I’ve written a lot about repetition speed over the years and not too long ago there was a thread labeled “Bartoll vs. Milos Sarcev” on the BODY Magazine forum. To make a long story short, my recommendation has always been to do the lifting (concentric) part of a movement fast and explosive while controlling the lowering (eccentric) part of the movement and not to worry too much about various repetition speeds. Now, some bodybuilders still believe in the lifting slowly crap. Sure, if you need to re-program a movement pattern or if you are recovering from an injury, by all means, go slow. You should! But if you want to get stronger and build muscle, please keep the concentric part as fast as possible without losing control.
The following article about repetition speed was written by Jason Ferruggia and it hits the nail right on the head. Jason is a highly respectable Fitness Coach and the author of “How To Get Jacked” and “Tapout“. You can find his interesting as well as entertaining blog at: http://j1strength.com/blog.html

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I’m sure most of you are familiar with the word tempo when it comes to training.

Right?

But why?

I searched every dictionary I could find and there is no definition that remotely resembles what most people think it means when it applies to weight training. It is basically the speed at which a piece of music should be played.

Who ever decided to apply that to training must have had some kind of imagination. The correct terminology is rep speed and from now on will be known as such.

Anyway, to answer the question, here’s the deal with tempo/ rep speed; it sucks.

Well, kind of. But usually.

First of all, changing your rep speed on a regular basis is a way to ensure that you never really know if you are making progress or not. This is actually a great trick that some trainers use. They don’t know how to get their clients stronger so they just change the rep speed There is no way their clients will ever catch on to this ingenious little scheme. In January you are benching with a rep speed of 505 and then in March, a 402 rep speed, come June it’s 323, etc, etc. But how do you know if you are ever getting stronger? It’s just like using way too many exercises (bench, incline bench, 1 board, 2 board, 3 board, 4 board, 5 board, all of those with bands, chains, weight releasers, fat bars or any combo of those) because there is just too much variety to keep track of. There are certain variables that need to remain constant in any experiment, and that’s what your training basically is; an experiment. You are always testing what you are doing and you need to see if it’s working, ie. you are getting stronger. If your bench goes up, is it because your rep speed was different or did you really get stronger? You never know.

That is one of the major reasons why “tempo” sucks.

Anytime you see a routine written with a slow concentric, meaning the lifting portion of the exercise, get up and walk away; it’s shit. You should never, ever lift a weight slowly if you are trying to get big and strong. It makes no sense.

The rare case when this could be of benefit would be during rehab situations. Other than that, it’s crap.

What about lowering the weight slowly? Well, this is where it gets hairy. You see, there actually is a ton of evidence and research showing that controlling and even stressing the eccentric portion of the movement leads to hypertrophy gains.

There are also about ninety six cajillion guys in the history of the planet that have gotten enormously bigger and stronger without ever worrying about that. (See Arnold and the entire cast of Pumping Iron, the entire WWF, IFBB, NFL and just about every other big guy you have ever seen at the gym).

So what about it? What’s the answer there?

Despite all the people who successfully ignored this advice, I still think you should always control the eccentric portion of every exercise you do, never drop the weight. I would say a strict two seconds would be great and if you wanted stretch it to three, that would be okay too. But anything more than that is unnecessary. Eight second negatives are a bit ridiculous if you ask me. Control the descent and explode up, it’s as simple as that.

What about pausing? Pausing is ok, especially in exercises where an extreme stretch can help you grow. Any kind of calf raise is a perfect example of this. You should almost always pause and get a skin ripping stretch at the bottom of a calf raise.

Too much variety and a lack of consistency is actually a huge problem in most peoples training programs. Using every rep speed you can possibly make up, just makes the problem worse. Stick to a controlled two or three second negative and explode the weight up. Sometimes you can pause in the bottom if there is a good reason and sometimes you can do a slower negative at the end of a set from time to time. But for the most part, keep it simple.

And remember tempo = music; it’s rep speed.

Jason Ferruggia

The following article about foam rollers and their application to athletes was written by Keith Scott in September 2006. You can find his highly recommended blog at: http://kescott45.wordpress.com

“Ok Keith, I have heard you spout off about this foam roller thing on your dumb blog, and even heard you talking about it at a bar down the shore one night! What is it, and how do I do it?”

Obviously I love the foam roller. I cannot say it in the same context that I will say I love chocolate, or I love the beach, or even how much I love to watch 24 and the Family Guy… But lets be clear, when it comes to feeling better, and being better, I love the foam roller. So what is the foam roller and what do you do with it. Where do I get one of these? And finally, how can I use it and feel better?

I like to explain to the general public that foam rolling is much like getting a deep tissue massage. Only YOU control the massage and it won’t cost you 50 plus bucks each time you use it. But I also like to explain that foam rolling is much more than a massage too.

