of the scientific community was immediate and visceral: “hmm, that’s interesting. Lets double-check that.” “I wonder where they made their mistake? Lets check it out”. Even the CERN scientist who recorded this potentially revolutionary finding wondered: “I wondered what we did wrong?” Every real scientist would love to be the one that upend Einstein, just like Einstein overturned Newton. But no real scientist is going to base their reputation on 1 study that has not been independently verified multiple times. Not even if its their own study. That’s science. That’s integrity. That’s truth.
The world of exercise science is nothing but bogus hucksterism: verb [ with obj. ]promote or sell (something, typically a product of questionable value). Popular experts are dangerous people, selling opinions and personal preferences as facts, when their not trying to sell you a product they don’t even believe in. That’s the nature of the “fitness world”.
One of this blogs followers; Mia; asked me about another blog she read. I will not link to it, because it is terrible. The author, Kassem Hanson is a personal trainer, a disciple of Charles Poliquin (an expert I formerly admired until I read this garbage). The article talks about getting “skinny fat” and how certain exercise activities, like Spinning, can cause you to develop “cottage cheese thighs”.
I’m so tired of this. This Kassem Hanson, if his bio is to be believed, ought to be an expert that I could quote, not waste time refuting. He claims to have a BS in Exercise Science, BA Biochemistry and Molecular Biology – Cornell
BA Biology – Cornell. A google search seems to indicate he went to Cornell College, in Iowa, not the Ivy League University in NY. The fact that he intentionally leaves this vague indicates he wants you to assume the Ivy League connection. Not that there is anything wrong with the similarly named college. I don’t even have a degree in an exercise related field, which is why I would expect more from him. And I am disappointed.
Let me be clear. Not a single, reputable, scientifically based research study has shown spot reduction to be anything but a myth. The American Council of Exercise (ACE), The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), The International Sports Science Association (ISSA), the National Association of Sports Medicine (NASM), and every other accredited personal training certifying body, as well as the National Institute of Health (NIH), all link to thousands of articles, research papers, and position papers giving the evidence against spot reduction of fat. The inverse is equally true. No activity can cause fat to specifically form in one area of the body over another, The simple fact is that body fat accumulation is mostly genetically determined. Again, the scientific evidence is overwhelming! Hanson, and apparently Poliquin, are basing their opinion on a lone Danish study from 2007 that was never peer-reviewed or duplicated independently. That such a study was done at all, and got published somewhere, doesn’t surprise me and was discussed in part one. That Hanson and Poliquin would tout this and base their entire training philosophy around a single dubious study goes more to show their personal exercise preferences and bias than their commitment to exercise truth.
They misinterpret what Spinning is, and even say that “indoor cycling” is a better choice because it incorporates anaerobic high intensity intervals. Uhhh, excuse me…Spinning is the original “indoor cycling program” and includes as part of its standard protocol anaerobic high intensity intervals, though there’s no guarantee in any program that the instructor truly understands or incorporates these principles, or that every participant follows those instructions.
He goes on to make other comments on the subject of things that will make you “skinny fat” mixing myths and facts indiscriminately, showing a tremendous lack of judgement. For instance, he says that eating a vegan diet will make you “skinny fat”. I know of at least 4 professional body builders who are Vegan, and I have friends who are vegan. The body builders look like body builders. And my friends run the gamut of fit, fat, “skinny fat” and powerful. No I don’t personally advocate the Vegan diet because it is it is way more complex to insure that the individual consumes adequate complete proteins, but properly done, it can be just as healthy as a meat inclusive diet, for most people. Please remember, that no diet is universally good for everyone.
Hanson claims scented candles will cause a man’s androgen levels to significantly drop. Where he gets this tidbit from I don’t know, but if it were true, then their must also be scents that would raise androgen levels. Where are those? Trust me when I say the FDA would have this as a controlled substance if it were true.
So watch the next tour d france, the track athletes running the mile, three-mile, or marathons in the next olympics, or the top 100 finishers of the next Iron Man Triathlon. Find the cottage cheese thighs. Find the “skinny fat” competitor. But also remember, you are not them. You don’t train as hard, you don’t eat as well, you don’t sleep as well, and you don’t dedicate your life to your training. That means you can’t compare you’re results, either.
What people like Hanson are doing is attacking a mode of training many people favor in the hope of getting these people to switch to a mode favored by Hanson (and other personal trainers). Since the activity is different, you may in fact start to see some positive change, but that has to do with the SAID principle, not to any inherent superiority of their training method. Once you start training with them, inertia is likely to keep you as long as you can afford it. Of course, with a trainer watching you, it’s much more likely that you will train more intensely. And that could lead to some improvement. And now they are getting your money, too.
Don’t expect unrealistic results that are greater than your commitment. and always ask for the research. Then ask for the independent, corroborating research. Stop being a sucker.
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