A challenge done.

So I wrote about how not only should we set goals but we should set ourselves challenges and get us out of our comfort zone. You can read the article here but in that article I mentioned that my challenge was to swim 1 kilometer (0.65 of a mile). For some of you reading this it is no big deal but for me it was. I considered that it would take at least half a year of swimming to get to the point of swimming 1K. I went to the pool last week, I asked my partner to go with me as she is a great swimmer and I figured I might need someone to save me from drowning. You see I wanted to see how far I could swim in a session much like testing before starting an exercise program. Well it turns out that in one session I hit my challenge I set for myself. Yep I managed to swim 1k, I was really surprised by myself and I will mention that I did stop a couple of times for short rests. So I have upgraded my challenge to swim 1k without stopping. So to get to that I plan to swim 500 meters first without stopping, gradually progressively overloading how much I can do by adding 100-250m each week.

I am really keen to get your comments back in regards to your challenges and how your exercise testing and programs are coming along. For those of you that are reading for the first time I have linked the other articles I have written to help you set your challenges, test yourself and plan a exercise program.

Plan Ex

So you read the last article and if you didn’t, read it here. My previous article looked at some tests that you can do to find out where you are before you start an exercise program. You should have a program to follow. You could pay someone to do it or you can educate yourself on how to write one. That way you can just go ahead and see if you can hit your goal without anyone else’s help. This article will provide a little bit of guidance to help you design your own program.
First thing is you need to determine your situation. You are an individual and things like age, gender, work and family life as well as medical history and even self-confidence will determine what your plan will look like. Your goal/challenge will play a huge role as well, you wouldn’t write a plan to swim a mile then take up boxing and not swim at all.

So let’s get to some variables of the plan. This includes repetitions, sets, rest, frequency, intensity, tempo, progressive overload and types of exercises/activity. Repetitions (reps) refers to how many times you do a particular exercise or movement e.g. 12 reps bicep curls. Repetitions will have a relationship with intensity. Generally the heavier the weight (intensity %1Repetition Max) the less reps you will be able to do. If you are trying to improve strength without putting on to much muscle mass you would use 1-5 reps with an intensity of 85%-100% of your 1RM. If you are trying to get bigger muscles use the 8-12 rep range with intensities of 60-85% of your 1RM. Now if you want to increase your endurance use 15-20 reps with greater than 40% of your 1RM. Now I am aware that I am using resistance examples but you could use cardio based exercise. Cardiovascular examples include 3 repetitions of sprints or running 1 repetition of a mile. These examples can be linked to intensity as well. Cardiovascular exercise intensity is often measured as heart rate BPM (beats per minute) or percentage of maximum heart rate. These are measured by a HRM (heart rate monitor) For example 3 sprint reps at 80-90% of maximum HR or 1 mile of running at 140-150bpm. Rate of perceived exertion (RPE) could be used for either modes of exercise whereby the exerciser will chose a rating off a scale to describe how hard they are working.

Now I briefly want to talk about tempo many people these days pay no attention to tempo but it can be a real game changer. Have you ever been at a gym and seen a guy doing a bicep curl slowly down and quickly up? That is an example of tempo. Tempo is how long you should take to lift the weight up, pause, put the weight down and pause. Tempo is measured in seconds and it often expressed 2110 as an example. So 2 seconds to lift the weight up, 1 second to pause, 1 second to lower the weight and no pause at the bottom. The table below can give you some guidance. Keep in mind that every one of these variable are related and if you normally do a weight with no tempo and then you slow it down to suit a specific tempo that weight will get hard real quick. Tempo can also be used in cardiovascular training you may run a mile in a set time period say 1 mile in 7 mins.

So I covered the use of reps and intensity but you don’t generally do 10 biceps curls on their own and that’s that because we need to challenge the muscles to grow. You do sets which is basically how many lots of reps you will do. So if you do 8 squats you may rest and do another set which means you did two sets of eight reps or 2x8. It is important to understand that all of these variables are interrelated with each other. So for reps 1-5 you may do 4-7 sets, reps 8-12 sets would be 4-8 and endurance 15-20 reps would be 2-4 sets. So you will notice that for the greater amount of reps for endurance there are less sets to be done. I explain it like a see saw the more reps you do in a set the less sets you will do. Please note for cardiovascular training these may be different you won’t likely do 2x20 mile runs especially if you are starting out.

