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…
High School Lifting Getting More Elaborate
Some researchers from Wisconsin recently surveyed high school strength and conditioning coaches to find out what routines they were doing. I figured since many of you have kids, and lots of you ask me questions about kids and weight training, this might be interesting.
Among various fun facts appearing in J Strength Cond Res, 23(8): 2188-2203, 2009:
- 95% of coaches use a periodization model (though there were wide ranges in the types of periodization)
- 97% include at least one Olympic lift
- 100% use plyometrics
- The most common answer to “what is the single most important lift” was “squat or squat variations”
If you have a kid in high school training, do these match what your child is doing?
By the way, I now include a copy of my report “Starting Weight Training, For Older Adults and Younger Youths” with every order at http://worldfitnessnetwork.com/more/fullbodyattack.html .
Two Lessons For Older Lifters
Can aerobic training improve strength and/or power in older people?
The answer is yes, but the gains are quickly lost, according to a study (in press) from Journal of Aging and Physical Activity. The test subjects were (more…)
Just starting out with weightlifting? Want to get bigger muscles this winter?
Get my full-body lifting routine here: FullBodyAttack!
Continue reading about Science News For Building Lean Muscle – November 2009
Ever wonder what other readers of worldfitnessnetwork are doing for their workouts? What’s working for them? What isn’t?
I’ve started asking some of our readers – normal people like you – to talk to me about their routines. I think you’ll learn from these interviews and get inspired!
For LeanLifters members, I’ll send you a separate email with the MP3 download. Everyone else can listen using the buttons on the new page from the link below.
Each one is only about 15 minutes – give a listen and see if you can pick up some tips!
If you have questions about these answers, add a comment below!
It’s great to see mainstream news catching up with the science behind exercise. Usually, I complain about how popular media get it wrong. But here’s a story from The Washington Post that confirms what you’ve heard here on worldfitnessnetwork.com for a while. (And of course, I have only been writing about this because I’ve read about the original studies in the scientific journals, so I can’t really claim credit!). You can read past articles here, here, and here. And related to recovery, check here.
I’ve reprinted the original article, which appeared online on October 30, 2009. It’s pretty long but well-written. The bolding of certain statements is mine.
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BY LENNY BERNSTEIN
Washington Post Service
It’s been a long, hard day at the office, and you need a good workout to blow off all that stress. But before you hit the free weights, the stationary bike or the elliptical machine, you spend 10 minutes carefully stretching all those stiff muscles, just as every coach, trainer and physical therapist has advised for as long as you can remember.
You won’t stave off muscle soreness.
You won’t perform better, except possibly if you’re going to do gymnastics or ice-skate. There’s some reason to believe you’ll do worse than if you hadn’t stretched. (more…)
- How much protein is too much protein?
You eat lots of protein, right?
I mean, you hear from everybody that to gain muscle, you need to eat a lot of lean protein.
Even if you aren’t trying to gain muscle, you still hear how important protein is.
And we’ve written about it a ton here, here, and here.
The basic rule I use: if you are fat, eat at least 1 gram of protein a day per lean body mass (your total weight minus your fat weight). If you are not fat, then eat about 1 gram per total bodyweight. And this assumes you are lifting at least 2x a week.
So for the average man, this is at least 180 grams a day. (more…)
Continue reading about How Much Protein Is Too Much Protein?
Today was the last day of my trip – whew! 6 airports and two destination cities, plus business conferences, was quite a challenge.
I learned a lot myself by writing all this down for you – the act of writing gave me a few insights I might have otherwise glossed over so thanks for indulging me. I hope you learned something as well.
If you have any lingering questions about what to do for fitness on the road, or how to eat right when traveling, this is the post to reply to. I’m also including links at the end to all the previous days’ posts, plus some of my earlier posts on traveling. Let me know what you think!
