Exercise and Relationships, Lift Weights to Lose Weight, Books

Exercise & Relationships

What happens to a relationship when one person exercises a lot and the other doesn’t? The Wall St. Journal offers an analysis of several such situations in A Workout Ate My Marriage. As you might imagine, stress may develop if one partner spends a lot of time training and the other doesn’t.

We see this situation with Caren and Jordan Waxman. Jordan is not only a Merrill Lynch exec with two law degrees and an MBA, he’s also an Ironman triathlete who competes all over the country. His time spent training plus his job requirements means significant time away from his wife and family.

The article quotes a therapist:

“Exercise is getting more and more couples into my office,” says Karen Gail Lewis, a Cincinnati marriage and family therapist.

The article profiles other couples including the strange pairing of an avid marathoner and vegetarian with a sedentary mean-and-potatoes fellow who just recently gave up a two-pack-a-day smoking habit. Lois and Gary Berkowitz occupy opposite ends of the exercise spectrum yet they seem happily married. He accompanies her to races and helps edit a running newsletter. All seems well for them.

(Interestingly, all the athletes profiled are endurance athletes. No weightlifters, powerlifters or bodybuilders appeared in the article. What are their relationships like? Perhaps the much smaller time requirements to get stronger mean happier marriages than the hours and hours required to win marathons and triathlons.)

Lift Weights to Lose Weight

Alwyn Cosgrove and his wife Rachel are both highly successful trainers and owners of Results Gym in California. Alwyn’s blog is full of useful information, and I recommend you have a look at it. One such article is The New Science of Fat Loss. (This first appeared in Men’s Health.) The article discusses the old myth that low-intensity aerobic exercise is the best way to shed fat. New research suggests that weight training burns more calories per unit of time. Researchers put subjects on a reduced-calorie diet and put them in three groups. One group didn’t exercise, another performed aerobic exercise 3 days a week, and a third did both aerobic exercise and weight training 3 days a week. The article states:

“The results: Each group lost nearly the same amount of weight—about 21 pounds per person in 12 weeks. But the lifters shed 5 more pounds of fat than those who didn’t pump iron. The weight they lost was almost pure fat, while the other two groups shed 15 pounds of lard, but also gave up 5-plus pounds of muscle.”

What’s the take-home message? Weight training is a must for physique change! If you’re using plodding, long-duration/low-intensity cardio work as your primary means of weight loss you’re behind the times and you’re wasting time.

My Reading List: The Talent Code, Sports Vision, Motivational Interviewing

If you’re a fitness professional and/or a fitness geek like me, there are three books you’ll want to have a look at. The first is The Talent Code: Greatness Isn’t Born. It’s Made. Here’s How. Daniel Coyle’s book looks at the physiological and psychological components of “talented” and highly successful individuals from athletes to musicians to mathematicians. Three key points discussed in the book are:

• Deep Practice Everyone knows that practice is a key to success. What everyone doesn’t know is that specific kinds of practice can increase skill up to ten times faster than conventional practice.

• Ignition We all need a little motivation to get started. But what separates truly high achievers from the rest of the pack? A higher level of commitment—call it passion—born out of our deepest unconscious desires and triggered by certain primal cues. Understanding how these signals work can help you ignite passion and catalyze skill development.

• Master Coaching What are the secrets of the world’s most effective teachers, trainers, and coaches? Discover the four virtues that enable these “talent whisperers” to fuel passion, inspire deep practice, and bring out the best in their students.

Do you train vision? In the gym? Do you ever think about your eyes when you’re working out. If not, you should. It’s our most vital sense after all. In the Z-Health community, we often discuss vision and the tremendous influence it has on all our bodily processes–including pain, strength and mobility. Sports Vision: Training for Better Performance is required reading for Z-Health trainers. It goes deep into the role our visual system plays in our ability to perform. The book contains many drills designed to improve visual acuity and thus sport performance.

Finally, Motivational Interviewing is considered a must-read by anyone involved in a field such as coaching or personal training. Too often we trainers and coaches focus on the exercise portion of weight loss and athletic performance. We don’t spend enough time figuring out the psychological components of motivation and behavior change. Our role is to motivate clients and athletes to work hard and achieve big goals. Therefore this book is essential to any fitness professional’s library.

