The University of Fitness

Focus: the Pitfalls of Being a Jack of All Trades

In my last post, I talked about New Year’s resolutions and how it can be easy to set a goal without laying out how exactly to reach said goal.  Another way to people frequently keep themselves from reaching their goals is by doing the exact opposite, and setting five endpoints and trying to reach them all at once.  As much as every single infomercial on television would like to have you believe, it’s not actually possible to simultaneously lose fat, gain muscle, eliminate those love handles, get a bodybuilder chest, and cure baldness, all at the same time.  Especially not with some stupid contraption that promises all of the above while sitting in a glorified beach chair for 20 minutes a day.  As the cliche-crazy Colonel from Avatar would likely say, “Jack of all trades, master of none.” [And yes, I'm still picking on him.]

The most tricked out pocket knife ever. And simultaneously the most useless.

The point I’m trying to make is, when people try to work towards too many things at once, they end up making little or no progress in either area.  It’s a pretty loose analogy, but that “pocket” knife up there can technically do 400 things but it would probably take 45 minutes and 3 Eagle scouts to whittle some kindling with that thing.  Instead, it pays off much more to focus on one goal, attack it aggressively for X amount of days, and then move on to the next thing on the list.

First of all, in the realm of fitness, trying to tackle too many different things at once is something not even trained professionals can pull of effectively with themselves or their trainees.  This leaves beginners or intermediates that are training themselves dead in the water.  Too commonly, it will result in a lack of direction and a training or diet program that looks like it was put together by a chimp throwing darts at a health magazine.

The lack of results effects the trainee negatively.  Psychologically, it is disheartening to put in effort and not see anything come of it.  This sets a bad precedent for how much it’s actually worth the time and effort to train or diet a certain way.  The realization that the wheels are spinning but the car’s not going anywhere results in the person either giving up immediately or trying even harder for a few days before giving up due to a continued lack of results.  Physically, the strain is not as great, and some training is better than none even if there is no visible or tangible progress, but there is still the matter of wasting effort and exertion without getting anything out of it.

On the flip side, focusing training and diet on one goal at a time has the exact opposite effect.  Concentrating solely on losing fat for a month, let’s say, and completing the process successfully and actually being able to see the fruits of your labor can be motivating for whatever future plans you have.  The task of putting on some muscle after finally shaking some of that fat seems like a much less daunting task after successfully completing a diet and making the first fitness checkpoint.  When it comes to getting in shape, it’s so easy to get used to efforts not paying off that finally reaching a goal becomes tremendously empowering.  I don’t mean to sound like Oprah, but one of the most common sentiments amongst beginners is the joy of hitting that first milestone and realizing that they can change themselves.  Busting your ass isn’t as hard when you know you’re being productive.

Trying to gain muscle and lose fat and cure cancer all at the same time may take years if you try to do them all at once.  But if you compartmentalize and separate different tasks, they can be accomplished much more easily and quickly.  Except maybe that cancer cure.

Closing on a side note: I know I haven’t directly addressed any training or specific diet strategies yet, but that’ll be coming up in the next few posts.  If there’s anything specific you would like addressed, reader [yes, for now it's just the one of you], just leave me a line in the comments and I’ll get to it first.

Weightlifting 101: Best Tools for the Job

Stepping into the weight room first time can seem a bit daunting. Even if you consider yourself experienced in weight training, it can sometimes be confusing to pick out which tool will best suit your need. There are a bunch of different options out there, so it helps to know the pros and cons of each type of weight to make better decisions during your workout and maximize the effects of your weight training.

Decisions, decisions…

Here are a few basic types of weights:

• Barbells/dumbbells
• Kettlebells
• Bodyweight
• Weight machines
• Odd object weights

BARBELLS/DUMBBELLS: These are the most common weights in the gym, and pretty much the most often used by people who do any sort of weight training, and with good reason.   Using barbells [BBs] or dumbbells [DBs] allows a huge number of exercises targeting any muscle in the body with very precise amounts of weight.

• Pros: BBs and DBs are best suited for muscle growth and strength gains.   Barbells allow you to use the most weight, which allows for the best stimulation of muscles for strength and size gains.  Dumbbells can add another level of benefit, because even though you can’t use as much weight as with barbells, the added challenge of handling dumbbells individually activates more stabilizer muscles than barbells, and may come in handy for working some smaller muscle groups.  They’re also the most easily adjustable weights, and a steady progression of weight is key to gaining strength and muscle.  DBs and BBs are the most versatile tools, and can often be used in lieu of the other tools for other purposes, like conditioning, endurance, or fat loss.
• Cons: BBs require less stabilizing work than DBs and other weightlifting implements overall.  Though muscles can be worked with heavy weights, this type of lifting can sometimes be hard to carry over to real world application, especially if the wrong exercises/movements are being used.  For DBs, the common 5 lb. jumps between weights can be too much of a weight increase, especially for women or when working smaller muscles.

