Training for recovery?!

This may sound counter-intuitive, but you can (and should) use workouts as recovery.

Yes, a workout can actually help you recover faster than just resting!

It's not all about massages, foam rolling and breathing exercises.

For some people, they never train hard enough for this to be an issue (those people need to start adding in a couple of high intensity sessions per week), but for others, ALL of their workouts are high intensity, and that's a problem.

Not all workouts should be high intensity

"Go hard or go home" is the mantra of the steroid-infused bodybuilder with a lack of blood flow to the brain!

A light workout the day after a heavy/high intensity workout can:

• Help the body shift into a recovery state (that's when the body grows and adapts in response to the hard workouts)

• Stimulate blood flow to the muscles (which will help them recover faster)

• Help build resilience (you need to be able to function after heavy workouts and this will build your capacity to do so)

• Improve breathing and movement quality by keeping you moving and not allowing you to stiffen up as is often the case in the days after a hard workout

• Make you FEEL better - it should give you more energy, not make you feel drained after the workout.

So, how do you do a recovery workout?

Just follow these simple rules:

• Keep it short - a 2-hour run isn't recovery, it's more stress. Aim for 20-40 minutes

• Keep it light - if you're doing "cardio", keep your heart rate reasonably low - about 60-75% of your max HR (think walking uphill at a reasonable pace or a light jog)

• Mix up your movements to work mobility and get every joint mobilised, and get blood flow into all muscles

• Spend a bit more time on any areas that feel like they need it - anything that feels particularly tight or sore

1. Start with some light mobility work and focus on your breathing as you do

2. Then aim for 10-20 minutes of light work - a circuit of easy exercises is probably best, just remember you're aiming for movement and recovery, not as many reps as you can in 60 seconds! Keep your heart rate in the target range and if it goes above, take a rest and dial it back a bit.

3. Then add in 2-3 sets of power or strength work to keep the nervous system stimulated (but not too much). A couple of sets of 8-10 reps per side of something like a standing cable rotation or med ball side throw would be perfect.

4. Finish with a few minutes of breathing exercises - just lay on the floor and focus on breathing as slowly as possible to get your heart rate as low as you can.

If you can alternate high intensity workouts with these recovery workouts, you're setting yourself up for success. Over-training shouldn't be an issue and that means better results long-term.

Don't train hard for days in a row, but you also shouldn't really need any days off - just do something light to aid recovery.

Be smart with your workouts. Use some to stimulate growth and adaptation (i.e. challenge yourself), and use others to aid in recovery, because recovery is where all of those adaptations occur.

No recovery = no adaptations. Which means all those hard workouts back to back are hours wasted and will actually make you feel worse!

The key to progress is to push yourself, then let your body recover. Rinse and repeat.

This will get better results for strength, fitness, muscle gain, fat loss and health.

If you need help getting some structure to your training, get in touch and let's talk.

Mark

Cardio or Weights for Fat Loss?

Are you wasting your time on the treadmill?

For the most part fat loss is about energy expenditure. Calories are units of energy, fat is made up of stored energy, ergo to burn fat you must use up energy.

I’m going to tell you how you can burn more energy, without spending precious extra time in the gym.

Your muscles are the engines of your fat burning. The harder they work, the more energy [calories] you’ll burn.

Whilst running on a treadmill/outside, cycling, or jumping on the cross-trainer for 40 minutes will burn energy and improve your aerobic fitness, it’s not going to work your muscles particularly hard, especially after a few weeks of doing it when your body becomes accustomed to the workout and more efficient at it (more efficient = less calories burned).

For the most part, the sheer amount of time people spend running is what produces any fat loss results, but also normally comes with a loss of muscle too (picture a typical long-distance runner – not the most muscular people).

If your goal is fat loss, without the accompanying loss of muscle and strength (remember you want to keep hold of your muscle to burn more calories, and I see no reason why anyone would want to get weaker!) then resistance training is your best choice.

Already I can hear the usual response (normally from women): “But I don’t want to get muscly”

You won’t.

Let me explain.

To burn fat, you need to be burning more calories than you consume – should be quite obvious.

To build muscle, you need to be consuming more calories than you burn (you can’t build muscle without adequate fuel – it would be like trying to build a wall without any bricks).

So while there are some slight differences between training protocols, training for fat loss and training for muscle gain are very similar. The difference comes from your nutrition.

By lifting weights (resistance training) you will be burning more of the fuel in your muscles. This fuel then needs replacing, which will come from your food, or if you’re burning more than you’re eating, from your energy (fat) stores.

Enter the next problem: Gyms full of machines.

Machines made to target specific muscles are great for rehabbing an injury or for targeting problem areas for body-building, but for the weight-loss community, they’re using too few muscles to burn any significant amount of energy; and if you spend your hour in the gym going from one machine to the next with your “3 sets of 10” programme, you’re missing out on A LOT of calorie burning.

