Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache. If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron. But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC. He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics. If you are interested in brands Cameron supports, check out http://cstache.qhealthzone.com .
- Practice good gym etiquette and you’ll avoid the Bad Manners Nanny
We all have to share. Sometimes it’s time, sometimes it’s money, and other times it’s just plain space. It’s for this reason we have rules; although, occasionally they go by another fancy word… “etiquette.” There are many different types of etiquette; restaurant etiquette, workplace etiquette, and yes there is workout etiquette.
Hey, I’m not going to lie to you, I like our Geico friends “The Cavemen.” Sometimes it’s even fun to act like one myself. Society, however, doesn’t feel so kindly about my friends for the most part. Etiquette ensures that we don’t strangle each other with our socks.
If you read the super fine print on the back of your gym contract then you probably saw some of the common rules on the back. Most of them aren’t a big secret and are listed on every home page of every bodybuilding/gym website known to man. There are however, a few little known rules that even the most active gym goer may not know about. Not only do I work out in a gym but I work and manage at a gym and train people – I know what it’s like, from multiple angles, when people don’t follow these basic rules. The term “basic” implies that the rule will be found in pretty much every gym. Some aren’t as clear-cut. Planet Fitness for example has a “no grunting” policy. I personally think if you aren’t grunting you aren’t working hard enough. Whereas in a football training facility, for example, you hear screams. In that scenario it just depends on location; not quite a “basic” rule then.
I have taken the liberty of enlightening you with most of these rules but, I need to state a few things first. Not everyone has always been a member of a gym, so I will assume that you are a brand new, first day member of a health club. Also, I am aware that if you looked you WILL be able to find more things than I point out. I’m not trying to write a book, just an article. So if you’ve got some more to add, jump into the Comments section. And lastly, I know what it’s like to just be told “what” and not “why” so I will give you the point-of-view I have with some of these too. I understand your reasons, I’ve been there. Just please don’t take anything personal if you are the person I am describing. There is no hostility being thrown, so don’t take it as such. Furthermore, if I DO offend you, it’s probably because you needed to hear it anyways…
Cameron’s Basic Gym Etiquette Rules
(If you see a “more” link, click it to read the rest.) Read the rest of this entry »
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Last week we talked about basic linear periodization. But over the past decade, several studies have shown the high value of a different form of periodization: undulating periodization.
For example, see this.
But it’s interesting to note that comparisons of different periodization models for beginners does NOT show undulating periodization to be superior. (See this.)
I’ve seen evidence of this myself, so I suggest linear periodization for beginners, and even intermediates.
For more advanced lifters, undulating periodicity is quite valuable. But you have to do it right.
Undulating Periodization
One of the reasons you might not have ever done undulating periodization – or even heard of it – is that it’s much more complicated to do (not to mention hard to pronounce!). Some people also call in “nonlinear periodization” but undulating is more accurate.
To save on the typing, I’m going to use UP as the abbreviation.
If you are not keeping a training log, forget about UP. There’s no way you can keep track of it all in your head week after week.
The basic idea with undulating periodicity is that you switch among strength-hypertrophy-conditioning regimens much more frequently than in linear periodization.
Weekly vs. Daily Undulating Periodization
The original studies of UP were weekly. Meaning, you’d do a week of low-load, high rep lifts, then a week of medium load, medium rep lifts, then a week of high load, low rep lifts. Let’s call that WUP.
But when I mentioned earlier that UP is a relatively recent development in the history of resistance training, I was referring to the daily variation (DUP) – here you are changing the protocol within each week.
And since then, when most people talk about UP, they mean DUP.
An example of DUP for someone on a full-body routine lifting M, W and F is Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.
Tags: cycle, periodization
By now you’ve probably heard more times than you can count, that to keep progressing with your fitness, you can’t just keep doing the same thing week after week, month after month, year after year. Your body adapts and thus needs different stimuli to change.
- Periodizing your workouts is hard work,
but it pays off
You could randomly change your workout every time you enter the gym. Of course, you also could spend the day eating ice cream and watching reality TV. Is it easier than planning your workouts? Yeah. Is it smart? No.
What you want is a systematized way of changing your workouts, that helps you progress as fast as safely possible and is still fun.
The term for this is “periodization“.
I’ve previously alluded to an upcoming routine I’ll be talking about (currently calling it the “PPL Workout”) which inherently includes a form of periodization. But it’s not ready yet. So today I’ll describe periodization and then tell you how you can apply it using my 6x6x6 Routine (since that’s the routine most of you have already purchased).
There are many ways to periodize your workouts. For running, we’ll do a separate article but for today I want to talk about lifting.
Aspects To Periodize
The word “period” means “over time”. So periodization is how you change your workouts over time in order to keep progressing.
For beginners, that time frame is usually 1 to 3 months – you don’t need to change your program more frequently than that.
As you get more experienced, you might need to change every month or so.
But what do you change? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cycle, periodization
When I was in my 20s, I was a gym rat. I was in grad school and back then I had so much free time (compared to now at least; of course, it then still felt like I had barely any time, so I guess it’s all perception). I’d go to the gym with one or two of my buddies. Back then we thought we were working hard and doing things right, but I now know we weren’t doing either.
