Escalating Density Training

 Escalating Density Training (also known as "Escalating Intensity Training") is a solid concept that many personal trainers have been using for years because it is based on time based performance instead of focusing on quitting due to muscle fatigue - thus the focus is on muscle performance during a set time period. In the past personal trainers have been using this concept to train clients, without putting a cool name to the technique. The term Escalating Density Training was coined by personal trainer Charles Stanley and used it as a term in his fitness programs.

British commandos used the same technique during WWII while doing their speed-marches. Their goal was to see how far they could get on foot within a set period of time, all while carrying a 60 lb pack of gear on the backs. So while Charles Stanley may have coined the term, he certainly didn't invent the technique as a training method.

The method is actually pretty straightforward. The exerciser moves heavy weights, or the weight of their own body, in a quick period of time to boost overall power output.

Example #1.

Performing alternating squat and push up sets for 15 minutes and keeping a record of the number of reps performed. Then a week or two later the sequence is repeated and the goal is to increase the number of squats and push ups within that 15 minute time frame.

Example #2.

Doing Bicep Curls with 20 lb dumbbells for 1 minute. Count the number of times you did it. Then a week later attempt the same thing, but using 25 lb dumbbells and try to do the same number or even more in 1 minute.

Example #3.

Do as many jumping jacks as you can while listening to the Rocky theme-song "Eye of the Tiger". Count how many you did and track it for next time.

Example #4.

Go jogging and turn on your pedometer. After 15 or 30 minutes (you figure it out ahead of time) check the amount of steps you've taken on your pedometer. Try to beat that next time.

Example #5.

Flip a giant tractor tire end over end across a football field and count the number of times you managed to do it in a 5 minute period.

After completing a set of these exercises you then you take a break and do it again once you feel you are ready. Sometimes you don't do as well during the 1st set because you haven't warmed up your muscles yet and your metabolism is reacting more slowly, so the 2nd or 3rd set may actually produce your best results.

So it is basically Interval Training, with rest periods in-between intervals, and it is designed to build both endurance and muscle strength at the same time. You may only end up doing 2 - 5 intervals, so its not as long term as normal interval training, but your goal isn't to keep going until you are too exhausted to continue, your goal is to lift or do exercises for a specific amount of time and then each week you should be progressively stronger, faster and have a greater endurance.

This method offers the person the challenge of a numeric goal, and it's easy to plan workouts and track progress because you are aiming to increase both the number of reps, the amount of weight, or both simultaneously. Okay, only doing squats or push ups for 15 minutes seems quite ambitious, and BORING, and it is, but it will also be an intense workout if you do that 3 times in a single hour with 7.5 minute breaks between each set. 150-200 squats and push ups even without weights will cause plenty of soreness, at least at first. However, eventually your body adapts, weights are added and the muscle performance increases SIGNIFICANTLY!

Some key points of this system:

• Form is of utmost importance. If one workout you are performing bench press with perfect form, and the next with lazy technique, the purpose of this method is defeated. Not to mention that with so many reps proper form will prevent injury.
• Keep the exercises simple so you can use proper form without making things complicated.
• Active recovery in between workouts with cardio and stretching is highly recommended. 
• Drink and stay hydrated! Preferably Powerade or Gatorade or even a whey protein drink.
• Keep track of everything, including lower numbers during each cycle of exercises.
• Lift light at first with a weight that would fatigue at 10 reps. Do half if fatigued (5 reps) and alternate your exercises. Keep repeating this cycle for the 15 minutes.
• The next workout the only goal is to do more reps!

Doing Escalating Density Training is tough and takes discipline to complete the full fifteen minutes if that is your goal but once you get the hang of it, you will look forward to these workouts and tracking your progress!

Strength Training After 40

The Benefits of Strength Training

• Builds Bone Density
• Reduces the risk of osteoporosis
• Reduces risk of diabetes
• Reduces risk of heart disease
• Prevents Injuries

Strength training for people over the age of 40 also reduces the aging process by toning the muscles, improving posture and balance, gaining energy, stamina and achieves an overall revitalization in appearance - resulting in a more youthful looking you.

Some people also falsely believe that strength training will not help them to lose weight, or will make them muscle-bound - confusing weight lifting for bodybuilding. The truth is, strength training burns a lot of calories so it can be just as effective as cardio, but as you get older strength training becomes more important because some cardio exercises like hard running can be hard on the joints, including the knees and ankles. Thus for mature people strength training is a safer alternative as it is less likely to result in injuries.