First Day on the Clean Program

This post isn’t about power cleans, hang cleans, kettlebell cleans or anything involving a weight of any sort. I’m spending a few days this week trying a dietary cleanse called the Clean Program. It’s typically a 3-week program but I’m only doing it for about four days. My wife is on her final week of the program and she loves the way she feels. I probably wouldn’t have given this thing a shot if she wasn’t a) trying it at all and b) feeling fantastic while doing it.

The idea of Clean is to detoxify the body and give the digestive system a rest. You eat one solid-meal food a day and drink two juices and/or smoothies per day. Clean has you eliminating a variety of foods–even a good number of fruits and vegetables: tomatoes, citrus fruits, soy products, dairy products, eggplant, raw fish, wheat, corn, barley, spelt, kamut, rye, couscous, oats, booze, sugar, and caffeine among other things. There’s also a minimum 12-hour fast between your evening meal and your morning meal. Sounds like a big party right?

Now, I’ve always been skeptical of these things. Sounds like a lot of gimmicky nonsense and shoddy science. That said, I’ve never actually done any research on this process. I do recognize there are health benefits to fasting from time to time and I absolutely understand that even those of us who eat a “healthy” diet are quite likely consuming some junk we shouldn’t be eating. The biggest motivation for my trying this program is what it’s done for my wife. It’s very strong anecdotal evidence that something good might come from it. We’ll see what happens…

“I guess the main thing to note is that, as biomechanists, we really do not know how orthotics work.”
– Dr. Joseph Hamill, University of Massachusetts professor of kinesiology

Orthotics. Some people swear by them. Some people swear at them. (That would be me.) Some of them cost a few bucks at the grocery store. Others cost several hundred dollars and must be fitted at a podiatrist, physical therapist or chiropractor. So what about them? Do we need them or not? (And if they are important for our health, how did the Egyptians, the Romans, Gengis Kahn, the Vikings, etc. ever manage march across the earth and conquer everything in site without them?)

All runners and other fitness enthusiasts–anyone who wears shoes really–must read the latest dispatch from the New York Times Personal Best section titled Close Look at Orthotics Raises a Welter of Doubt. It’s a fascinating discussion on how and why orthotics may or may not work. As the quote above indicates, no one really seems to know what these things actually do for the feet. There are several important points in the article.

Analysis of Orthotics

Dr. Benno Nigg, professor of biomechanics and co-director of the Human Performance Lab at the University of Calgary in Alberta has made a career of researching orthotics. He makes a point that I’ve observed in my own experience with orthotics, namely that they tend to work in the short-term. However he says that idea that they are supposed to correct mechanical-alignment problems does not hold up.

Further Dr. Nigg says, “If you do something to a shoe, different people will react differently.” Different feet react differently: One person might respond by increasing the stress on the outside of the foot, another on the inside. Another might not respond at all, unconsciously correcting the orthotic’s correction.

The article discusses something I’ve heard discussed among those who make orthotics. That is, there are different ways to make orthotics. Depending on where you go, you’ll likely get a different device. Dr. Nigg conducted a study in which a runner went to several different orthotics makers and each one made him a distinctly different orthotic to “correct” his pronation. He liked two of them–yet they each were made differently. More research by Dr. Nigg yielded the following:

“They (orthotics) turn out to have little effect on kinematics — the actual movement of the skeleton during a run. But they can have large effects on muscles and joints, often making muscles work as much as 50 percent harder for the same movement and increasing stress on joints by a similar amount.”

“As for ‘corrective’ orthotics,” Dr. Nigg says, “they do not correct so much as lead to a reduction in muscle strength.”

Support for Orthotics

Several seemingly well-educated people voiced support for the use of orthotics. Jeffrey P. Wensman, director of clinical and technical services at the Orthotics and Prosthetics Center at the University of Michigan makes a sound argument when he says the key measure of success is his patients feel better in orthotics.

(On that note, I think it’s wise that if you’re in an orthotic and feeling good, running fast and all is well, then don’t change anything.)

