Exercise: Don't Waste Your Time

We started with nutrition in the first post, but that is only half of the equation. The other half, exercise, is where people really get lost.  Whether the goal is losing weight, gaining weight, decreasing body fat, building strength, flexibility, mobility, increasing endurance, completing an athletic event or improving some other aspect of performance the variables related to exercise can be drastically different. Assuming you have started cracking down on your nutritional quantity with an emphasis on quality (If you don't know what I am talking about go back and read the last post: Very important!) let's dive into exercise. Because the topics related to exercise are endless, below are just a few things that I think everyone should be aware of before going into the gym for their daily workout. Start with these BIG PICTURE ideas when deciding what you are going to do for your workout tomorrow.


It is all Resistance Training
People group exercise into "cardio" or "weight lifting", but what most fail to realize is that they are both forms of resistance training. For the sake of this post let's consider exercise as any activity in which muscle activity is required (suffice for the purpose of this post). Thus, activities such as walking, running, swimming, cycling, jumping, weight lifting, crossfit "ing", standing, skating and many others fit the bill. Exercise basically consists of one or more forces acting on the muscles and subsequent tissue of the body (and other small details that most need not worry about). What most consider "cardio" could be referred to as low intensity (to be discussed in the next section) exercise or muscle actions or "Long Slow Endurance" because it is often done for an extended period of time.

Don't Be Afraid of Heavy Weights
Fiction- Lifting weights will always make you build muscle
Too often I hear the universal response to lifting weights; "I don't want to lift heavy, I put muscle on so easily." If only you knew how hard it really is to build muscle. There are specific requirements such as a surplus of calories and large volume (a lot of repetitions, i.e. multiple sets of 10 or more repetitions with a low to moderate weight) of training. The caloric surplus is usually the key ingredient to muscle growth, thus if you are not limiting your caloric intake you are not going to see what most want to see (lean, toned, ripped, shredded, skinny, etc.) Often what people mistake for "building muscle," in my opinion, is a little muscle pump (muscles filled with blood from recent workout) and other acute (not going to stick around) effects of exercise. Give it a few days, your muscle will recover and your body won't feel the need to flood the muscle with blood because it is fully repaired. Remember the snowman analogy from the previous post. If you are not taking in extra calories it is impossible for you to get bigger (You can't make your snowman bigger if it isn't snowing). There is more being expended than you are consuming and thus you will only get smaller. If that is not the case then you probably need to reassess your nutrition (read the previous post one more time and figure out what you are missing)


One Big Spectrum
Rather than looking at it as two distinct groups of activity let's view it as a spectrum of activities based on the intensity or effort required to complete the task. Exercise intensity, the key to it all, can be defined as how much energy is being expended when doing the exercise. On the far left of the spectrum we have basic movements such as moving from a seated position to a standing position (modified squat), while on the far right side of the spectrum we have the same activity loaded with 200+ lbs. on your back (a tad bit more intense). In between moving from left to right we have walking, repeated body weight squatting, jogging, squatting with 50lbs., running and sprinting. The general theme of locomotion and squatting was kept consistent so that the increase in intensity (left to right) could be understood, but believe it or not EVERY form of exercise can be placed within this spectrum. A simple way to figure out how intensely you are working is to use a Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE). Ask yourself: On a scale of 1-10 how hard are you working? Consider 1-4: low intensity, 5-7: moderate intensity and 8-10: High intensity. This method of assessing intensity takes your fitness level into consideration. Thus,  if you and the person next to you are both at an intensity of "8" you are both working intensely, even if you are only lifting 15lbs while they lift 25lbs. Keep challenging your intensity and before you know it you will start to feel like that 15lbs is more like a "7" or "6." When that happens you will undoubtedly (because of your new found knowledge and desire to reach your goals) increase the weight to make sure you are still working with a challenging intensity (weight).

You Get Out What You Put In
As stated above, intensity is "how much energy is being expended when doing the exercise" and that is why one expends more energy doing activities on the far right than on the far left. It's simple, if it feels easy, your heart rate is low it probably is not very intense. On the other hand if your heart is jumping out of your chest, it feels very to maximally challenging it is probably pretty intense. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not telling everyone to go squat 300lbs. Rather, I am trying to open your eyes to the fact that you really do get out what you put into your workouts. Are you walking when you could be jogging? Are you doing body weight squats when you could be loading a barbell with some weight? Are you jogging on flat ground when you could be jogging on an incline? Are you lying down on the ground doing crunches when you could be doing something upright that is more "abdominally" engaging such as loaded squat. Are you feeding yourself a lie by saying that body weight and those little 5lbs weights are challenging enough to see the results you want? Could you add 1, 5, 25, 100 .lbs or something to increase the intensity? If you for even a second considered saying "yes" or didn't immediately say "No!" then you probably need to kick it up a notch!


Remember, muscles, tendons, ligaments and bone can't tell what you are doing they can only "sense" intensity (due to the forces exerted and damage aftermath). When your body detects a challenging intensity you have provided an adequate stimulus for your body to change. If you don't continue to increase the intensity your body will adapt to a mode barely capable of doing what you ask of it and not continue to adapt: ENTER-The Plateau. Challenging your body by increasing resistance or increasing speed through intervals (in the event you are just too fond of locomotive activities such as running or swimming to let them go) should be a constant consideration during every single one of your workouts if you are trying to see change. A simple interval to begin with could be 30 seconds fast followed by 60 seconds moderate (i.e. run for 30 seconds then jog or walk for 60 seconds) and repeat for 10, 20 or 30 minutes based on your current fitness level.


Choose Your Artillery Wisely
I use the analogy of weaponry to describe muscles of the body. Imagine the muscles of the body, based on size are in actuality each a weapon. Small muscle = small weapon. Big muscle = big weapon. Here are some examples:

Abdomen: sling shot
Bicep: pistol
Quadriceps: Shotgun
Glutes: Bazooka

Now, turn your imagination on and imagine that your workout is a video game and you are trying to do as much damage as possible during a workout. You could consider this damage as actual damage to the muscle tissue to stimulate muscle growth (Those trying to build muscle) or overall energy expenditure (Those trying to lean and tone by building a little muscle and getting rid of a lot of fat) in the event of trying to wipe out fat. Which of the weapons above would you want to use? If you aren't sure of the right answer let Jim Carey help you out in the picture below..... Why would you want to use a sling shot firing-reloading-firing 100 times (100 crunches on the hard floor) when you could pull out the bazooka, shotgun and sling shot all at the same time (Barbell Squat, Over Head Squat or Lunge with Rotation)? When you set aside an hour or two of your day to exercise and you want to see results you need to go to the bigger muscles and target multiple muscle groups at once. Not only does this stimulate more muscle tissue to adapt and super compensate, but it also improves your bodies ability to burn through stored energy (calories). Rather than wasting your time doing isolated exercises like bicep curls and crunches or seated leg extensions try to find compound exercises such as squats, lunges, presses, pulls, etc. to tap into more fat destruction! And you know what is even better than just using compound exercises? Increasing the intensity by increasing the weight. If you said it before reading it, than you are catching on!

So, get to it! Go do some SERIOUS DAMAGE!