It also makes your body look good after weight loss through training and a good diet has been achieved! Adding muscle promotes a healthier (and faster) metabolism, which will effectively de-age you as a higher metabolism increases the amount of Human Growth Hormone (HGH) in your system.

Even if you don't have any history in strength training, anyone can start, at any age! Just start small with a pair of 5 or 10 lb dumbbells. If you are not sure how to strength train, hire a personal trainer. Having a personal trainer, even for a few sessions to demonstrate exercises and create a program to follow on your own, will be very helpful to get started.

Once you're seeing progress then you will see all the benefits strength training can do for you.

Two Alternative Models for Predicting Muscle Growth

See my older post How Fast Can You Grow Muscle for more on this topic.

There is a lot of different theories in the bodybuilding industry as to how quickly someone can build muscle. Below are two different theories of how quickly muscle can be built.

The McDonald Theory

This theory was created by fitness writer and author Lyle McDonald who also coaches bodybuilders on nutrition. He came up with the following equation for how fast you can build muscle:

His theory is based on the concept that the longer and harder you train the more difficult it becomes to build additional muscle mass. In theory your body can only support so much muscle depending on your height and bone structure, however his theory emphasizes years of training instead. It amounts to roughly the same thing as after 4 years of training you've probably reached a point where its very difficult to add extra muscle mass - and frankly, unless you are a professional bodybuilder, why would you want to?

Note how in the chart above the estimated 2 pounds per month is only roughly 0.5 lb per week, which is not a very fast pace. Over a year that 2 lbs per month adds up to a solid 24lb of muscle. Certainly other factors may also affect the pace of muscle gain, but the concept is sound.

Also the values in the preceding chart apply to male weightlifters. Lyle estimates that females gain muscle weight at roughly half of these values (e.g. 10-12 pounds in the first year of proper training).

The Alan Aragon Theory

The esteemed Alan Aragon is an exercise physiologist who loves constantly staying on top of the latest exercise and nutrition research. Awhile back he addressed the issue of rates of muscle gain in terms of percentage gain for natural lifters.  Here’s the theoretical model he came up with:

Using this theory a 130 lb teenager who never has lifted weights might gain 1.3 - 1.95 pounds of muscle per month (15-23 pounds per year) in a year with a great weightlifting program and a protein focused meal plan.  After a year, he’s now at around 155lb and might be capable of gaining 0.77 - 1.55 lbs per month (9-18 pounds per year) or he might still be a considered a Beginner since he is still a teenager and still growing...

After another year of proper training and smart eating, he’s now at 170lb and is in the Advanced lifter category. Or is he? He might still, depending on his exact age be considered to be in the Beginner or Intermediate category.

The flaw in Alan Aragon's theory is that it supposes a precise 1 year - 2 year - 3 year approach, almost like years of university or college. Which is a very simplistic approach and doesn't factor in age or the fact the person might still be growing in stature.

Nevertheless lets continue to follow his model...

From here on out, the teenager may only gain 0.5-1 lb per month, at which point the closer he approaches his maximum muscle potential, the slower the rate of muscle growth. To be fair that is why most of the really big guys at the gym have been lifting for a good 5 to 10 years and have peaked at a point where its difficult for them to get any further results.

The Moffat Theory

The following theory was created by Charles Moffat and follows the mathematical formula below using a series of acronyms to represent different factors that effect muscle gain.

H X SW X MR X DS X G X TC = RMG
H = Height Modifier, above or below average, wherein 100% = 70 inches tall, the average height for a male. The female average is 65 inches tall, but use the male average height for calculating the percentile. Thus if a male or female is 60 inches tall, the percentile to use is 85.7%. If the person is 74 inches tall the percentile is 105.7%.

SW = Shoulder Width (measured from the outer tips of the shoulder blades) above or below average, wherein 100% = average. Average for males is 15.5 inches, for females it is 14.0 inches. Like above use the male average for determining the percentile.

MR = Metabolic Rate, which is based on your age and other health factors. This rate is measured as a percentile wherein 18 to 24 is 100%. Subtract 2% for each year over 24. Thus a 44 year old person has a base Metabolic Rate of 60%. Various health factors such as a history of obesity and other factors may lower this metabolic rate by an additional 10% or more.