Seamus Kennedy, president and co-owner of Hersco Ortho Labs in New York says there are hundreds of papers and studies showing that orthotics can treat common foot ailments.

So maybe there’s a lot of solid evidence in favor of orthotics right? Well… The article states:

“In one recent review of published papers, Dr. Nigg and his colleagues analyzed studies on orthotics and injury prevention. Nearly all published studies, they report, lacked scientific rigor.”

Maybe the lesson is to be skeptical of orthotics makers who show you evidence of the benefits of orthotics.

What About Flat Feet?

The article goes on to profile someone who has flat feet and his quest to “correct” this issue. Every orthotics provider he went to attributed his injury to his previous poorly made orthotics and goes on to provide him with different orthotics.

(The article mentions this fellow has an “injury” though there’s no mention of what this injury is. I’m not sure if we’re to take his flat feet as an injury.)

Dr. Nigg explains that flat feet shouldn’t be any problem. Our arches are an evolutionary leftover of when we used to grip trees with our feet. This is interesting to me because I recall reading elsewhere a study of third-world populations that never wear any sort of supportive shoes. Their feet tend to be flat yet there are far fewer numbers of the type of musculoskeletal injuries we have in the U.S. So maybe these all important arches aren’t all that important?

My view on all this is that orthotics are of limited use and the science behind them is quite murky. I’ve used several different types of orthotics and I’ve had either no results or I’ve experienced increased discomfort. I think they are far from an essential component for human health and performance. That said, on an individual basis, an orthotic may be very helpful.

New Personal Record on the Deadlift: 425 lbs.

I’m a big fan of the deadlift. For some reason I’m fascinated by plucking very heavy objects off of the earth. I my goal is 500 lbs. I’m hoping to hit it in the not-too-distant future. My prior PR on the deadlift was 420 lbs. Today, despite dealing with the remnants of a cold, I pulled 425 lbs. — AND THAT MAKES ME HAPPY! It’s a good way to start the weekend. That’s it. Nothing of much importance to add.

New Year’s Resolutions

“This year I will… (insert whatever gargantuan tried-for-before-but-never-accomplished miracle you wish; for our purposes here we’ll say:) get in shape.”
– thousands of new gym members

Now’s the time of year when many a well meaning American joins a gym, vows to give up their favorite food, start eating their least favorite food, exercise like Hercules, change their physique… and generally repeat a pattern they’ve performed before–which includes struggle and failure. Some time around the end of March the pattern will look the same as last year: Minimal weight lost. Resolution forgotten. (The good news for me is that a lot of these fine folks will enlist my assistance in achieving their goals. My genuine hope is that I help create new exercise lovers.) Is there a way to actually realize our once and future fitness goals? Very likely.

Your Brain Doesn’t Have a New Year’s Resolution

First, why do we fail at these goals in the first place? A recent article in the Miami Herald, New Year’s resolutions? Brain can sabotage success discuss the role of the brain in this process. Essentially the immediate reward often outweighs the long-term results we’re seeking. Fudge tastes good now. Getting strong and lean takes weeks. Put another way: It’s the dopamine stupid.

Dopamine is released during rewarding experiences. Sex, tasty food, various drugs, fun times all release dopamine. We tend to form habits around the activities that release dopamine. These habits and rituals become very hard wired in our brain. Examples include a smoke after a meal, snacks in front of the TV, junk food at the movie. Further, we like our dopamine now not later. Thus that tasty dessert provides the deeply wired payoff we want. For someone new to exercise or who’s had negative experiences with exercise, there’s not much dopamine to be found at the gym.

Survival, the Brain & Energy Expenditure

Very nearly every feeling, thought, drive and signal in our bodies is there for our survival. Neurological activity is calorically expensive. (That is, we use a lot of calories to perform brain functions such as learning new skills. Exercise and new eating habits are definitely skills). If we use up too many calories then we’ll die. Our brain knows all this, and here lies the foundation of thwarted resolutions.

