I know I just sent you Tom’s incredible article critiquing the TV show The Biggest Loser. Well, I happened to just see this week’s episode.
Overall, I enjoyed it. I won’t repeat Tom’s list of all the positives here. But I do have one specific that astonished me…
One of the trainers mentioned to a contestant – a woman over 300 pounds – that she needed to be eating 1200 calories that day.
Wait a minute – 1200 calories? Only 1200????!!!???
That is a HUGE calorie deficit. At 300+ pounds, that’s about a 3000 calorie deficit! (See p. 106 to 108 in tom’s book for calculations.)
The show didn’t explain if that was this woman’s target every day or just for that day. It could be that they are doing some sophisticated calorie cycling where you have some very low days followed by more moderate low calorie days. But (more…)
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You’re trying to lose weight, right?
No, you just think you are. You are actually trying to shed fat.
You’ve been working out, just like I advise, using weight training and cardio.
But each week, the scale is only going down 1 pound. Or maybe less.
What do you do?
Simple: stop watching the scale!
Scales measure one thing: your total body weight.
Do you really care what your weight is, or do you care about your body composition and appearance?
Quick quiz – which of these people do you want to be (if you are a man):
a) a 190-lb muscular guy who gets offers to appear on the cover of Men’s Health
b) a 190-lb flabby guy who is afraid to take his shirt off at the beach
See what I mean? Your weight is only one measure of fitness (and a poor one). Why is it poor?
Well, if you are lifting heavy weights like I’m telling you to do, you are probably adding muscle. That added muscle increases your total bodyweight, right? So, you might be losing 1 lb of fat but gaining 0.5 lb of muscle. Yet the scale only tells you “you lost 0.5 lb”. So you get depressed, whine, give up, and go off to listen to Joni Mitchel records.
“Ok, Darrin, then what am I supposed to use?”
Glad you asked!
There are really only three “weight” metrics worth caring about:
1) how you look in your favorite clothes
2) how you look naked
3) what your bodyfat % is
I don’t want to get side-tracked on this, but it is possible to excel at one of the above and not the other two. For example, some people without low bodyfat actually look fine naked. And some people look great in their clothes but not so good at the beach. And of course, there are other things that matter when it comes to fitness, like what you can do and how you feel. But I’m not talking about “fitness”. I’m talking to all you scale-watchers out there.
My point is, these are the things that matter to most people who watch the scale.
So, if you are a scale watcher, do these three steps:
a) today take your picture in your underwear
I almost never talk about other people’s blogs but I’m making an exception today. This is the best analysis I’ve seen of the show The Biggest Loser. It happens to come from one of my favorite people in the fitness world, Tom Venuto. He really gets to the core of the pros and cons of the show. There’s no sale pitch or anything – just great content to really think about, especially if you like the show. I consider it required reading: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2009/09/the_biggest_loser_pros_and_con.php Learn from this! Darrin p.s. if you want to comment here, that’s fine or leave (more…)
This is the short version of Darrin’s view on muscle recovery time. To read the longer version, click here. To read Jason’s view, click here.
How long do your muscles need to recover between workouts?
That is one of the most important questions for any lifter – whether a newbie or a competitor. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest to answer.
You’ve probably heard 48 hrs. Or maybe you’ve heard 72 hours. Some people even advocate a full week of rest between working each muscle group.
For this article, we are talking about resting particular muscle groups, not about rest between workouts (unless those workouts hit all your muscles).
In general, you probably need more recovery time than you think.
I’ll give you some scientific and empirical evidence as anchor points so that you can evaluate muscle recovery time for yourself.
To make this easier to digest and act on, I’m going to score each recommendation in the rest of this article into three buckets:
a) tend towards a 2-day muscle recovery period
b) tend towards a 3-day muscle recovery period
c) tend towards a full week to rest your muscles
But all of the recommendations I make interact with each other – you can’t look at just one factor and say “ok, the ideal recovery time is X”. Some guidelines may trump others, so the key is to take this knowledge and start applying the ones that you believe will have the biggest impact on your particular situation. And then test.
One final preamble. We’re talking here about force recovery – the time it takes for (more…)
Continue reading about The Truth About Muscle Recovery Time – Short Version
This is Darrin’s view on muscle recovery time. To read Jason’s view, click here.