Rest is often overlooked but I believe it can be one of the most crucial variables of a program. Why you ask, well if you shorten or lengthen rest periods it can change how your body responds. But to keep this basic I’ll give you some basic rest times that accompany the sets, reps and intensities. The strength 1-5 range will see people rest 2-6 mins, muscle building 8-12 reps 2-5 minutes and endurance 15-20 reps 30secs to 2 minutes. These are all done for certain reasons mainly to give the body a chance to recover from the previous sets and reps efforts.

Leading from rest is frequency or rest between sessions I like to call it. This is about how often you exercise. The American college of sports medicine recommends 15mins of cardio a week and resistance done 2-3 times a week. But how many days per week? Well that’s up to you but I would recommend alternating cardio with resistance or upper and lower body workouts. Be aware that if you have a big session doing upper body you wouldn’t do upper body the next day. Frequency will depend on your plan design, the harder the session depending on what you did the more rest you may need between sessions.

Now that I have explained some of the other variables I will introduce volume. Volume is the amount of work that you are doing in a session. It is calculated in resistance training by sets x reps x load e.g bicep curls 3x8x20lbs = 480lbs and that is in one session and as you can see it quickly adds up. Other ways of measuring training volume are miles covered total or time at a certain HR (heart rate). It is important to understand that total volume is measured per session and totalled for the week. To much volume and you can burn out or hurt yourself, not enough and you may not be getting all the benefits you could for your time. Prescribing volume will depend heavily on what your program has in it. I know that Olympic weightlifters measure their programs volume with tonnage. Side fact 1980’s Bulgarian weightlifters over a year may lift 41 000 tonnes of weight.

Planning the order and type of exercises will depend on what you do you want to achieve. Generally exercises are ordered from compound to isolation exercises, heaviest and most taxing to easiest. This may seem obvious but if you do 3x8 of bicep curls and then try to do some chin-ups which your biceps are heavily involved in, your chin-ups performance may suffer. So you would do bench press before you do dumbbell fly’s or you would squat before you did leg extension. To add fuel to the fire if you do cardio before weights or weights before cardio has been contentious within the research. It has been shown it depends on what you are trying to emphasise so this should be taken into account.

Finally the main thing we need to remember is that we are trying to improve something whether it be running further or faster, lifting heavier or more reps we always need to be improving. If you are not progressing you may need to look at your plan or give it a bit more time and hard work. This variable is known as progressive overload and to put it into a simple example you may start walking for 10 minutes each day and every week add 2 minutes to each day and over the course of a year you will increase your walking time a hell of a lot. The body adapts over time but as a caveat via the S.A.I.D principle, (specific adaptions to imposed demands). So keep in mind whilst the example may get better at walking that doesn’t mean they will get better at squatting and heavy weight. So now you are asking how do I go about overloading? Well there are a few ways, you may decide to add a rep each week if you can or instead of 8 reps you do 12. You may decide to add a pound or 0.5 of a kg each week or an extra minute to your run. It is about those small steps that your body can adapt to so you improve gradually, safely and for a long time.

So there you go these are the main variables that you can manipulate to build a plan. Keep in mind that all of the variables are all interconnected and will effect each other. Take it easy and record it in a journal so you can log each session. That way when you design a new plan you have notes about your previous sessions to help guide your.
Like most things in science there are a few different ideas on how many reps, sets and rest times should be used for strength, hypertrophy and endurance. Please keep that in mind if you find that someone tells you that hypertrophy (muscle building) is 10-12 reps as an example and it is different from information here.

Get your Plan Ex cheat sheet emailed to you

Testing time

The new year has dawned and if you have set goals and/or challenges most likely at least one is health and fitness related. If your a physical enthusiast already this article will also be of some help. You see when you open a bank account it starts with zero and you put money into it. You can always see a balance and understand how your money is going. The human body is a little bit different. Often we will see if we put on fat mass or muscle mass, it can be quite obvious. But other markers used in health and fitness are a little less easy to see and should to be measured. After all how do you know if you are improving?