DS = Dietary Sufficiency or Insufficiency, wherein 100% = Sufficient protein/nutrients to support lots of muscle gain and a lesser percentage indicates a shortage. If you are not eating properly follow the assumption that this percentile is 50% or worse. 100% would only be possible if you have the help of a nutritionist and are following a strict high protein structured diet, involving daily consumption of 150 mg of whey protein in addition to a balanced meal plan.

G = Gender Modifier, wherein 100% is an Alpha Male. 80% for Average Male or Alpha Female. 60% for Low Testosterone Male or Average Female. 40% for Low Testosterone Female. If in doubt, assume the average for your gender.

XR = Exercise Rate, wherein 100% indicates you are maximizing your muscle gain via 120 minutes of daily weightlifting on a strength gain program. If doing less than that calculate the percentile based on the total number of minutes done weightlifting. eg. 30 minutes of weightlifting indicates an XR of 25%.

TC = Training Category. The year of your weight training. Year 1 - 36; Year 2 - 24; Year 3 - 16; Year 4 - 11; Years 5 to 10 - 8; Year 11+ - 4 or less. Eventually a person would reach a Hypothetical Maximum Weight of bulk muscle and will be unable to add any more.

RMG = Rate of Muscle Growth, for that year. Remember to adjust the TC for each year.

1st Example

Jake is 6' (72 inches) tall, making his H is 102.9%. His shoulder width is 16 inches, making his SW 103.2%. He is 30 years old and has a past history of weight problems, giving him a MR of 80%. He tries to eat healthy, but is actually pretty average in his eating patterns so his DS is 50%. He is an average male and not terribly high in testosterone so his Gender Modifier is 80%. He only does weightlifting for about 20 minutes per day so his XR is 17%. On the plus side he has only been weightlifting a short period of time, so he is in the Year 1 category.

H (102.9%) x SW (103.2%) x MR (80%) x DS (50%) x G (80%) x XR (17%) x TC (36) = 2.08 lbs of muscle per year.

What this tells us is that Jake may be trying a little, but he is being held back a lot by his poor diet and low level of exercise. Lets run the numbers again, but this time lets say that he is taking whey protein and vitamin supplements to boost his DS to 80% and that he doubles his weightlifting regimen to 40 minutes per day.

H (102.9%) x SW (103.2%) x MR (80%) x DS (80%) x G (80%) x XR (33.3%) x TC (36) = 6.52 lbs of muscle per year.

Obviously he is gaining a lot more muscle by improving his diet and how much weightlifting he is doing, but if he maximized his diet as best he could and did weighlifting 120 minutes per day he could improve his results even more dramatically.

H (102.9%) x SW (103.2%) x MR (80%) x DS (100%) x G (80%) x XR (100%) x TC (36) = 24.47 lbs of muscle per year.

The following year, assuming he kept the same routine as above he could add an additional 16.31 lbs of muscle.

2nd Example

Sara is 5'2" (62 inches) tall, making her H 88.6%. She is petite and has small shoulders, 12 inches, making her SW 77.4%. She 26 years old and has no history of health problems, so her MR is 98%. She is a vegetarian and eats healthy, but she doesn't consume a lot of protein so lets assume her DS is 50%. She is an average female so her Gender Modifier is 60%. She is new to weightlifting and is only doing it 30 minutes per day, so her XR is 25% and her TC is 36.

H (88.6) x SW (77.4%) x MR (98%) x DS (50%) x G (60%) x XR (25%) x TC (36) = 1.81 lbs of muscle per year.

So Sara isn't going to be adding much muscle with her weightlifting routine. For her it is more like cardio. Like the 1st Example above, she could also increase her weightlifting regimen and start eating more protein. If she maximized both she could increase her muscle gain to 14.52 lbs in the first year, but maybe she doesn't really want to because she might have different priorities.

Notes

The average male's Skeletal Muscle Mass is 42% / the average female's is 36%.

The average male who is medium frame and 5'10" tall has 65.94 lbs of Skeletal Muscle Mass, with an overall weight of 157 lbs

The average female who is medium frame and 5'5" tall has 48.24 lbs of Skeletal Muscle Mass, with an overall weight of 134 lbs.

The Importance of Rest Periods

Regardless of whether you are doing Cardio, Endurance training or Weightlifting the importance of having rest periods cannot be ignored.