Drastic changes such as those often attempted by Resolutioners makes the brain say, “Whoa! We need to avoid all this new hard work or we might DIE!” Plus there’s no dopamine involved in all this new activity–but the stress of all this change makes us seek out our beloved dopamine/fudge/ice cream/onion rings/etc. The result is we have a really hard time sticking to our big goal. So how do we proceed?

Threat Modulation for a Successful Resolution

We talk extensively in Z-Health about threats and threat modulation. We learn that small, incremental changes are far less threatening to our survival instincts than drastic changes. We tend to stick with small changes better than big changes. With regard to our fitness resolutions, we have several considerations in this direction.

First we might consider diet and exercise. These are two different things. Someone may well be ready to start exercising but not at all ready to make dietary changes or vice versa. If we try to change both aspects then we will find it tough going. Therefore we should start making changes where success is most likely to occur.

Second, within either diet or exercise, we should consider what’s ideal versus what’s truly realistic. If your favorite food is doughnuts for breakfast then yes, giving them up completely is a great idea. But in reality it likely isn’t happening. But can we get someone to go from eating doughnuts for breakfast five days a week to only four days a week? Maybe. Or can this person go from three doughnuts a day to three doughnuts every other day–and only two doughnuts on the other days? Sounds reasonable. These are rather small steps–but they are steps forward.

Similarly, many Resolutioners come into the gym telling themselves and anyone who’ll listen that they’re ready to work extremely hard every day of the week.

“I’m not fooling around this time! I want to see results–and I want to see them fast! I’ll do Whatever It Takes!”

Yet typically these folks aren’t undertaking any exercise at all. So going from no exercise to a superhuman level of exercise is again a threat to our survival with no dopamine payoff. Great way to sabotage the resolution. It’s far more realistic for someone to go from no days per week of exercise to two days. Then a couple of weeks later add another day.

(Oddly enough, a trainer has a powerful tool to employ when someone talks about undertaking unrealistically lofty s actions: We say, “Nope. Don’t do that.” They’ll likely start arguing for their own beneficial change. It works off a phenomenon called the righting reflex. Think of a parent giving a kid orders. “Do this.” “Don’t do that.” He or she will resist whatever they’re told to do or not do. Tell someone what they already know such as “You need to start exercising,” and they’ll likely give you reasons why they can’t or won’t. In contrast, tell a someone NOT to exercise too much and suddenly he or she will start agitating to exercise. They’ll argue against their own worst habits.)

Tortoise vs. the Hare

So again, in the ideal situation, someone who eats garbage and never exercises should some day eat well and exercise regularly. In order to get to this new lifestyle though, gradual, non-threatening change is the way to go if we want to achieve our fitness goal at all, much less maintain our new sleek physique.

So we might consider only changing one part of this equation. We might create a small, very achievable goal such as dedicating one hour, twice a week to exercising with a trainer for four weeks. If the clieint achieves this goal then they’ve found success and success begets success. (Very likely they’re already feeling better from this moderate level of exercise and they want to feel even better.) We might then add one day of exercise and also consider dedicating one day per week to healthy eating. Psychologically, if the client experiences success–even on a small scale–we get that dopamine payoff and suddenly they’ve developed an exercise habit. We’re now well on the road to realizing our big goal.

Deliberate Action

Fitness goals don’t make themselves happen. Any number of lofty goals can be achieved but there must be a mindful effort toward these goals. If our current habits got us into the shape we’re in now, then new actions are required in order to get us into better shape. Small changes are ideal–but there must be changes!

I typically tell clients that they have many choices throughout the day of what to eat and whether or not to exercise. At some point they must make at least one healthier decision. If all they can do is make ONE healthier choice today then they’ve moved forward. Maybe they make one single better choice every other day. Great! This is progress.

Success is a guarantee if healthy new habits replace old unhealthy habits. The body has no choice but to adapt to the consumption of healthy food and the execution of hard physical work. Guaranteed. The changes we want will not happen as fast as we want them to–they never do!–but the New Year’s Resolution can become reality if it’s pursued correctly.