There are thousands of tests we could do. To be honest a blood test is a great idea I think. You can get an idea about how things are going. This can be done via doctors, in some countries private companies can provide these kinds of services. But within the realm of health and fitness is exercise, to improve you will most likely be using some form of plan. Whether you're chasing a stronger squat or maybe you want to run a certain distance in a certain time, there will be a test of some kind that can be used to find where you're at. Now it is important that you choose a test that is valid for what you want to test. You wouldn't use a strength based test to test aerobic endurance. Please remember the law of specificity applies and some tests will have a skill component. There are plenty of studies about some tests having a higher skill based component then others e.g vertical leap, higher skilled jumpers can jump higher.

I am going to write about two tests you can use and either you may love or hate. These can be used to give you a baseline of where you are at. The first one is a staple and you probably have done it and hate it. The (cue the evil music) beep test. The beep test or multi stage fitness test is still used by many organisations. The test allows you to test how much oxygen your body can maximally uptake. It uses running a very common form of exercise and it relates heavily to the cardiovascular system, endurance and aerobic capacity. This test is also simple to do and yes you could do other tests some can cost you a great deal of money that will test these variables. The beep test is conducted over 20m(65ft) and you can find a mp3 or a youtube video online. You really just need to find a suitable area to set up some markers of some kind and after a suitable warm up ,start the mp3 and take the test. Be sure to record what number you finish on. You can use the resources posted here to help fill in the gaps. Be aware this is a maximal test and you should be of some reasonable shape with no health problems, particularly cardiovascular problems. For those of you that can't take this test you can do a sub max test such as a Rockport fitness test.

Now for the second test maximal strength, I am throwing one out I love, the one repetition maximum (1rm). This is a max strength test that can be done with many different exercises such as the bench press, squat and dead lift. Generally the 1rm isn't done with isolation exercises such as the bicep curl. It is a hard test and does rely somewhat on how skilled you are at the movement. As with many tests motivation will also be a factor. This test though on paper can seem simple but start and light and work your way up.Yes there is a protocol to follow and it is important to note whilst there is a protocol there is still some debate about how to best find the 1rm. Use this video as it shows the protocol for the Bench press and use the percentage changes and rest times. This protocol can be used for for other exercises. Make sure you have a spotter and if you are new to all of this preferably get some help from someone with experience.Consider using the 5rm or 10rm which means you will use lighter weight and in theory limit the chance of injury. After you have this 1rm you can use a calculator to find out the various percentages. By the way calculators will use different equations, this one gives some different equation answers so you can choose.

Now be warned these are tests and if you are not up to it or max testing is contradicted you can use other tests. Make sure the test is actually testing what you want to test and make sure you can do it safely and it is repeatable to be tested in 6-12 weeks. I would love to hear about what tests you chose and why and what you got on them. Comment below and share.

A resolute challenge

The new year is fast approaching and that means new year resolutions are made and broken. It is well known that resolutions usually fail. I typically believe that goal setting and creating new habits trump a fragile resolution any day of the year. I have written about goals and goal setting before in this article.To add value to the idea of goal setting is the idea of a challenge. Adding one challenge that you want to accomplish for the year. Now you would say a challenge and a goal are basically the same thing. I could understand why you would say that. The difference I find is that a challenge gets you out of your comfort zone. A challenge would be trying some stand up comedy, public speaking or rock climbing if you are afraid of heights. A goal doesn't require you to necessarily get out of your comfort zone but a challenge does, a challenge requires that you face a fear in some form. How many challenges you set is up to you, my advice is the further you think you will be out of your comfort zone the less challenges you should set. I personally only set one challenge for myself, to swim a kilometer which may seem more of a goal but I am a baaad swimmer and I will be well out of my comfort zone. I have already rock climbed and skydived so the challenge of heights is out of the way. What challenge will you set yourself this year?

The silly season is upon us.

It is the Christmas crunch and health and fitness gurus are writing articles on how to survive the silly season. I don't want to write an article about how you should do it, I do want to write about things I do, have done, that work for me. You may take some ideas from here and you could apply it to your silly season.