KETTLBELLS: Kettlebell training has become more popular recently in fitness circles, and it deserves the attention. Though it may have seemed like a fad, it is one of the few products that merits the hype it has achieved.  These have been used for ages by the Russians, and we all know those crazy Russians know a thing or two about training.

• Pros: Kettlebells are great for full body work, because many kettlebell exercises are explosive movements that use the body as a whole rather than just a part.  The explosive nature of exercises also creates a high workload for the body in a short time, making KB exercises great for conditioning and fat loss.  They can be used in place of cardio, which keeps workouts more interesting and engaging.  The unique shape of KBs also makes them less balanced in your hand than dumbbells, which works even more stabilizer muscles, imagine doing an exercise with a loaded suitcase, and activates the core.  The use of the full body coupled with the stabilizing function and large range of motion of KBs makes them much more applicable to real world strength than barbells or dumbbells.
• Cons: Kettlebells lose their comparative effectiveness if used as dumbbells/for dumbbell exercises.  They are also less available in commercial gyms, and more expensive to buy for a home gym since they come in set weights and can’t be purchased in variable weight units like adjustable dumbbells.  There is also a higher risk of injury with certain exercises if proper form isn’t observed since the heavy portion of the KB is not as highly controlled as a DB.

BODYWEIGHT: Regardless of where you are working out, you body is always there.  This eliminates the possibility of being limited by resources and, subsequently, allowing yourself to get caught up in excuses not to work out.

• Pros: Aside from convenience and availability, bodyweight exercise uses the whole body as a unit, much like KB training.  Unlike freeweights, using bodyweight never involves sitting down, so more muscles are used as the body is supported in some way off the ground.  Maneuvering yourself in different ways and controlling your body in space also teaches kinesthetic sense, or body control and awareness.  This is a huge benefit in sports and most other real world physical activity.   Bodyweight exercise can work any muscle in the body, requiring at most a sturdy branch and a nice hill, and it also tests your creativity by finding out novel exercises and routines. It’s also perhaps the safest mode of weight training.
• Cons: It’s hard to find fault with bodyweight training.  One of the few drawbacks is that after the initial beginner stage, it may not be challenging enough to increase strength and muscle without adding weight to exercises [like a weighted backpack once regular pullups are easy].

WEIGHT MACHINES: Now entering stormy waters.  Most knowledgeable trainers and coaches won’t even touch weight machines, and for the most part I tend to agree with them.  They aren’t pure evil, however, and we’ll see why.  This time, I’ll switch it up and start with the cons.

• Cons: They work less muscles because all the stabilizing is done for you, you only move the weight in one set path.  The “weight” you use is artificially high because it takes your weaker stabilizing muscles out of the equation.  There is no carryover to the real world, even less that with barbells, because of the grooved single dimension of motion.
• Pros: Cable pulley machines allow freedom in 3 dimensions, so they are exceptions to the above.  Traditional machines can be useful to completely exhaust a muscle – near the end of a workout after it has been already been trained hard by freeweights – to maximize muscle growth.  During a diet when muscles may be weaker, machines can be used safely instead of heavier compound exercises.  [Guys with big egos can't stand using less weight when they're weaker during a diet, and can hurt themselves by trying to lift a weight they can't.]

ODD OBJECTS: This category includes tools most likely not found in your gym.  Odd object training uses often homemade tools that aren’t traditional weights.  Sandbags, sledgehammers, huge tires, weighted sleds, heavy ropes: these are all odd objects.

• Pros: These tools are basically the definition of real world, so no worries about practical carryover there. They’re often much cheaper to buy or assemble than traditional weights.  These tools are FUN, creating a motivation to workout and a high adherence to a program that incorporates them.  They are also good for a variety of functions, such as conditioning, practical strength, and athletic carryover.
• Cons: They take a little extra legwork to track down or put together.  Also, the purposes and exercises for each object may be a little specific, so a combination is necessary since they can’t be the cornerstone of a program.  Sandbags can be messy, you need room to swing around ropes and hammers and push tires and sleds, you may need a tire for sledgehammer swings: means are a limiting factor.