Deeper Strength

The Mind Behind the Muscle

I’m not sure what the meditative term is for it but these days I’m sort lingering over, examining, and re-learning the details of strength training that I thought I learned a long time ago. Picking up heavy objects in a lot of ways is very simple stuff. But similar to sitting quietly and focusing on the breath, lifting those heavy objects can provide an opportunity for deep thought and detailed examination of many things.

From a neurological perspective, lifting weights is no different from dancing, painting, learning to juggle or singing. We think then we act on our environment and we create something. Initially we may struggle with the basics of these activities. We must think hard in order to perform the task at hand. We are learning a brand new skill–just like learning to walk or ride a bike. With repetition the neuronal connections between the brain and our limbs strengthen and we can perform our task with relative ease. If we choose, we can perform our task in a sort of autopilot mode: not thinking too deeply; mostly going through the motions.

We have another option. We can dig deeper into our task and explore it. If we continue to concentrate deeply we can develop an amazing connection to what we’re doing and have a rich, vibrant, and meaningful experience in the process. This is where I am in my weightlifting.

Visualization

Our connection to the strength process can and should occur even when we’re not touching a barbell. I’m talking about visualization, and it’s a technique where we create a vivid mental image of our performing a task. Interestingly, our brain doesn’t know the difference between imagining the task and actually doing the task. Our nervous system lights up as if we’re doing said task and if done correctly, the result may be a new personal record. An athlete–an Olympic weightlifter for example–using this technique will sit quietly and imagine himself effortlessly lifting a tremendous weight. Every detail is imagined: the fit of the clothing, the feel of the floor under his feet, the lights, the grip of the bar, everything. Eastern European athletes have used this technique for decades to great success.

Perfect Execution of the Perfect Set

Now, going into the lift, we should be focused on the task like an animal on the hunt. Now’s not the time to be thinking about groceries, our job, Christmas shopping, or the guy next to you admiring his biceps while he does silly little machine half-curls. The proper mindset has us in a hyper-alert state with an electric-type charge running to every cell in the body. This is a rapturous, invincible feeling. And it is a blissful state of mind. The set has been rehearsed during visualization and there’s no doubt about moving the poundage. The only thing left is to do it.

Re-Examining the Basics

I learned how to squat, bench press, deadlift, press overhead, row dumbbells, etc. a long time ago. I thought I knew everything about these traditional lifts. Over recent months I’ve returned to these lifts with much greater concentration. Part of this comes from my experience with Z-Health where we emphasize the learning of the very basic joint-by-joint foundational movements that make up our larger movements such as running, pulling, pushing, etc. Plus I’ve been reading work from some strength training greats: Pavel Tsatsouline, Marty Gallagher, and most recently, Mark Rippetoe. These men have decades of strength coaching experience under their belts. Their books, Power to the People, Purposeful Primitive, and Starting Strength have provided me with details and insights I could have never imagined on my own. So I’m returning to these basic exercises with very new eyes and a fascination I’ve never felt before.

Here are a few of the points on the scale that are used to determine if you have a food addiction. Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, you may be an “industrial food addict.”

Food Addiction

We’ve got several interesting fitness-related things in the news recently. First, from the Huffington Post comes Food Addiction: Could it Explain Why 79 Percent of Americans Are Obese? Here the food industry and its products are compared to the tobacco industry and their products. Turns out our junk food is skillfully crafted and manipulated by the food industry to make it highly palatable possibly to the point of being addictive. Key to the discussion is the following information from the article:

Researchers from Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity validated a “food addiction” scale.(i) Here are a few of the points on the scale that are used to determine if you have a food addiction. Does any of this sound familiar? If it does, you may be an “industrial food addict.”

I find that when I start eating certain foods, I end up eating much more than I had planned. Not eating certain types of food or cutting down on certain types of food is something I worry about.

I spend a lot of time feeling sluggish or lethargic from overeating.
There have been times when I consumed certain foods so often or in such large quantities that I spent time dealing with negative feelings from overeating instead of working, spending time with my family or friends, or engaging in other important activities or recreational activities that I enjoy.
I kept consuming the same types of food or the same amount of food even though I was having emotional and/or physical problems.
Over time, I have found that I need to eat more and more to get the feeling I want, such as reduced negative emotions or increased pleasure.
I have had withdrawal symptoms when I cut down or stopped eating certain foods, including physical symptoms, agitation, or anxiety. (Please do not include withdrawal symptoms caused by cutting down on caffeinated beverages such as soda pop, coffee, tea, energy drinks, etc.)
My behavior with respect to food and eating causes significant distress.
I experience significant problems in my ability to function effectively (daily routine, job/school, social activities, family activities, health difficulties) because of food and eating.