How long do your muscles need to recover between workouts?
That is one of the most important questions for any lifter – whether a newbie or a competitor. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the hardest to answer.
You’ve probably heard 48 hrs. Or maybe you’ve heard 72 hours. Some people even advocate a full week of rest between working each muscle group.
I wish I could give you an absolute rule. But I can’t.
Part of the confusion comes from mixing two issues: are we talking about recovery between workouts or recovery between working specific muscles?
For this article, we are talking about resting particular muscle groups, not about rest between workouts (unless those workouts hit all your muscles).
In general, you probably need more recovery time than you think.
I’ll give you some scientific and empirical evidence as anchor points so that you can evaluate muscle recovery time for yourself.
To make this easier to digest and act on, I’m going to score each recommendation in the rest of this article into three buckets:
a) tend towards a 2-day muscle recovery period
b) tend towards a 3-day muscle recovery period
c) tend towards a full week to rest your muscles
But all of the recommendations I make interact with each other – you can’t look at just one factor and say “ok, the ideal recovery time is X”. Some guidelines may trump others, so the key is to take this knowledge and start applying the ones that you believe will have the biggest impact on your particular situation. And then test.
One final preamble. We’re talking here about force recovery – the (more…)
Editor’s note – There is so much monthly science news when it comes to muscle fitness, that it’s probably hard for you to keep up. In these ~monthly posts, I’ll summarize various items of recent research. I’ll cite the official reports so that the hard-core of you can read the science for yourself. But for the rest of you, these summaries should save you some time…
No Need For BOSU Balls
There’s been some interest in the past year or two for training on unstable surfaces (for example, BOSU Balls – those devices that look like a sliver of a ball where you stand on a platform but the underside is round and wobbles. The reason for the interest: a (faulty) hypothesis that your core stabilizer muscles would have to react more strongly to compensate for the instability.
At Eastern Illinois University, they compared core muscle activity during resistance exercises performed on stable ground vs. the BOSU Balance Trainer. They used 12 trained (experienced) men doing the back squat, dead lift, overhead press, and curl lifts. The activity of the rectus abdominis, external oblique abdominis, transversus abdominis/internal oblique abdominis, and erector spinae muscles was assessed. Conclusions: No advantage in using the BOSU ball. Therefore, you’ll get all the benefits and less risks by standing on stable ground! Reported in International Journal Sports Physiology and Performance, 4: 97-109; 2009.
Single Set Lifting Is Not Effective
This is kind of in the “duh” category, but I have to admit I fell for it a few years ago before I took the time to really learn proper lifting science. The plan I was told to try was this: just do one set of each exercise and do it to failure.
It didn’t work for me.
But here’s a study to back me up that I wasn’t the only one:
In Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research; September 2009 – Volume 23 – Issue 6 – pp 1890-1901, James Krieger reviewed tons of past studies (something called “meta-regression” to merge results from different studies) to show that “2 to 3 sets per exercise are associated with 46% greater strength gains than 1 set, in both trained and untrained subjects.” Did you get that? 46% greater strength gains! No wonder it didn’t work for me…
Older Men and Power Training
It’s well understood that older men start losing strength, power, and muscle mass (called “sarcopenia”). Anybody who pays attention also knows that resistance training in general will help maintain strength and mass longer. But what about power? The ability to quickly exert strength. This is important at any age, but older men should include some power training in their workouts.
In Brazil (see International Journal of Sports Medicine, 2009; 30: p200-204), they had some older guys in their early 70s and half trained traditionally (2-3 seconds lift and 2-3 seconds to return) doing 3 sets of 8 reps. The other half did 3 sets of 8 reps per exercise too, at the same 60% load, but they focused on doing the lift in 1 second (power training).
Not surprisingly, after 10 weeks, the power of the power-trained group increased much more than the other group. But get this: muscle size also increased much more in the power trained group. If I were older, I’d think seriously about incorporating power training into (more…)
Continue reading about Science News For Building Lean Muscle – September 12 2009
Do you use the assisted pull-up machine? Some people also use it for dips.
I’m talking about the machine where you can either stand or kneel on a platform. Then you adjust the “counterbalance” weight to essentially reduce your bodyweight for the exercise.