There’s a reason that squats, deadlifts, lunges, burpees etc. are hated world-wide – because they’re hard work! Hard work means they’re using most of your muscles at the same time, draining your energy (burning it) and getting you out of breath (muscles need oxygen to burn fuel – so the more out of breath from lifting weights you are, the more energy you’re likely burning [as a side note – this also counts as “cardio”]).

THIS is how you should be allocating your gym time. Focussing on large movements with resistance.

Remember, if you’re eating less calories than you burn, you won’t be able to build lots of muscle! For women, you also don’t have the right hormones to build muscle easily, especially without eating enough.

Some people will notice an ‘apparent’ increase in muscle size to begin with. If you’re not used to lifting weights, your muscles will draw in more fluid (water/blood) in order to repair, and they’ll also become more efficient at storing energy (which is a good thing because it’s easier to burn it from here, and it means less will be stored as fat if more can be stored in the muscle).

This is not your muscles growing, just becoming more efficient; and it will not continue unless you are over-eating – don’t panic about your jeans getting a little bit tighter around your thighs initially.

Fat-burning is much, MUCH faster than muscle-building so this will be a non-issue very soon.

Another point to remember is that bodybuilding requires the muscles to grow in size. This means striving for the famed “pump” in the muscle. This shouldn’t really be an issue if you’re using large, full-body movements instead of isolating small muscle groups, but if you’re worried about this, avoid lifting light weights for high reps – a sure-fire way to get a pump in the muscle and a common mistake women make when lifting weights, as people generally believe that this is better for “toning”!

This is a classic trap that women lifting weights fall into – too scared to get big and muscly, so they lift light weights.

If you want a leaner, more toned, firmer look, you need to make your muscles firmer and more toned. 

To do this you need to put tension through your muscles with heavier weights.

“Toning” requires heavy weights, not light weights and high reps.

Please be aware though that as with any training there is risk involved and by “heavy” I mean the heaviest weight you can lift with good technique. If you’re unsure of technique, get a good trainer and make sure your focus is on technique, not going for PB’s (personal best’s) every session.

*Until your technique is near perfect, you should NEVER increase the weight you’re lifting!*

In summary:

● For fat burning you need to lift weights (even just bodyweight exercises are sufficient) as oppose to spending countless hours doing “cardio”.

● Choose large, full body exercises over small isolated ones.

● Technique comes first and foremost, only then can you add more weight.

● As long as you’re burning more fuel than you’re consuming (calories), you CANNOT build masses of muscle, just a small adaptation to begin with as the muscles adjust to the extra work.

● More sets, less reps, heavier weights (with good technique) are preferable.

● Eat a healthy diet full of nutritious foods and avoid over-eating, but don’t drop calories too low; as long as calorie intake is less than expenditure you’ll lose weight, but if you drop calories too low your calorie expenditure will drop to match it and weight loss will stop.

For guys (or girls) wanting to burn fat AND build muscle this becomes quite complicated. Without a good coach I would recommend you focus on just fat burning first – if you’re doing strength training you’re unlikely to lose too much muscle so focus on getting leaner. Then, when you have lost an adequate amount of body fat, change to a muscle building routine (it’s easier to build muscle when you’re leaner as testosterone/oestrogen balance is more favourable for this with lower body fat).

For help with your training and/or nutrition, visit www.DartfordBootcamps.com for more information on Nutrition Coaching, Personal Training, Bootcamp, and other classes.

And follow us on Facebook and Twitter (do it now……) for extra tips, advice and motivation.

What is "Cardio"?

Millions of people around the world insist on jogging. I hate jogging; it’s bad for your joints (especially if you’re overweight), and if you have any muscular imbalances or injuries it will exacerbate the problem.

So if you can’t run, how else will you do your cardio?

Cycling? Rowing? Cross-Training? Swimming?

Contrary to popular belief, these aren’t the only ways you can “do cardio”; lifting weights is cardio!

Cardiovascular/Cardio/CV training is anything that raises your heart rate.

So… if you load up a barbell with your bodyweight, sit it on your back and start squatting, will your heart rate increase? You bet it will! Pump out a dozen reps and you’ll be out of breath too. THAT IS cardio.

Jump up and hang off a bar, and knock out 15 pull-ups – also cardio.

Basically, lifting weights with any sort of intensity is cardio, especially the larger, full-body movements like squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, crawling, tyre flips etc. The more muscles you’re working, the more muscles are crying out for more oxygen.

Basically what I’m saying is you don’t have to do long, boring “cardio” sessions, that will hinder any attempt to build muscle, and is less efficient for fat loss than weight training, and can damage your joints beyond repair. If you lift weights with intensity, you’ll get all of the benefits of CV training, 

with the added, and very important benefit of working and strengthening your muscles.