I left a few things out on this list, but most of what you’d use for weight training is here.  You could find a tool for almost any job from the things mentioned above.   A good workout program should use a combination of weights, since using only one will neglect some of the benefits of the others.  A combination of two or more should be used to cancel out the disadvantages of using just one method of training.

Can you think of any other advantages/disadvantages to using the weights mentioned above?  Want to know more about something I may have left out? Share in the comments.

Nutrition 101: One Simple Diet Tip That’s More Than Half the Battle

I’m sure everyone’s heard some version of this little gem of diet tips, but it really is one of the most valuable pieces of advice to follow when it comes to eating healthy: don’t eat anything that comes in a bag or a box. The premise is so simple it can be sort of puzzling: just eat natural foods, the kind that don’t come prepackaged in a cardboard box or an airtight, sealed bag.  ”Really, that’s it?”  That’s it.   That means no sugary cereal, no Twinkies, no Doritos, and while we’re at it, you can forget about drinks that come in cans too.

Congratulations! You’re in the right aisle.

Just to cover all our bases, here are some other versions of this rule:

• Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food
• Don’t eat anything that doesn’t rot.
• Don’t eat it if there’s something on the ingredient label you can’t pronounce/recognize as actual food.
• Buy your food on the outside edges of the supermarket, not the middle aisles. [Typically where fresh food is]
• Don’t eat anything that casts a shadow. [Oops, how'd that get in there? Silly vegans.]
• Don’t eat anything on a dare.*

So what’s ok to eat?  Fresh fruits and vegetables? Check.  Meat and poultry? Check.  Nuts, oils, and other natural fats? Keep ‘em coming. And don’t forget the spices to keep things interesting.  Dairy and grains are in a bit of a grey area depending on who you ask, but if you can tolerate dairy, and make healthy choices with the grains, then you can include those too.  However, chuck the Wonder bread and pick something out from the bakery section.  As a matter of fact, get out of the supermarket and go to a REAL bakery.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised at the vast difference in quality and taste [and fund some local moms and pops at the same time].  I personally won’t give up milk and cheese, but I also don’t recognize Velveeta as a type of cheese.

There are obviously some exceptions on both sides of the rule here.  Yes, I know butter actually comes in a box.  And unless you have a pasta press, some homemade fettuccine may be hard to come by, so as long as it’s a healthier option like wheat, it may be a line you can tiptoe across.  Also, almost any guy that’s been hitting the gym has had some form of protein powder, including myself.  Protein is just protein and a gram or two of artificial sweetener won’t derail all your efforts in following the guideline. Don’t go off and try to find every exception in the book though.  The point is still to eat foods made by nature, or made by you after they were made by nature.  Leave the machines and the packaging plants out of it.

The one ingredient that actually counts as food isnt even spelled correctly. Needless to say, this foodlike item doesnt make the cut.

“But I can still follow those rules and find something unhealthy.”

Yep, you definitely could.  But be honest, how hard did you just have to think about the most unhealthy food you could possibly conjure up using natural, fresh ingredients?  Plus, how much work is that food going to take to make?  Not only does it take a bit of thinking to eat unhealthy under the above guidelines, but the effort it takes to actually make that food almost serves as a deterrent mechanism for how often you’ll eat those foods.

That’s because unhealthy options in this category tend to fall into special occasion food: holidays, parties, big family dinners.  These are all venues that don’t exactly scream healthy, but its equally unlikely that your grandmother is pulling out Pop-tarts at Thanksgiving, so technically you’re still following the rules.  So, that one simple sentence above even has the fact that ‘you shouldn’t be worried about a stupid diet during the holidays‘ built into it.

“So what’s so great about this diet?”

For starters, it’s less of a diet and more of a lifestyle guideline that’ll keep you healthy for a pretty long time.  You can pretty much use this for any goal you’re trying to accomplish.  You can lose fat or gain muscle eating like this.  Or you can stay the same weight while vastly improving your health.  I didn’t outline a particular use for this diet because it’s not really useful for just ONE goal.  It’s a base off which to build you future plans. Just follow one simple rule first, and then after you get used to it, tweak it to get the results you personally want.  [Which is not to say you won't get results while you're getting used to it. You will.]