Based on these criteria and others, many of us, including most obese children, are “addicted” to industrial food.

Here are some of the scientific findings confirming that food can, indeed, be addictive(ii):

Sugar stimulates the brain’s reward centers through the neurotransmitter dopamine, exactly like other addictive drugs.
Brain imagining (PET scans) shows that high-sugar and high-fat foods work just like heroin, opium, or morphine in the brain.(iii)Brain imaging (PET scans) shows that obese people and drug addicts have lower numbers of dopamine receptors, making them more likely to crave things that boost dopamine.
Foods high in fat and sweets stimulate the release of the body’s own opioids (chemicals like morphine) in the brain.
Drugs we use to block the brain’s receptors for heroin and morphine (naltrexone) also reduce the consumption and preference for sweet, high-fat foods in both normal weight and obese binge eaters.
People (and rats) develop a tolerance to sugar — they need more and more of the substance to satisfy themselves — just like they do for drugs of abuse like alcohol or heroin.
Obese individuals continue to eat large amounts of unhealthy foods despite severe social and personal negative consequences, just like addicts or alcoholics.
Animals and humans experience “withdrawal” when suddenly cut off from sugar, just like addicts detoxifying from drugs.
Just like drugs, after an initial period of “enjoyment” of the food, the user no longer consumes them to get high but to feel normal.

Exercise & the Common Cold

“The most powerful weapon someone has during cold season “is to go out on a near-daily basis, and put in at least a 30-minute brisk walk.”
– Dr. David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Laboratory at Appalachian State University in North Carolina,

It’s always nice to see research that backs up something that we think is true. In this case, researchers at Appalachian St. University have evidence that exercise is possibly the best way to avoid colds. Read more in Regular Workouts Ward Off the Common Cold from MSNBC. The results of this study are in line with other studies discussed in the article.

There are all sorts of products out there such as Airborne, echinacea and zinc losenges that claim to shorten or prevent colds. The evidence on that stuff is spotty. The evidence on exercise and its preventative powers is far more solid. Exercise!

Rocker Shoes

An article from MSNBC, Do those funky shoes really promote fitness? discusses rocker or toning shoes, the increasingly popular shoes with a curved bottom. The claim by these shoe manufactures (Sketchers, Reebok, MBT) is that wearers will burn more calories when they walk around in these things.

A study by the American Council on Exercise suggests that these shoes do nothing of the sort. (Hard to believe? A magic shoe actually doesn’t lead to weight loss??) Participants walked all of five minutes on a treadmill while researchers monitored their heart rate, oxygen consumption and muscle usage (abdominals, butt, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves). (I don’t know that five minutes is an adequate amount of time in these things. Seems like participants should be monitored over the course of days or weeks). The article goes on to discuss the possible injurious effects of wearing these weird shoes as well as a a lawsuit brought by a woman who didn’t lose any weight wearing them. On the topic of the biomechanics and rocker shoes, this article by Denver-area chiropractor and gait specialist Dr. Ivo Waerlop, goes into deep detail as to why these shoes are a bad idea.

I see these shoes as the latest fitness fad pushed on people who are hoping and praying for a fitness magic bullet. (I love the fact that people are looking at their shoes and thinking about their calories! How about looking at your food???) This type of thing comes up frequently and the results of such stuff rarely lives up to the hype. I’ll be interested to see what happens to medium- and long-term wearers of these shoes. I think they’ll a) be disappointed in the weight they don’t lose and, b) possibly beset by chronic pain. If nothing else, they’ll be embarrassed that they ever put on those big clunky Frankenstein clodhoppers.

Thoughts on Getting Stronger

Get Strong!