Want to burn more energy (i.e. calories)? Work your fuel-burners (your muscles) harder.

Yes, there are many ways to train with weights, but for the most part they’ll all work your cardiovascular system and get your heart pumping blood around your body faster and harder, and the benefits far outweigh the traditional and boring methods.

If you’re training for a run/swim/ride etc., then by all means train for that (but remember weight training will also help); but if you’re training for fat loss/fitness, lift weights.

You may not be able to lift weights for as long as you run without stopping, but people have come to realize that interval training is more beneficial for fat loss than steady state (i.e. long and boring) 

cardio anyway. So think of weights as an interval session, but working your muscles too. Win, win!

If you enjoy running, go for a run - just don't over-do it. If you don't enjoy it, then there's really no reason why you need to be doing it.

So the bottom line is this: Lift weights! Regardless of your goals.

Is your training confused? Fat Loss or just Fitness?

One of the most common things I see in the gym (or outside) is people confusing their training strategies with their training goals.

Does your training match your goals?

The two most common mismatches I see are people trying to lose fat spending hours on the cardio equipment or running; and people trying to “bulk up” and gain a “cover model” physique trying to lift the heaviest weights possible.

For this post I’ll briefly cover the first group – the Fat Loss group.

Although cardio was long thought of as the best way to burn fat, with a so called “fat burning zone” and the “just move more” attitude, it’s [not so] recently been proven in study after study that there are far more efficient ways to burn fat. I’m not saying that traditional cardio training isn’t beneficial, but that it’s the long road to take if fat loss is your goal and may never get you looking the way you want to look.

Your body will adapt to whatever you put it through - which is why when you start you might only be able to run 100 metres, but within a couple of weeks you can run miles. This is a warning signal! You're body becomes more efficient at running, meaning it uses less energy (calories) to do so. So although you may lose weight running initially, you'll soon hit a plateau. Most people think the answer is to run more, and although that may help, it's not a good way to go (especially given the amount of injuries runners suffer - with about 80% of runners suffering from injuries every year!)

Interval training (short bursts of extremely high intensity work followed by periods of slow recovery work repeated a number of times) has been proven to provoke a much greater fat burning effect. It releases the hormones needed to build or maintain muscle as well as burn fat for energy, and also, unlike traditional cardio where any calorie burning stops when you stop, intervals create an excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC), which basically means you’ll be burning extra calories for periods up to 48 hours (or even more) after your training session has ended!

The stress on your body and muscles whilst sprinting is what brings about these hormonal responses, and without it, you’ll struggle to burn off as much fat as you’d like and likely just be burning through valuable muscle tissue instead.

So if you hate the gym and love running, then at least change your training to include intervals - you still get to run, but you get all the benefits of high intensity exercise too.

On top of that, the more time you spend running/cycling/X-training etc. means less time lifting weights; and without working your muscles with resistance, you’ll also struggle to switch on your fat burning hormones.

In short, for fat loss, you need to ditch the long, steady pace cardio sessions and replace them with short (10-30 minute) interval sessions and weight training.

If you can train with weights 3 times per week, and use interval training twice a week, and use the other two days as rest days (maybe try some yoga or stretching), then the training side of your fat loss plan will be well under way. Then you just need to work on the nutrition side of things – because you can’t out-train a bad diet.

As a start, (after a good warm-up) try to sprint as far as you can, as fast as you can for 20 seconds (this will feel much longer!), then walk for 90 seconds to recover. Start with 4 or even just 3 rounds and build up to 8. Make sure you’re putting in 100% effort for the full 20 seconds though, no matter how tough it is – this isn’t “jog –walk” it’s “SPRINT-walk”.

As for the weights, avoid the machines and sit-ups, and head for the freeweights. Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts and Presses are the order of the day here.

If you want help with either training or diet you can contact me through my website www.DartfordBootcamps.com

Next post I’ll talk through the second group – those who want to be bigger – and why “how much you bench” doesn’t even come into it!

Mark :)

Kettlebells for Fat Loss

Kettlebells have been around for a long, long time, but have recently re-gained popularity, showing up in more and more gyms every week.

Although they’re essentially just another weight, the unique shape changes the way they’re used, lending them to large, full-body movements that get your whole body working.

This is beneficial for fat loss since, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s your muscles that burn calories. So the more muscles you use, and the harder you work them, the more calories you’ll burn.

Most people working with weights tend to follow a more body-building type routine, working one muscle group at a time; which is beneficial, but not the most efficient way to use your workout time.

By using large, full body exercises, that recruit most, if not all of your muscles at once, you’ll be working much harder, and burning a LOT more calories (since you now have about 600 muscles burning energy rather than just a few).