Today’s article comes from guest author Cameron Stache. If you are paying attention to the free WorldFitnessNetwork forums, you have no doubt gotten familiar with Cameron. But what you might not know is that Cameron currently works as a Fitness Coach/ Assistant Fitness Manager at the Rush Fitness Complex in Greensboro, NC. He’s pursuing his Exercise Science degree and plans to use this degree to either work at a large college and be a strength and conditioning coach, or go into ergonomics.
- What types of supplements do I need?
I hear every day the question “What kinds of supplements should I be taking?” or “What supplements are best for this situation?” And most of the time my answer is “none.”
There is a difference between nutritional supplements and performance supplements. Given the typical American diet, nutritional supplements are important for just about everyone to consider, and athletes/exercisers need more than the normal amounts of daily nutrients.
But performance supplements are a different matter. Don’t get me wrong, there are advantages of performance supplements, but not for beginners. To top it off most of these same people who are seeking a magic pill for performance completely ignore either nutritional supplements or even their nutrition entirely. So in order to save the loss of breath here are the basics for what a beginner needs.
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.
Tags: supplements, vitamins
Nobody wants to be a fatty. Whether you are now fat, on your way to being fat, or just want to get leaner, there are countless things to keep in mind.
Looking trim and being unfat requires work - here are the tips
With so many tips, I’ll overrule my usual verbose nature and dive in, somewhat tersely, with the 25 Ways To Be Unfat. Each of these could be its own article (or even its own book!). But I’m just giving you a sentence or two for starters. We’ll break these down into 5 categories: Overview, Attitude and Behavior, Eating, Lifting, and Cardio.
Since I focus worldfitnessnetwork.com on weight training and running, you might expect this article to be focused on weight lifting and running, right? Well, for sure, those are both part of the picture to be unfat. But eating habits are the most important factor for getting trim.
Final preamble: these are written for the person who wants to be lean, not super-lean. If you want to get into cover-model shape, there are more subtle techniques that come to play. But if you want to look good enough for the beach, these are for you!
1) 80% of the battle is what you eat – the cliché is true: you can’t out-train a bad diet. Eat smart and you’ll be lean.
2) 10% of the battle is resistance training – training with weights can help by burning some calories, increasing metabolism, and changing your body composition. Even for women. But many guys fall into the trap of building muscles that are still covered in fat. More on this later…
3) 10% of the battle is cardiovascular training - cardio (e.g. running) can help with calories but is only one-tenth as important as how you eat. And too much of the wrong running can burn muscle in addition to fat so you can’t over-rely on it.
All of these are mostly mental; if you learn the right techniques and then have the discipline to act on that education, even when you don’t feel like it, then you’ll win. Your attitudes and behaviors are key:
4) Don’t strive for perfection – getting your psychology about fitness right is most important; until you want to get ultra-lean, you are shooting for a 90% compliance; do the right thing 90% of the time and you’ll get lean.
5) Set goals – if you don’t set targets, it’s hard to know if you are making progress and it’s hard to know when you’ve “arrived” at your destination. Forget complicated goals – keep them simple by focusing on Measureable and Timebound. An example of a good goal for a woman: I will weight X pounds, at less than 20% bodyfat, by July 4.
6) Adjust your social life – avoid other fatties or soon-to-be fatties; who you surround yourself with influences who you become. If you’ve already had a junk-food meal this week, say ‘no’ to the group going out for a Chinese lunch.
7) Keep a log – write down what you eat, when you exercise, what you did, etc. Think of it as your fitness diary. You can do this online or on paper, I don’t care. But keeping a log will keep you on track even on days when you are less motivated.
Eating
8) Eat frequent small meals – eating smaller meals more frequently will Read the rest of this entry »
What would you choose if you were limited, for the rest of your life, to one lifting exercise?
If you say barbell curls, I’m going to reach through the computer and smack you!
By now you know I live and breath The Big 7 as the core of any lifting program.
But which single one is the best?
Today’s article is SURE to cause a lot of debate and disagreement!
“What is the best lifting exercise?” is a really hard question, and of course it’s a silly question too. Nobody is every confined to a single exercise. But it’s a fun point of debate, and an instructional one. Because it forces you to consider what gives you the best results for the time and effort involved. Right away, that clearly eliminates any isolation-type movement from the list.
For years I’ve avoided taking a stand. Until now.
I’m sure to get a lot of people disagreeing with me – that’s ok, I can take it.
The single best, most important, most impactful lift is … Read the rest of this entry »
Join the forum discussion on this article, or comment below.
I’ve started doing a particular movement, purely as an Interest*, to work my traps a bit more. I’d like to share it with you, but keep in mind that this isn’t a required movement for beginners. Below is the explanation, plus a video for you.
* Interests are defined as non-critical exercises that you do simply because you like them or because you want to do something extra for some muscle group. In my 6x6x6 Routine, you’ll see a place for them. I want to stress again though, that beginners really don’t need to do this and in fact beginners (and even intermediates) need to be careful of time-wasting and/or over-training that can come from doing too many Interests…
I call this exercise “Wheelbarrow Lifts and Shrugs” and hopefully it will be clear why.
Take a set of heavy dumbbells. “Heavy” is a relative term of course – depending on your strength, maybe start with 25 lb to 30 lb dumbbells until you get the movement down. Whatever you use, it will be much lighter than if you were doing regular shrugs. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: shrugs, wheelbarrow
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