I keep a food diary and I have talked about this in the past in articles. I am sure some of you still don't keep a food diary and have no desire to start. That is your prerogative but I have found that keeping one allows me to not only track my energy needs and intake but educate myself about what foods I eat. You may argue that good quality food choices are enough but what if you think something is good when in truth it isn't. For example a food diary can help you understand that a granola bar is really a sugar bar with oats. If you prerecord your meal you are also more likely to stick to it. Further more alcohol can loosen our appetite morals and we begin to just eat whatever. A food diary I have found makes me more disciplined.

I use the food diary to see how my energy bank account is looking for the day and something looked at even less the week. Off course sometimes I go over my calories during the season, I can't preempt everything I will consume. I don't get pedantic about that and if I take note of the week I remain under overall. I still however try to get 5 serves of vegetables and 2 serves of fruit a day this will aid in my training quality.

I do apply a rule to myself if I find myself asking if I need or want to eat something I just say "meh" shrug my shoulders and don't eat it or say "no thanks". If I have to ask I probably have had enough. If I get someone pushing me to have more I always ask if they are having more this helps me redirect away from me eating and puts that person on the spot. The big one is booze, alcohol, poison I will try to have 1-2 glasses of water before and after drinking this helps keeps me hydrated and avoid a hangover. It also keeps me quite full and reminds me to drink a little less as often people can get carried away in the silly season. I like to drink in moderation and bear in mind that it does have limited value nutritionally to me. Yes there are benefits of moderate alcohol consumption but moderate can quickly become a bender.I also plan ahead I will not drink and drive as it is just stupid really.

I keep to a plan for training as well. I don't try to train away poor food choices because I do put conscious effort into making good food choices. I do write my training plan for six weeks to incorporate more caloric usage in my training which allows me to chase longer harder sessions as I do have more time due to holidays and more available energy.

More importantly this season I will take the time to let go and relax. I do have a plan for training and eating but if I miss a session on a day due to other commitments I don't get worried. I have seen people get anxiety about it ,hell I've been one of those people but more importantly I take the time to be thankful for what I have. I stop and just observe and listen, I feed my well being. Commonly I hear that we should appreciate things and people everyday but I live in the real world and it is not everyday I appreciate and grasp what I have around me. The final thing is I appreciate what I give more then what I get and this is from a material point of view. My partner and I enjoy giving good gifts and we strive to find things that will add value and meaning to those we give. If we don't get something material it doesn't matter what matters is we gave. Enjoy the silly season take a moment stop and breathe it in and appreciate it and those around you.

Supplement not enhancement

Being involved in the health and fitness industry I often get asked two questions, “What do you think of X supplement?” or “Do you want to sell some supplements for some extra cash?” The answer to the first questions is varied. The second one is always a polite no, this question in particular can quickly become annoying when you have worked in this industry for as long as I have. It is often also followed by another question, “What do you take?”

That one is an easy question, the two main supplements I take are fish oil and a magnesium powder with zinc. I take 2-6g of fish oil a day, I do this because there are many proven benefits to taking fish oil. If you want to know the benefits just do a Google Scholar search. But mainly I take fish oil because I am not a big seafood eater. I started to eat some fish in recent years but I am not a shellfish, crustacean fan at all. My partner says I am crazy and perhaps I am but I can’t get past the fact they are the vacuum cleaners of the sea.

I take the magnesium/zinc supplement because I find many of our foods are deficient in these two nutrients, mostly due to farming practices. Being an active male these two nutrients are needed for the body to work well, such as improved Testosterone production (if you don’t have enough zinc) and improved immune system to name a couple. On average I take the Mag/Zinc powder every three days or so because if I take it daily I get powerful dreams. Not bad or good just powerful, this is reported in a variety of Mag/Zinc supplements. It also improves my sleep which is a article for a different time.

I don’t intend to take supplements like protein powders or creatine on a regular occasion because I believe my diet is generally varied enough. And in regards to the supplements I do take I am doing so to supplement my diet because I lack those things. But the issue I take with the supplement industry is the way they have convinced people that these things enhance you like superman. Let me say this simply supplements are created to give you something you are not getting in your normal diet. They do not and will not give you some kind of hulk like strength or other superpower. It never ceases to amaze me how many people are looking for the quick fixes and supplements are one of those things that are always touted to be just that.
One of the most common supplements I get asked about is Testosterone boosters which really costs a pretty penny. Firstly how does anyone really know if it works? You would really require regular blood tests to really note a difference. Even for those who swear they feel different, it is impossible to rule out a placebo effect. Also if the person was a young adult male then he most likely doesn’t need Testosterone.