I’m reading Marty Gallagher’s Purposeful Primitive right now and it’s fascinating. If you’re a fitness professional or someone who’s dedicated to exercise, then I suggest you check it out. It’s all real-life stories of Marty’s time in the trenches of big-time weightlifting. He profiles various elite strong men such as Paul Anderson and Ed Coan, bodybuilders such as Bill Pearl and Dorian Yates, and other freakishly strong individuals. Most interesting to me are their methods to getting stronger–and it’s all fairly simple: Lift Heavy & Use Perfect Technique. Barbells and dumbbells are the tools for the job. Lifting more is the task, not exhausting the muscle with 10-15 reps.

Go pick up something heavy!

Similar to Pavel Tsatsouline’s advice, lifting heavy for a very few reps–five and under–is the ideal way to get genuinely strong. There should be one very high quality “top set.” That is, there should be a few warm-up sets performed on the way to one all-out maximal effort set. Stop a rep or two before failure. The technique must be perfect. Lifting heavy can be dangerous. Going to out-and-out exhaustion is a good way to get injured.

This concept is in contrast to many of the popular gym classes in which participants lift very light weights for an endless number of reps. This won’t make anyone stronger. It may not necessarily be bad but it’s probably not the best use of your time if your goal is a) getting stronger or b) looking stronger. Now, this strategy can turn bad if you lift to the point of utter fatigue and your technique fails. From what I’ve seen of some of the “sculpting” classes and such, technique is not a prime concern of many instructors. “A few more reps!” does seem to be the primary concern though. But guess what, “a few more reps” won’t work any miracles for your physique, but if you’ve hit the failure point then those extra reps may well push you to the point of pain and possible injury. That may mean no exercise for you for a while.

Very few exercises are needed to create more strength. Squats, bench press, deadlift, overhead pressing, and various rows are essential. Complicated pulley machines are useless except to sell gym memberships. Plastic inflatable objects like BOSUs and Dyna Disks are junk that have more in common with kids pool toys than strength and muscle building implements.

Typical Gym Mindset

Whether we admit it or not, the main reason we’re in the gym is to look good–to look strong. Physique building developed from the old-fashioned strongmen–those guys with the funny bathing suits, handlebar mustaches, and who could hoist hundreds of pounds overhead with one hand. These guys were strong number one. The impressive physiques were a nice byproduct of their ability to perform. But most gym goers aren’t actually interested in being strong. The cart has become far more important than the horse it seems.

It’s quite funny to observe our modern fitness center environment. I often see people working really hard doing easy exercises! Popular ineffective waste-of-time exercises include partial range pec deck flyes, hunched over triceps extensions, and the always famous 50 reps of 1/4 inch wiggle cruncheson an odd, overly technical crunch machine.

These complex machines actually make exercise easier. Balance and precise control is eliminated from the process. Most of these popular machine exercises are done while seated or lying down. Sounds comfy right? But why come to the gym for easy exercise?? These machines allow for half-hearted effort disguised as hard work. Further, machine exercises tend to promote poor posture: forward head, hunched shoulders, tight hip flexors. This is the opposite of tall and strong. This is no way to achieve a strong physique!

Getting Strong is Fun.

My reading has caused me to rethink not only how I train myself but also how I train my clients. For a while now I’ve scaled back on the number of exercises I’m using and I’m focusing on training in that strength zone of 3-5 reps–maybe up to 8 reps–and avoiding failure at the end. Turns out lifting heavy objects does some cool stuff. First, it’s quite safe. Using perfect technique and working only to exertion but not exhaustion is the ideal way to avoid pain. Ending the workout just when fatigue begins to set in means we avoid aggravating the nervous system. Plus, knowing that you could’ve done just a few more reps means you’ll be raring to go at the next workout.

Further, picking up heavy objects does good things for our brain. Again, whether we really want to admit it out loud, some part of what drives us into the gym is self-image and/or self-esteem. We want to like ourselves more. Be it through physique change or performance goals, we exercise to make ourselves proud. So lifting heavy is a great way to feel a sense of accomplishment. As the weeks go by and the poundage goes up, you can’t help but get excited! And somewhere along the line you might accidentally create a better looking you. What more can you ask for?