So it makes sense that any exercise that recruits more muscles will be a much better way to spend your time in the gym (or at home) than the typical 3 sets of 10 on chest press, 3 sets of 10 shoulder press, 3 sets of 10 leg extension.....

The traditional kettlebell exercises such as swings, cleans, snatches, windmills, Turkish get-ups etc. are all full body movements, using just about every muscle in your body. Since they are predominantly performed from a standing position, all of the muscles in your legs, hips, backside and back are working to support you throughout the entire movement.

This means that you’ll not only be burning more calories, but by working your whole body in one movement you’ll also be improving your co-ordination, balance and stability.

On top of all of that, you’ll also find that you’re getting a great cardio workout to boot, meaning that those long, boring hours on the treadmill/bike/x-trainer are not necessary!

If you’ve got 600 muscles working at once, all requiring oxygen to work, then you’ll soon be out of breath – THIS IS CARDIO! Regardless of what people say, if you’re out of breath, you’re doing cardio. It’s irrelevant if you happen to be lifting weights while you do it or not. The bonus here is, instead of just being out of breath (like traditional “cardio”), you’ll also be working your muscles, making them stronger, more flexible, and also burning more energy (calories). Why would you waste time running when you can get all the benefits and more in less time lifting weights?!

As a side note, if you’re doing traditional cardio (i.e. long sessions of running, cycling, x-training, walking, swimming...) without lifting any weights, You will lose muscle – meaning despite a drop in weight on the scales, you’ll still be holding onto body fat, and you’ll also get weaker! Just look at long distance runners...

So to summarize, Kettlebell training will build strength, burn a lot more calories than traditional gym programs, improve balance, stability and co-ordination, and make boring cardio training redundant.

If you want to learn how to use Kettlebells properly (as with any exercise, if you don’t do it properly you risk injury and impaired results), you can visit my website and sign up for the next Kettlebell Workshop, where you can come and learn 15 of the basic, most effective Kettlebell exercises, and how to put them into a training program that’ll increase your fitness dramatically in a few short weeks.

Who do you want to look like?

There are many different training methods available to anyone that wants to lose weight. But which is best?

The most common option seems to be running. Many people who hate the thought of going to the gym, working out with weights, or attending fitness classes, opt to go running a few times a week in order to lose weight; but is this the best idea.

Bearing in mind that most people want to lose FAT, not WEIGHT, it’s safe to say that running ISN’T the best way to do it. There’s no doubt that it has worked for many people, but if you really want to reach your goals (which you may think are weight loss, but actually, you just want to fit into smaller clothes and look better – unfortunately, people have linked this with weight).

Let’s make it easy to see what’s better for stripping fat and building the muscle that shapes your body.

Take a look at the average marathon runner – for the most part, they look skinny, emaciated, and generally not too healthy. They may weigh very little, but they have no muscle, and no shape to them – not the ideal figure is it?

Now take a look at a sprinter. They’re lean, muscular, with good shape and muscle tone. They look athletic and healthy, and will generally have LESS body fat than the marathoners.

Obviously these are two extremes, but the bottom line is if you want to lose fat, shape and tone your body, and look and feel strong and healthy, you need to ditch the long cardio sessions and start working with high intensity intervals (sprints if running’s your chosen activity) and/or start lifting weights.

If you enjoy jogging, then by all means, go jogging. But unless your goal is to be “skinny fat” (where you weigh very little and look skinny, but still have a high body fat – mainly due to a lack of muscle), then you also need to be doing intervals and weight training.

Another easy way to see what you need to be doing, is to walk into any gym. Are the people who look how you want to look walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes, then moving across to sit on a bike for half hour and watch EastEnders? ... Or are they in the freeweights area lifting weights?

Don’t be fooled by the common misconception that cardio burns more calories. Use your muscles, and lift weights that you struggle to finish your set with i.e. if you’re aiming for 12 lifts (repetitions), you should struggle to finish the last 2 or 3.

Just take a look at British champion weightlifter Evelyn Stevenson:

Not exactly the hulky mass of muscle that people (especially women) are afraid of becoming if they lift a weight!

It should be clear, just by looking at the different athletes, which type of training will produce the best results – if you want to look like a sprinter, train like a sprinter.

This may go against what you thought was the best way to train and what you’ve been told by magazines, friends, even trainers in the gym. But really, it’s pretty obvious.

Be aware also that the same goes for diet. Just because you’ve read it, a friend recommended it, or a trainer has told you to do it, doesn’t mean it’s the right way. Even if it works – there might still be a better way, and it’s usually the most obvious.

If you’d like to know more about how best to eat and train for your goals you can download my nutrition advice by entering your name and e-mail in the box on the right, or contact me for Personal Training.