We’re talking about it a little over here [click]
Most people use the machine because they aren’t yet ready to do enough pure bodyweight reps (what I call the “real” exercise). As you might guess, I’m not a fan of them. [LeanLifter members may remember that I suggested many better ways to increase your # of "real" chin-ups or pull-ups here [click].]
But I want a bigger swath of responses – so can you chime in? Does it help you? Are you progressing on it? Have you banned it from your workout? Do you love it? Have you seen significant progress on your “real” versions because of your use of this machine?
Post your comment below!
Continue reading about Who Uses The Assisted Pull-Up Machine?
“Daddy, what’s that?” asked my daughter as I added a teaspoon of powder to my glass of milk.
“It’s called creatine,” I said, adding another half scoop.
“Why are you taking it?” she asked, really only half-interested. What she really wanted to know was “when will you be done so we can play?” but she’s getting more patient as she gets older.
“Well, there are several reasons. One is that it helps me feel less sore after my workouts. Plus it is supposed to help your muscles store more water and give you a little extra power when you lift weights.”
“Oh.”
I could tell she wasn’t really interested. I stirred my creatine-and-milk, and drank about half. I noticed some of the creatine had settled so I started to stir again.
“Is that like steroids?” she added, a wrinkled eyebrow and concerned expression on her face.
Wow, I didn’t even know she had heard of steroids.
“No way, honey. Steroids work on a completely different system. And steroids are illegal. For good reason too – they have severe side effects that can be really damaging.
“Creatine is a natural substance,” I assured her, “that you can find in red meat. It’s been tested by scientists for decades on thousands and thousands of people with negligible side effects. Some people feel a little boated from it, but that’s rare.
“So daddy’s not using anything illegal.”
She thought about this for a moment. Then added, “But you don’t really need it do you? Does everyone who lift weights take it?”
I could tell she was getting more interested in this conversation. And I was also getting worried that I wasn’t going to have all the answers she needed!
“No, not everyone takes it, because it certainly isn’t needed. In fact, for some people – called ‘non-responders’ – creatine has no impact whatsoever. But for me, I do find that it helps me recover better on the days I don’t lift. That way I’m less sore when I lift the next time and that comfort makes it more likely that I’ll lift heavier weight.
“Now, some people talk about creatine giving them a ‘pump’ – that’s when their muscles feel really powerful during a workout because of the blood pumping to the muscles. However, scientific studies have failed to confirm this as a statistically valid effect. It’s true that creatine does allow the muscles to store more water and that can give the appearance of larger muscle mass. But that’s water, not blood flow. So you might like the way you look better in a t-shirt.
“If you wanted a better pump before your workout, you’d be better off with a small amount of caffeine,” I added.
She looked at me with disgust. “Why would I ever want to have a better pump before my workout?”
I laughed. Of course, at her pre-teen age she’s not interested in big muscles.
I finished the rest of my creatine-and-milk and started to clean up. She wasn’t done…
“Sometimes you mix it with that other powder – the protein powder,” she noted. “Why?”
“Purely convenience honey – if I’m making a mix, I might was well do both at the same time. But they have nothing to do with each other. Protein powder is a nutritional supplement, like a vitamin or food substitute. Creatine works in a different mechanism and isn’t really related to nutrition.” She seemed to understand.
“You said before that there are different kinds of protein. Are there different kinds of creatine?”
I wanted to keep this simple for her, so I said “Creatine comes in different forms, but all anybody needs is creatine monohydrate. It’s the most tested, and the cheapest. The other forms haven’t been proven to be any better and they cost a lot more, so I don’t know why anybody uses them.”
“Does it matter what time of day you take the creatine,” she asked. “I think I’ve seen you mix it at night sometimes and in the morning sometimes.”
“Timing really doesn’t matter,” I informed her. “The key thing is to keep a constant supply of creatine because the body can’t store it for very long. You just need to take about 5 to 10 g a day. I go for around 7 g because most studies show that going up to 10 doesn’t have any benefits. 7 g is like a teaspoon and a half. But some guys think they need to take it just before a workout – it’s related to that myth about the ‘pump’. It’s just not true and people believe that because they don’t understand the biochemistry involved. It is pretty complicated, but the short answer is that the exact timing doesn’t matter.”
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