Exercise of the Week: TRX Russian Twist

Sample Workout

The following is a workout performed by one of my clients this morning. This is a client in her 40's who plays tennis a couple of times a week. She has a history of neck pain and limited thoracic mobility. Those two pretty much go hand in hand in a lot of cases. We try to address those issues through the self myofacial work and the warm up portion early on in the session. With her power work, I "ll alternate between rotational med ball throws and overhead slam variations. Her strength work covers major movement patterns (upper body push and pull, quad dominant and hamstring dominant) early on in the strength portion then moves onto accessory movements with the focus on being on shoulder mobility, scapular stability and core stability. All in all it took about 55 minutes to get through.

Foam Roller/Tennis Ball Self Myofacial Release - thoracic spine, lats, posterior shoulder, glutes

Warm Up -

Sleeper Stretch 1x30sec

Upper Trap Stretch 1x30sec

Seated Hip External Rotator Stretch 1x30sec

Side Lying Thoracic Extension/Rotation 1x8

Cradle Walk 1x6

Walking RDL 1x6

Overhead Walking Lunge w/Rotation 1x6

Squat to Stand w/Overhead Reach 1x8

Split Stance Broomstick Pec Mobilization 1x8

Med Ball Work

Half Kneeling Med Ball Diagonal Slams 2x10

Workout

1A) Rear Foot Elevated Split Squat w/TRX, 3x10-12

2A) Push Ups w/Feet Elevated on Swiss Ball, 3x10-12

1B) Val Slide Leg Curl, 3x10-12

2B) TRX Inverted Row, 3x10-12

1A) Walking Lunge w/DB Waiter Carry, 3x10

1B) Prone Y Raise, 3x10-12

1C) Half Kneeling Cable Lift, 3x8-10

There's a Difference: Working Out vs. Training

Working Out vs. Training

Are you just working out or are you training? May be you do not know the difference between the two. Working out is just getting some exercise in, whether it's cardio work or strength work. The usual goal of someone working out is usually just to create some fatigue. To make it feel like you did something. Or may be you're one of those searching for soreness. The funny thing is, it's not that hard to create fatigue or soreness. I could have you do box jumps for a half hour straight and I'm sure you would want to throw up at the end and could barely walk the next day. And fatigue and soreness are really not measurable, significant goals. Working out is going from one workout to the next without any real, significant goals in mind. Basically there is no direction. It gets you nowhere.

Training is comprised of workouts. You have a particular goal in mind. It could be to drop 10lbs or knock a few points off your bodyfat percentage. It could be the ability to do a chin or pull up. Whatever it is, each training session or workout is structured towards getting you to that goal. Each session builds off the previous and takes the next one into account. It's not just about creating fatigue or soreness. As I mentioned before anyone can do that without any real logical thinking. Training is logical. There is direction. There are specifics. There is an end result in mind.

One more thing to think about when debating the difference between training and working out. What do athletes do? They train. Unless your name is Brett Favre of course. In that case you just do what ever you want to do.

There's a Difference: Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss

Weight loss is pretty easy to measure. Hop on the scale before. Hop on the scale later on. If the number on the scales has gone down, weight loss has occurred. Whether it's fat you have lost or muscle mass you have lost, some type of weight loss has occurred. It's just the sum of total body mass, whether it's muscle mass or bodyfat. Weight loss doesn't' correspond to a loss in subcutaneous fat. You know that stuff that hangs around your waistline? Take the typical person who undergoes a low calorie diet and a plan of steady state aerobics. They in fact may lose weight, but they may have also undergone a loss in fat free mass (muscle) resulting in a higher bodyfat percentage. The old "skinny fat" syndrome. I can attest to that. The years when I was training for the marathon, my weight went down, but my percentage of bodyfat went up. I was also weaker and always hurt, but that's a different story. Weight loss is also usually going to be accompanied by a loss in metabolism as bodyweight drops, especially if muscle mass is not maintained.

Fat loss is a measure of just one characteristic, bodyfat. Fat loss can not be measured by just hopping on a scale. Fat loss is measured through body composition testing, whether it's calipers, underwater weighing or scanning. Or another not so scientific way is how your clothes fit. Maybe you weigh the same, but your clothes are feeling a bit looser. That's a pretty good indicator of a loss in bodyfat. Whereas a drop in overall weight may result in a drop in metabolism, a drop in bodyfat may result in an increased metabolism if there is an increase in muscle mass.

Don't make the mistake that bathroom scale is going to tell you everything in the pursuit of a leaner and healthier look.

Exercise of the Week: Single Leg TRX Inverted Row

There's a Difference: Diet vs. Nutrition

Diet vs. Nutrition

The word diet just seems to have this negative feeling. When you hear about dieting, you usually thinking in terms of restiction. You must cut out this. You must cut out that. You must get your calories down to a ridiculously low level. It's a set of rules you must follow. Usually it's an elimination of something, whether it's the Atkins Diet, Zone Diet or Cabbage Soup Diet. Nobody likes a diet. People that are on diets are not even pleasant to be around. Do diets work? Yes, if they are followed. But usually diets are only going to work in the short term. If that's you're goal, great. If you're looking to drop some weight for a wedding, week on the beach or your high school reunion, a diet may work. Any diet will work if followed. But how many people do you know that stay on a diet forever? I can not name one. There's usually some type of rebound effect resulting in that weight being put back on.