What about the multitude of diet pills out there? Diet pills is a very close second for supplements I get asked about. Now I am not going to pull any punches here as some of these can be downright dangerous. These pills are supposed to “enhance” your fat burning ability. What they don’t tell you about is the long list of side effects that come hand and hand with it. Some of those can be quite dangerous such as kidney and liver damage.

There is no doubt that the supplement industry is massive and to be honest they have some really smart people working for them yet what sells and what is best for you are two different things. This can also be seen with large energy drinks companies touting that they have the formula to improve your workout. Yet a recent study showed no improvement to performance Doug Dupont does a great breakdown. http://breakingmuscle.com/supplements/study-puts-red-bull-caffeine-and-taurine-to-the-test

This leads me to the latest craze, Pre-workout “enhancements” not supplements. They are sold as supplements but they are enhancers. To be honest I have seen this stuff work but over time the effects seem to fade and they can be adverse to your health. I have heard this first hand from someone I weightlift with. He told me that whilst it improved his performance he had trouble sleeping and his heart would race like it was going to pound out of his chest. I guess this can draw a parallel argument in some ways to drugs in sport and that some people will do anything to get the extra no matter the results.

I think ultimately as an individual I choose not to take Testosterone boosters or pre-workouts and diet pills because they are not supplements to my diet they are enhancers and that is my choice. Off course what you do is your choice and ultimately these enhancers are short term fixes almost like shake diets. We need to change our habits, diets and routines if we want the best for our health and quality longevity.

WARNING: I am not a dietician or a doctor I am not providing advice on what supplements you should take and you should see a dietician or doctor to obtain their professional advice best for you and you individual situation. You will notice I do not have any affiliate links to the supplements I use as I am trying to sell anything in regards to supplements or enhancers.

What is it like in there?

When talking to people about health and fitness I enjoy watching the facial expressions. It is far more interesting to focus on what the body and face are saying instead of listening to the words. Sometimes words lie, even when the person doesn’t intend to. You can get so much more when you focus on the whole picture. Generally my favourite is the “Oh yeah” coupled with the raised eye brows, a very good indicator that what I have suggested is either to hard or they simply don’t care. I frequently get this reaction when talking about food, more specifically a fridge audit.

Now for those of you who have already participated in a fridge audit you already know what a great tool it can be. But to the many on the path to improved health and fitness it seems like it is unnecessary. For me the easiest way to explain it is if you were to get a home loan from the bank they will want to look at your finances before they approve it. The fridge is no different, if you are trying to get an idea of what a person is putting in their body take a look in their fridge. I was once asked by a patient “You want me to look in my fridge what’s yours look like?” Well I had a picture on my phone to show her. After looking at the picture she was quick to reply “You like rabbit food haha” she was joking and followed up with “You certainly practice what you preach”. I suppose she was right I do practice what I preach and I had proof to boot. That patient then went home and had a good look in her fridge. Now I am hoping some of you just got up and went and checked your fridge, if not please do.

So now let me tell you what is it you want and don’t want to find? It is simple. You want to find vibrant colours and plenty of variety. Just like a plate of food at meal time the majority should be vibrant vegetables, a small portion of meat and some complex carbs. Off course you would also like to find some form of yogurt or probiotic food and other dairies. Lean meats preferably grass fed or wild oily fish really as close to nature as you can get. What you don’t want to find is too many refined sugary drinks, pre-packaged meals and overly manufactured foods. The audit is simple and allows plenty of scope to choose foods that you may or may not be tolerant to.

So for those of you have mastered their exercise programs but are still struggling with weight loss or improved performance maybe the fridge audit is the way to go. And if you are feeling daring I would suggest a pantry and freezer audit as well. What is in your fridge? What cool things do you have in their? (no pun intended but it worked out well).