Posts Tagged ‘weight training’

Excuses & Meme’s…The Great American Way! Part II

Please read part I posted last week to shed light on what I am about to suggest in this post.  Last week I told you that all of us have meme’s and that they act to impede our fitness and nutrition goals.  Today I would like to give you some simple steps that you can apply to change your current mindset so that you can obtain the lifestyle that you truly deserve.

Step #1:  Acknowledge that you make excuses:

No, you’re not in AA but this first step CANNOT be overlooked. If you do, you will pay the price of failing.  You make excuses…yes you do.  There is absolutely nobody that is exempt from excuse making and you are no exception.  That is ok.  The good news is that you can change your mind once you identify your excuses and memes. 

Step #2: Write down all of your excuses and memes:

This is more of a process.  For the next 30 days I want you to write down all of the excuses and memes that you make to yourself.  See last weeks post for examples.

Step #3: State the opposite:

Once you have written down all of your most annoying excuses and memes you need to write down the exact opposite.  For example if you say, “I am too tired to exercise after work”, write down “Because I am proactive and take responsibility for my life, I will exercise before work to increase my energy level”. 

Step #4: Change your Sub-Conscience Mind: 

Your sub-conscience mind is the part of the brain that stores all of your habits.  It steers the proverbial ship.  This is where the vast majority of all your behaviors are stored and processed.  To change your sub-conscience mind you have to do the following things.

            a. Convince it that it is wrong:  You do this by stating the exact opposite of your memes.  The very moment that a negative or damming thought enters your head you must replace it with the opposite thought…even if you have to say it out loud.

            b. Construct a list of positive affirmations:  On this list could be something like “I am in control of my eating at all times”, or “Exercising daily is just part of who I am”. 

            c. Repeat your list of affirmations daily, morning and night: Do this when you first awake and before you go to sleep.  The goal is to be in a relaxed state where not much will bother you and where your mind can be at ease. 

            d. Be in a state of believing:  When you are repeating your affirmations, do so in a state of positivity and optimism

Step #5: Disarm your alarm system!

When you begin doing these simple steps your brain will tell you that you are crazy and that you are acting weird or like a moron.  This is normal because your brain is still convinced of the validity of your previous mindset of excuses and memes.  Persistence is the key here.  If you persist and repeat your affirmations day after day you will begin to believe the things that you are telling yourself and BECAUSE YOU BELIEVE YOURSELF YOU WILL ACT ON IT!  Yes your behavior will start to change in a way that you never imagined possible.

Step #6:  Realize that you never “Arrive”.

We live in a world of complacency, feeling entitled and laziness.  If you are not constantly reinforcing your sub-conscience mind, rest assured you will slip back into old ways.  Stay focused and realize that you have to be proactive to win the battle.  Things will not magically work out for the best if you are not constantly bathing your mind with the things that you want to accomplish.

Step #7 Action:

This is where it is time to get off your butt and get into action.  You can have the most wonderful meditation sessions of visualizations and imagery known to mankind, but if you don’t move you will never change your behavior.  It is much easier to shed your old excuses when you see yourself doing the opposite of them.  Soon you will be excuse free!

Step #8 Making it Long-Term:

Realize from the get-go that this is about lifestyle change for the long-term!  Never allow any short-sightedness to enter the picture here.  When you are planning your visualizations and affirmations make them long term.  You want to adopt a mindset of permanency.

 Well there you have it my friends!  Properly applied these principles can and will change your lifestyle for the better.  Start applying them today…there is absolutely no room for procrastination here.  Remember…life is good!

Principle #6:  Remember that “one size exercise does NOT fit all”.

 Remember the last time you ordered that Richard Simmons video or more recently that P90X workout and you got great results for around that time frame (60-90 days) and then things seemed to taper off?  The reason for this is the mode of exercise that you are participating in.  To illustrate what I am talking about let me tell you about the nature and characteristics of human skeletal muscle.  Human muscle comes in a variety of fiber types.  Type I Fibers or “red muscle fiber” is a muscle fiber that is characterized by its ability to endure.  It is the muscle fiber that is highly “aerobic” in nature, meaning that it can process oxygen at a faster and more efficient rate than the other Type II fibers that I will describe shortly.  The downside to this type of muscle fiber is that it is not very strong.  Those who possess a high degree of this type of fiber are typically more slender and tend to be weaker in strength.  Type II fibers are generally classified into what is called Type II A, B, or C muscle fibers.  These muscle fibers are much stronger than the type I fibers but lack the endurance capacity of the type I fiber.  Those that posses a high amount of these fibers tend to be very strong people but lack sub maximal muscle endurance.

 So when you finish your workout video, you have predominantly exercised the type I fibers and by and large neglected the type II muscle fibers.  The key is to “Periodize” your workouts so that you hit ALL of the muscle fibers and thereby train the muscle holistically rather than in “fiber isolation” that you will find in about 95% of all commercial/fad workouts.

 Principle #7: Remember to PERIODIZE!

 This is where you plan your workouts yearly…yes yearly.  When one of our clients comes into Lifelong Fitness the first thing that we will do is get them on a year plan that is periodized.  What in the world am I talking about?  This is where you plan workouts around intensity/volume levels.  For example if you are just starting you would want to start in a 10-15 rep range (resistance training) and stay in that range for 4-6 weeks to let the body settle into its newly imposed demands.  After that period (hence the term periodization) you would do well in a rep range of 8-12 to induce what is known as muscle hypertrophy.  You would then proceed to go through 3-5 more cycles to make sure that you are hitting all of the available muscle fibers.  This is where a knowledgeable and formally educated Personal Trainer can make a world of difference for you as they will educate you as to how you can properly design a periodized training program.