It may just be me, but if I think of nutrition I'm thinking of something that is not so restrictive and something that is going to work long term. Good nutrition is more about changing habits. It's about putting good dietary practices into place. It's thinking more long term. You're fueling your body with the nutrients it needs and eliminating those that it doesn't need. Good nutrition will work in regards to weight loss. And I don't know about you, but if I am looking to lose 5-10lbs and succeed in doing so, why would I want to put it back on?

Eliminating foods is a diet. Eating good foods is nutrition.

There's a Difference: Jogging vs. Running

It's very easy to get confused these days when searching for ways to get leaner, improve your conditioning or finding a that diet works best for you. There's a lot of information out there, all of which can be at your hands in as little as one second after going to Google. Sometimes when you think you're doing something good for yourself, you might actually not be doing yourself any good at all. You had the intention of one thing, but you're actually doing another. What you think is a difference in wording, might actually be a different concept all together. What I want to do in this series of posts is illustrate the difference between what one actually means and what one is actually doing. Let's start with one of my personal favorites.

Running vs. Jogging

When most people say they are going for a run, they should actually say they are going for a jog. No difference between the two, you say? I say there's an enormous difference. Jogging is an incomplete movement pattern. It's like doing half a chin up or not working through a full range of motion when bench pressing. There's never any real extended stride. The arm and leg movement is short without any real full range of motion. Some refer to it as as "speed shuffling" or "speed limping". I have to agree. No one really ever looks good when jogging. They either look like they are hurting or can't move properly. The movement just doesn't look right. It's not a walk, but it's not a run. So I guess it's called a jog. Take the incomplete movement pattern repeated many times over the course of a "jog" and there is an injury waiting to happen.

Now if we look at running, we look at a completely different movement pattern. Running is the ability to "move rapidly on foot". There's a stride phase. There's a recovery phase. There's an involvement of the glutes and hamstrings that you don't find in jogging. You're moving through a more complete movement pattern than the jogging pattern and it looks a whole lot better. It is all about how you look, right? And if it's not about how you look, how about the chances of getting injured being reduced? A real running pattern usually is going to consist of a longer stride. A longer stride means less repetitions of that movement over the course of a run. Less repetitions could mean less chance of injury.

Even Nike has their own thoughts on the difference between the two:

Another Client Realization

Last week a client mentioned to me that she had lost about an inch around her waistline and we had not even programmed in any of your classic "core" work (crunches, twisting crunches, leg raises, etc.). This next realization comes from a female client after I discussed with her the need to bump up her protein intake.

"I wanted to tell you thank you for your diet tips you gave me way back when. After you told me about what a typical day should look like I did some research and although I've only lost about five lbs I dropped a size! It definitely took a few weeks of switching up my diet and really increasing the protein before I noticed a difference. I was just about to give up actually. I think most women will tell you that eating five small meals a day is nearly impossible, but once you get the hang of it AND realize you aren't going to gain weight from it, it actually works!"

Mission accomplished.

Exercise of the Week: Single Leg/Two Arm RDL

One of my favorite posterior chain exercises is the the Single Leg Romanian Deadlift (SLRDL). There are many ways to load the exercise: cable, barbell, one dumbbell. Here, I have my client using two kettlebells. She had done the single arm version for a couple weeks and I wanted to increase the load so we went to the two arm version. The way she is performing the exercise is just about perfect. Good hip hinge, good extension of the trail leg and a nice neutral spine throughout the set.

My Top Five....

....carbohydrate rules. Carbs get a bad rap and they probably should. But it doesn't mean you have to drop carbs all together if you're looking to shed some pounds or drop some bodyfat. If you're looking for a drastic reduction in weight or bodyfat, yeah, you might have to. But if you're looking more at sustained weight loss it's more about where your carbs are coming from and at what times you're ingesting them. So some rules to go by:

1. Get the majority of your carbohydrates from fruits and vegetables.
2. Outside of fruits and vegetables ingest all other carbs when your insulin sensitivity is highest, in the morning hours and post workout. Yes, you do not need bread with every single meal.
3. Stay away from high fat/high carb foods. These are basically all your processed foods, a lot of your bagged and boxed foods. In this situation the carbs are basically serving as a transit system for the high amount of fatt that was just taken in.
4. Stay away from low fat foods. Low in fat just usually means higher in carbohydrates. Don't fear the fat. Fear the carbs.
5. Days where you're getting a good amount of activity in be a little more lenient with your carb intake. Days where you're going to be a couch potato, watch your carb intake.

It doesn't have to be an all or nothing approach. Just know where your carbs are coming from and know times are best for them. They can be your friend or they can be your worst enemy.

Too many carbs perhaps?

Exercise of the Week: Slideboard Roll Out

Another rollout version to experiment with. If you don't have a slideboard, the same can be done with Valslides though you may find that harder since the friction is probably going to be greater.