On to the summaries… (more…)
Ready for Day 6 of my week-long business trip? No, I’m not going to start talking about the business issues – but hopefully the past several posts are giving you ideas you can use the next time you travel. You are probably also seeing that while I’m far from perfect, I take my fitness and eating very seriously. My point being that being fit, strong, heart-healthy, low-fat, muscular, and healthy overall isn’t a part-time thing. Perfection isn’t required, but dedication is.
If you are already fit, you know this. If you aren’t, then perhaps you can see that some extra effort is sometimes required. I’m not going to lie to you and tell you that being in great shape is easy. It’s not. And while your workouts are important, they aren’t as important as your eating.
And unfortunately, eating right is a lot harder than exercising. (At least for most people.)
What I’d like to hear from you on, in comments for this post, are you own ideas and experiences about how to eat right and get in good workouts while traveling. You don’t need to write a lot – just join in and share some ideas.
Day 6 – Eating
I was speaking today at a conference so I knew that eating was going to be a challenge. But, like I keep saying, all it takes is good planning ahead of time.
My breakfasts were just like yesterday in the sense of lower quantity because I’m on a lighter day, and similar to the other (more…)
Day 5. One word. Unbelievable.
Let’s get the eating thing out of the way, because the exercise part of today was unique.
Day 5 – Eating
Excellent day for eating. By now you might be a little bored so I’ll skip the details except to say that
- I ate really well in terms of food quality
- I ate less food than previous days (I’ve shared the idea of calorie cycling here, where the basic idea for building muscle and shedding fat at the same time has little to do with your workouts – it’s about calories in and calories out; so I do 2-3 days of over-calories and then 2-3 days of under; I’ll explain more another time or if someone asks a question specific to this)
- I timed my simple carbs perfectly around my workouts (see here)
- I did a really good job planning ahead (for example, for lunch I ordered two lunches, and asked that one be packed “to go”; that way, 3 hrs later, I had food [protein and veggies] with me at the business conference)
Now for the really exciting part…
Day 5 Exercise
A week ago, knowing I’d be in San Diego, I scheduled time at one of the top 10 gyms in the country: Fitness Quest 10 . I have no idea what the “10″ means (more…)
As predicted, I woke up pretty sore yesterday (day 4 was yesterday but I am a day behind in my writing). Cable flyes really seem to hit my inner chest more than my other exercises (though, as you might know, there is no “inner chest” in reality – it’s a perception).
Day 4 was another travel day but the flight was pretty short. Should I pack a meal for the flight or not? I decided not.
Before I tell you if that was the right choice or not, I wanted to share with you a question I got from a reader/customer because I think it will inspire you and help you progress smartly. It comes from Jorge Ochoa:
Hello darrin i am new in this stuff of fitness and muscles, but all my life i wanted to be more muscular, i am a man of 39 years that my weight before starting your program was 150lb now after a month is 159 lb but my fat goes from 16.9 % to 12.3 % in the same time i am 5.11 1.80cmt my question is, i do the warm up, the exercises and then cardio and i finished so tire, what can i do???
He then gives some details of his workout (I believe he’s using my FullBodyAttack program) and then ends with this question:
i am doing the right things, or you should think that i have to change something???
What do you think? Should he change anything? [p.s. of course, I got his permission to share this]
The correct answer is NO, he shouldn’t change anything!!!!
He dropped 4.6% bodyfat AND gained 9 pounds of muscle. In ONE FREGGIN’ MONTH!
Now, I don’t care who’s program you are using – mine, your own, or some other routine you bought. That’s incredible progress. [Disclaimer - only beginners can see this kind of progress and even then, this is exceptional.]
So what lessons should you take from this?
a) He tracked is progress. If you don’t track it, you can’t have any objective evidence about effectiveness.
b) He didn’t know what amazing results he was getting – he had no experience so he didn’t know his results were already astonishing. That’s why you need peers/mentors to help you get a reality check.
c) He was actually considering changing his routine. Now, as I said in (a), he just didn’t know. But you are probably not making as much progress as him. And so you are probably thinking you need to switch your program. Most likely, the answer is no, you don’t.
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