Most people have major muscle imbalances and this usually causes an entire muscle group to get very tight, or over activated. Also, most people have a laundry list of past and present physical trauma that has caused a body full of knots, scar tissue and sticky adhesions to form all over their muscles and tendons. Rolling can and will help work out those adhesions, scar tissue, knots and also help to restore normal flexibility and range of motion.

Foam rolling, to be technical, is a form of self myofascial release (SMR). SMR allows the muscle to relax and this in turn can help rid the areas of the unwanted scaring, knots, and ugly adhesions. Muscles need to be strong and supple at the same time through an entire range of motion. Foam rolling helps the body achieve this. Just as I believe that stretching is essential for good overall muscle health, foam rolling is in the same category. While stretching elongates the muscle tissue, foam rolling helps to ensure proper muscle quality.

To get started you will need a foam roller. These can be purchased in some specialty stores, or in some gyms. The best place to find and get on is on the internet. I purchased mine from www.performbetter.com. Or you can do a search and fine numerous sites that carry them. Either way, they are cheap (you can get one from about $10.00 - $20.00) and don’t take up any room.

Once you have your roller, now what?

Foam Rolling Techniques

Foam rolling is pretty simple to learn and with some practice, you can set up a routine for your whole body within a short period of time. At the very least, you will be able to roll your trouble spots each day with no difficulty

In a nutshell you place the roller between your muscle and the floor and you use your body weight to gently and slowly roll for the entire length of your muscle. When you reach that painful spot, (you will know it when you do) stop rolling and use your body weight to press down. Hold that spot until the pain goes away. If the pain does not seem to go away, don’t worry, just continue rolling and hit all of your “spots”. Eventually, through practice and repetition, you will start to find relief. Remember, these painful areas are around because of years of bad habits, injuries, and other traumas so they wont go away entirely overnight.

Other tips:

• When rolling your legs for example, use both legs in the beginning and to add more pressure, cross one leg over the other. Do one leg at a time like this and you will feel a lot more pressure and get a lot more out of it.

• For longer muscle groups (ie. Hamstrings, and quadriceps) do parts of the muscle at a time. Start at the top of the muscle and spend some time there, before going to the bottom of the muscle.

• Try to roll in insides and outsides of your muscles. For example, perform some rolling on the medial or inside of your calf and then roll the lateral or outside of the calf muscle. The same strategy can be followed for most large muscle groups in the body.

Basically, you can roll almost any part of your body. Be especially careful on the low back and avoid it all together if you don’t have a lot of beef down there in the first place.

Start off slow, get a schedule down, and keep rolling. Eventually it will become a normal part of your exercise routine and you will find relief and start feeling better all over.

Keith Scott
MS, ATC, SCSC

Another good read from Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training blog: turbulencetraining.blogspot.com

Today, I’m going to discuss a couple of things to do if you are getting close to your goal and need some advanced fat loss tips.

1) Don’t cut calories too much.
This is something that happens a lot as people get closer to their goals, and especially when people hit a fat loss plateau.

But you can’t do it.

Here’s why.

Among other things, your food intake and energy balance help to control your metabolism (most likely by altering levels of various hormones in your body).

When you cut your calories too much, you probably knock your hormones levels for a loop, causing them to send a collective message to your body that you are not getting enough to energy in…and therefore, that shuts down your fat loss systems.

Here’s one reader’s account of the pitfalls of an excessively low calorie diet…

“I’m on the weight loss track again. I found I wasn’t eating enough calories (1000 kcal/day). Filling up on veggies is good (and I love them), but they don’t have the calories. Eating walnuts/almonds helped get me there. Eating 1500+ is where I need to stay to lose weight and keep my energy up. I’ve dropped about 3 pounds this week.”
Holly, using the TT for Women program with great success

With men, I generally don’t think men need to go below 1800 calories per day, and with women, not much less than 1500 calories per day - Dr. Mohr covers this in greater detail in the Nutrition Guidelines that go with TT for Fat Loss. So you probably want to stay above those levels, and definitely avoid any sharp, sudden decreases in your energy intake.

2) Don’t exercise too much.
For very similar reasons as point #1.

Exercise intensity and frequency also help to control your hormone levels. If you over-exercise (i.e. tons of cardio everyday, weight training everyday, etc.), then your body doesn’t get a chance to recover and keep your hormones at the correct level.

After all, exercise is another form of stress on your body…and you all know how your body and mind can get messed up from too much stress.

Resist the urge to exercise for the sake of exercise. Don’t go adding 60 minute stairmaster sessions everyday before breakfast if you’re already on a well-designed, consistent workout schedule. That could be too much stress on your body.

Stick to structured, purposeful exercise as found in your TT program.

I’ve been around the exercise block so to speak, and I often know how much is too much for most fitness levels.

The longer I’m in this business, the more I realize that training frequently with an intense workouts is un-necessary - for both fat loss and for athletes.