Another great thing about eating “clean,” as it’s often called, is that you develop a taste for real food.  Here’s a confession: I loved kiwi-strawberry Snapple, and occasionally I missed it.  Then I realized that actual kiwis and strawberries were a whole lot better. [Note: modern factory farmed strawberries taste a bit like cardboard.  You have to get the real ones - the smaller, the sweeter.  Those are awesome.]  Lately, when I eat junk food I haven’t had in a while, I wonder what the big deal was anyway.  Some cheat foods will always have a soft spot in your heart, but after eating well for a while, you’ll realize you’re not missing out on much when you stop eating crap.

Stay tuned for more on why this style of eating works and how to use it for different goals.  In the meantime, try it out.  Questions about what’s ok to eat or awesome overnight results [kidding]?  Any suggestions for “junk” food that you can make following the above rule?  Leave them in the comments.

*Ok, so that’s not a real rule.  But when’s the last time it was actually a smart idea to eat something someone dared you to put in your mouth?

Introduction to Fitness

Welcome to the University of Fitness!

First of all, what is fitness?

Technically speaking, fitness refers to the ability to do a job [fit to run a marathon, fit to run a company, fit to run a fantasy football team - note: I am not any of the above]. In physical terms, it refers to the ability to perform a task, or it could refer to how well you can perform a variety of physical tasks, which is overall fitness.

Sometimes fitness is a job requirement.

Fitness and health are used interchangeably, but health actually refers more to the general well being of your body’s systems, such as all your organs, tissues, etc.. However, you shouldn’t think of fitness and health as two different categories, since much of the work done to improve one will help the other. As a general health term, fitness is usually about being in “good shape”. That generally involves some form of body transformation, such as:

• Fat loss
• Strength/size gain
• Improving general health
• Flexibility/joint health
• Having killer abs
• Looking awesome at the beach
• Etc.

The problem with fitness today…

There’s a reason this site was created. Nowadays, people are starting to get concerned about their health/fitness, but the over saturation of ideas and options on the market serves as a turn off. It’s hard for someone to know what to listen to and what to ignore, what science is right and what’s just a load of crap, and so on. It’s even worse with the huge list of companies trying to sell their useless products to unsuspecting customers who don’t know any better. These companies feed off failure, making money off of people that try 6 different gimmick machines before realizing none of them work.

As a consumer, it’s easy to blame oneself, and not the guys who sold you a bogus product. It’s time to end that. My goal is to help cut through the junk and help provide useful information so you can spend more time working and less time figuring out what will work.

Here comes the truth. Are you ready for it?

Ok, I hope I didn’t lose anyone with that last sentence, but I wasn’t kidding about working. As much as I went off a little on the guys who peddle useless products and programs just now, some of the responsibility lies with consumers today. Everyone wants to lose 30 lbs in 30 days or put on 15 pounds of muscle in a week and a half, all while working out 20 minutes a day, 2 days a week. And people actually think such expectations are reasonable. If their consumers actually believe that’s possible, then how are those fitness companies supposed to resist making such promises of their products?

Now, there are ways to use your time training effectively, but there aren’t shortcuts. A few key strategies can make getting in shape easier, but you have to put in the work, and it doesn’t come overnight. Why?

Because there are 2 basic truths when it comes to fitness:

1] Changing your level of fitness requires actual work, and to some extent, a degree of discomfort. Changing your body involves telling it that it needs to change. How do you do that? By putting it in new situations so that it adapts to higher workloads. If you want to improve from running a mile in 10 minutes to running one in 6, you won’t succeed by continuing to run it in 10 minutes. The body needs to be challenged by moving it out of it’s comfort zone regularly so it realizes it needs to keep up by getting better at doing harder things. The harder you push yourself, the more you are pushing your body to be better equipped for the future.

Not in his comfort zone.

2] There is a limit to how fast you can lose fat/gain muscle/improve fitness, even when working hard. Expecting any faster is unrealistic and anyone who promises otherwise is full of it. Once you start working hard and your body gets the message to get better at doing what it does, it will start to change to suit your needs. However, it can only recover up to a limit in a given period of time. As you start trying to run that 6 minute mile, your body will start catching up by strengthening your heart, lungs, legs, and whatever else is involved with meeting your goal. But you can’t simply start running faster and expect to have your heart, lungs, and legs to match the ability of a Kenyan by the end of the week. Small changes can be hard to see on a daily or even weekly basis, but they add up, and once you notice them, they serve as motivation for the future. Don’t make the beginner mistake of letting a perceived lack of progress discourage you.

Armed with this knowledge, I wish anyone reading this the best of luck in pursuing any fitness goals they have currently and in the future.

Leave a comment: What do you think fitness means? What are your current goals? Any topics you would specifically like addressed?