Trainer? Therapist? What Do We Call Ourselves & What’s Our Role? Part II

Post Therapy

What comes after physical therapy? By various standards and regulations, personal trainers can’t claim to offer injury rehabilitation. That’s for physical therapists. Physical therapists are licensed by states where as the term “personal trainer” is very loosely regulated. But what happens when someone is finished with physical therapy?

Simply finishing physical therapy may not mean someone is ready to return to sport or vigorous exercise. As I discussed in this post, the damaged structure may be repaired, but the nervous system may still be on guard. Thus pain and tightness may persist in someone who has been technically cleared to exercise. He or she still needs the proper guidance in their return to physical activity. Are personal trainers prepared to handle this challenge?

“Personal trainer” has a negative connotation in some circles. According to some, trainers are undereducated, sloppy, and use unsafe methods to get clients in shape. From what I’ve seen, this opinion is often spot on. Many trainers are totally unequipped to work with anyone with movement dysfunction and/or pain. Most trainers are still caught up in machine weight training, bicep curls and simply making their clients work harder and not smarter.

What’s Needed

Seems like we need some other grade of exercise professional. We should have higher standards than the typical personal trainer. We should be in conversation with physical therapists, surgeons, chiropractors–even mental health professionals. The education requirements must be higher than what we see with the typical trainer certification. For good or ill, some sort of state licensure may be necessary if for no other reason to convey to our clients that we’ve reached a certain status.

The bottom line is a sizable portion of our population and potential clientele need help overcoming pain and poor movement. Many of these folks have gone through physical therapy, chiropractic treatment, acupuncture–all sorts of treatment and they may still be looking for pain relief. (The frustrating thing is, in my experience a good number of these therapists are also unprepared to address the cause of pain and dysfunction. Again, this is just my experience but in my quest to address my own pain, most of them never recognized that the site of my pain was not where my problems were rooted.) These people aren’t ready for the typical commercial “kick your butt” sort of workout. There is a clear opportunity here if we’re willing to step into the role of…. what? I’m calling myself a Movement Re-education Specialist.

Trainer? Therapist? What Do We Call Ourselves & What’s Our Role? Part I

A recent article in the Wall St. Journal titled Getting Fit Without the Pain got me thinking about a few things. What, for instance does it mean to be a “personal trainer?” How is that job viewed by the public and medical professionals like surgeons and physical therapists? Should some of us take on a different title? Further, do our experiences in the fitness setting match our job definition?

Physical therapists are charged with rehabilitating injuries and post-surgical patients. By various standards and regulations, personal trainers can’t claim to offer injury rehabilitation. Personal trainers help people exercise and get “in shape.” Personal trainers, by most definitions, are allowed only to work with people who are injury-free and completely healthy.

The Journal article states, “… fitness trainers shouldn’t attempt to treat, and certainly shouldn’t ignore, sports injuries, says Diane Buchta, spokeswoman for IDEA, a trainer organization. ‘We must refer those clients to a physician,’ she adds.

Injured vs. 100% Healthy

I’ll tell you as a practicing personal trainer/fitness professional/movement specialist–whatever my title is–that there is a significant gap or gray area between physical therapists and personal trainers. I don’t think I’ve met a gym goer over the age of 25 (including myself) who doesn’t have some sort of strange ache or pain. The vast majority of these people don’t quite fall into the “injured” category. They’re still active and their pain isn’t so severe that they’re prevented from coming to the gym and exercising. I think most personal trainers have similar clientele. If we were to turn away these folks we’d have no business whatsoever.

Still other clients I’ve worked with have pain that has proven resistant to physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, drugs… X-Rays, MRIs, neurological exams and blood work may all be normal. These folks assumed they were injured and sought what we might call the appropriate care–but they’re still hurting. Are these people injured? It’s difficult to say. Again I think I’m seeing a gray area, this time between “injured” and “healthy.” Maybe we need to consider the issue of pain vs. injury.

Denver Fitness Journal

All Things Health and Fitness by Kyle Norman, MS, CSCS, FMS, RRCA Running Coach

Observations