Training with the same interval workout for 6 days of the week is not going to get you twice the results as training 3 days per week. Instead, use a variety of different workouts to increase your fat loss and performance.

And as I said the other week in an email about advanced fat loss, the best way to accelerate your fat burning is by adding in some bodyweight circuits (starting at 10 minutes per day and working up to 20 minutes maximum) done in the morning or evening. Use a different circuit each day - there’s an almost endless number of bodyweight circuit combinations you can do.

(If you do your regular workout in the AM, do your bodyweight circuits after dinner; otherwise, do the bw circuits first thing in the AM, and then do your regular workout at lunch or later in the afternoon or evening.)

After two weeks, take a break from this routine and allow your body to recover.

Two other things you can do during this two weeks of extra training…
a) Add 10 seconds to the length of each interval.
b) Add 1 set to each of the exercises in the first Superset of the workout.

So now you have more volume, performed at a high-intensity of course, but without over-taxing your hormonal system.

But remember, you should only do this increased training volume for 2 weeks. Then you need to take a break and reduce the training volume to normal - to allow your body to adapt and recover.

3) Eat 6-8 times per day.
In the past 5-10 years, it’s become common knowledge that we should all eat smaller, more frequent meals. In fact, one study from 2005 showed that doing so helped reduce cholesterol and burn more calories than eating 2-3 meals per day.

And so for our advanced fat loss approach, we’re going to bump that up to 6-8 meals per day.

Here’s how you would do that:
Breakfast
Mid-morning snack
Lunch
Afternoon snack
Pre-workout
Post-workout
Dinner
Evening snack

With each meal and snack (except pre- & post-workout) focusing on lean protein, healthy fats, and fiber-rich vegetables and fruit (for pre- and post-workout, stick with 20g protein and a half-serving of fruit).

Start your day immediately with 2 cups of water, 3 fish oil caps, and 20g of lean protein, and then have your a fiber-rich breakfast. This meal will help dictate your blood sugar for the rest of the morning and into the afternoon. So if you blow it on breakfast, you’ve might actually have blown it for the entire day.

(And if you workout at other times of the day, just adjust the schedule and move about the pre- and post-workout meals).

4) Eat more fiber-rich vegetables at each meal.
Ways to get more green include eating a green pepper with your omelet at breakfast, or spinach in your salads at lunch, etc.

Aim for 8 servings of green, fiber-rich vegetables over the course of the day.

5) Eat only protein, healthy fats, & fiber between meals.
For example, you could have a sample snack plan of 20g lean protein (from a quality shake or from chicken breast), 1/2 - 1 oz almonds, some more broccoli or spinach, or an apple. And enjoy some Green Tea at this time as well, of course.

CB

To find out more about Craig and his services, please visit: www.cbathletics.com

From Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training blog:
http://turbulencetraining.blogspot.com/

Sports for Fat Loss?

Lots of you are playing sports and wonder how does this fit into your fat loss schedule.
Can you replace interval training with a sport?

Absolutely - assuming of course you are talking about a sport that requires high-intensity sprints (such as soccer, basketball, rugby, hockey, or Ultimate Frisbee).

Sports such as golf should be kept to your day off (you can also perform the sports listed above on your day off as well).

Sports can be a big help to your fat loss program.

BUT…

Sports can ruin your fat loss program if you follow them up with 3 pints of beer and 2 pounds of wings. Take a look around the dressing room after next game.

Even while everyone’s shirt is soaked with sweat, some people are lean and others remain overweight. Despite giving the same effort on the field, those that don’t eat right will get fat. Playing sports and working out hard don’t make you immune to the side effects of a junk diet.

Now let’s turn our attention to kids. Sports and other unstructured physical activities are essential for children. Research has shown that kids who regularly participate in at least 3 h per week of sports activities won’t get fat, while kids that avoid physical activity have a greater tendency to become overweight.

Sports also help kids develop more muscle mass and stronger bones. Both of these are important to overall health for the rest of their lives.

Another study from the International Journal of Obesity identified the following factors associated with overweight kids:

• Parental obesity
• Low parental educational level
• Low total family income
• Long hours of TV watching
• Playing videogames or computer utilization
• Absence of breastfeeding
• Physical inactivity

Now personally, I grew up with some friends that met most of those conditions above, but my friends were not overweight.

Why not? Because while they watched a lot of TV, played a lot of vids, and didn’t have a Cosby-show family background, my friends played a lot of sports in and out of school. Heck, we probably played sports at least an hour everyday.

So for young kids, physical activity can trump almost every “obesity-causing” effect…
EXCEPT…maybe for the nutrition problems that exist today.

While it wasn’t hard for us to get jumbo sodas at 7-11, we just didn’t seem to buy those as much as kids do today.

So keep an eye on your kids nutrition…and…

I encourage you and your family to be as active as possible,
CB

To find out more about Craig and his services, please visit: www.cbathletics.com