 Principle #8: Remember tempo!

 This is one of the most overlooked principles there is.  The tempo of your lifting has a very specific effect on the adaptation of the muscle fibers.  When first beginning you should favor a moderate tempo for your lifting.  When you have a year or so of training under your belt you should favor a variety of training tempo’s ranging from slow to ballistic and explosive.  This will help to challenge and develop the whole scope of your available muscle fibers (principle #6).  I could write an entire blog on this subject so stay tuned in the future…I just might!

 Principle #9: Intensity and Volume Increases

 Intensity as it pertains to weight training is based on percentage of 1 rep max (the maximum amount of weight that you can lift with any exercise).  So if you are lifting around 12 maximal reps you are lifting approximately 65-70% of your 1RM.  Typically you will want to range around 65%to 95% of your 1RM depending on your physical ability and your training experience.  When increasing the volume (sets x reps x weight lifted for your entire workout) you want to make sure that you never go over a ten % training volume in a two week period unless you are an experienced competive or elite athlete.  So take the time for this simple exercise and reap the rewards…your body will thank you and your results will skyrocket.

  Principle #10:  Rest!

 More is not always better!  I know that this one is hard to believe but please listen up!  Once engaged in resistance training human muscle accumulates what is known as cumulative muscle trauma.  This is part of the “tear it down and build it up” process.  This is healthy under normal conditions because this is how you get stronger, but if you continue to train harder and harder without any rest you are in for overtraining syndrome which calls for a whole host of physical break downs as it pertains to your performance and physical well being.

 So take a week off after about 12 weeks of consistent weight training.  If you haven’t tried this yet go ahead and give it a try and see what happens…you will love it.

Well there you have it my friends…smarter not harder!  Remember life is good!

Ok, you are talking to a friend that you have not seen for a while, just shooting the breeze and catching up when all of the sudden you hear him say, “I just started a new exercise program and I am doing my cardio 6 times per week to burn the fat and I lift in the gym 3 times per week to firm up”.  You nod your head in an affirming gesture, end the conversation, and go on with your day.  You return to work after your lunch-break and over hear two ladies in an adjacent cubical saying, “Yea, I just started working out again but I am just focusing on cardio for now to burn the fat and then when I reach my goal I will start with the weights”.

Many of us have heard statements such as these and many more.  Those that make them have the very best of intentions but the very worst of factual information.  Today I want to give you some facts that will change your approach to fitness and ultimately point you in the right direction for whatever your fitness goal may be.

Must Have Natural Metabolism Elixirs:

1- Resistance Training:

For those of you already involved with resistance training congratulations!  For those of you who are either not doing it or putting it off, till “I have lost some initial weight”, please reconsider the following physiological process of fat burning:

-Resistance training is the nuts and bolts to building muscle

-Muscle is a metabolically active tissue, meaning that it is the tissue that is constantly burning         calories and fat.

- Resistance training is the ONLY way to maintain a level of lean muscle tissue that will help you in your fat-burning quest.

2- Proper Cardio/Resistance Training Balance

This goal will vary for everyone depending on fitness levels, goals, age, gender, and so forth.

A few rules of thumb that might help you…

A- If your goal is weight loss: You want to start with 50/50 split between cardio and weights.  For example cardiovascular activities on M/W/F and weights on T/TH/SAT.

B- If your goal is muscle gains: You want to start with the scale swayed towards more weight training days.  So you might go to four days of weights and only two days of cardio.  In reality this particular set-up can burn just as much and in some cases more than the weight loss regime that I just listed under letter A.

C- If your goal is weight maintenance:  typically weight training 3-4 days per week with 2-3 days of cardio injected on your non-weight training days.

3- Muscle Building Nutrition

How many of us go to the gym, do our workout and then lie to ourselves with some of the following excuses…

-“I workout so that I can eat like I want to”

- “I workout so hard that my body can handle some of the junk food that I consume frequently”

- “I am not making progress in the gym so it must be my workout” (completely turning a blind eye to poor nutrition)

The truth is that nutrition is 80% of the fat loss battle whereas the gym is only 20%.  Yes we need to workout and workout hard, but how can we expect our bodies to build muscle and burn fat if we are giving it crap food every day?  The math does not add up and that is why there are so many frustrated, plateau stricken, ever persistent gym going people out there that never get over that last fat hump.

The bottom line:

We all have certain beliefs and perspectives about resistance training that may or may not help us in our fitness goals.  I am speaking to some people in particular.  1-) Those wishing to shed body fat 2-) Those only participating in cardiovascular exercise 3-) Those who have viewed resistance training as a “guy thing” or those who have been turned off by massive bodybuilding men and women thinking that they will look like them if they participate in a sensible resistance training program.  Resistance training consistently beats cardiovascular exercise when it comes to burning fat and maintaining healthy body fat levels.

If you truly want your body to become a Fat Burning Machine please do away with those worn out and tired myths and consider the aforementioned points in this article.  Become a believer as your fat melts away and you maintain the lean muscular and sexy body that you have always wanted.