Your body builds new muscle tissue while you sleep and rest. It is a very common beginners mistake to forget to rest properly.

Lets say for example that your goal is Muscle Gain via Weightlifting - Well then you need to be lifting weights 3 days per week - say Monday, Wednesday, Friday - with plenty of rest in-between your weightlifting sessions.

If you don't have rest periods you will end up taxing your muscles too much and you won't be getting the optimal amount of muscle gain.

In theory you could do weightlifting as much as 3.5 times per week, doing a full body routine every 2nd day and resting in-between.

Or another way to do it would be to only exercise your upper body muscles on odd days and only exercise your lower body muscles on even days of the month. So yes, you could exercise every day of the week, but you would be giving different parts of your body a break on alternating days.

When it comes to Cardio or Endurance training you want to aim for 4 days per week. eg. Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, Friday. And you want to work your way up endurance wise so eventually you are doing a single activity - eg. swimming - for 60 to 80 minutes.

But the end result is that you still need time to relax, recuperate and heal from the physical stress of your ordeal.

If you aren't resting it will result in you developing a number of physical and emotional sideeffects, including insomnia, anti-social behaviour and all the other warning signs of Exercise Addiction / hormone deficiencies.

Exercising burns through hormones in your body like crazy. It eats it up. Those hormones affect other things health wise however and even your personality / behaviour. Your body needs rest periods between periods of strenuous exercise so that you can recharge and rebuild, not just ripped muscle tissue, but also to correct hormonal imbalances.

So if you're still feeling guilty about slacking off during the Christmas / Holiday season, don't worry, it was a well deserved rest period.

Note: Sometimes its also necessary to switch to low strain recuperative periods in your exercise routine. Maintenance / Healing phases. Basically instead of exercising really hard and intense you take 2 weeks and just sort of "chill" while you exercise. You still exercise, but you do it at a less intense level and you avoid anything that is painful such as Power Lifting or marathon running.

Such phases also give your body more time to build up / repair any muscles, and is great for if you are recovering from a minor sports injury.

Lastly SLEEP!

Remember that the best sleeping pattern is a 1 hour nap during the day and 5 hours of sleep every night. Failing that the next best thing is 7 to 8 hours of solid sleep per day.

If you have difficulty sneaking in naps during weekdays, try to have 1 or 2 naps every weekend. Naps and sleeping do wonders for your hormone and energy levels, making you feel more alert and more energetic.

7 Benefits of Isometric Exercises

#1. Isometric Exercises are Frugal because you don't need to buy any equipment to do them because they use pressure resistance or bodyweight to accomplish the goal.

#2. Many trainers argue that Isometric Exercises are better than lifting weights because of the “synapse effect”, wherein one’s body just uses the minimal quantity of muscle fibers it has to at one time. When weightlifting your body only uses the minimum amount of muscle fibers to complete the task in however long it takes to do it, typically only a few seconds... but to build strength you want to use as much as you possibly can and for multiple seconds.

With Isometric Exercises you hold the position for 10 seconds or more, utilizing and maximizing every muscle fibre at the same time, which is a more effective way of building muscle.

#3. Isometric Exercises builds muscle FASTER. With weightlifting you have to do a lot of repetitions to get results. With Isometric Exercises you can get faster results because your goal is to continually challenge your muscles on a constant basis - getting more rippage for your time. The only downside to this is you need to keep challenging yourself.

#4. If you combine Isometric Exercises with freeweights you can achieve even greater results than freehand Isometric Exercises by themselves. Your goal then is to lift or pull something and then hold it for 10 seconds or more.

#5. Isometric Exercises also builds endurance, which is why it is the exercise of choice for government militaries around the world, because they don't just want strong soldiers, they also want soldiers with incredible muscular endurance. This is why a military fitness regimen typically involves 500 pushups per day, 500 situps per day, 500 jumping jacks per day, etc. If you're going to be carrying around 70 lbs of gear all day they need you to be able to do without tiring easily.

#6. Isometric Exercises strengthens bones. Technically all weightlifting and even cardio exercises do this, but basically it all helps to increase bone density.

#7. Reduces chances of Injury. Isometric Exercises are widely known to be the safest way to exercise because you're not using any weights and you don't need any special equipment.

Strength Training Vs Endurance Training

Strength Training and Endurance Training are actually very different disciplines.

Lets take Bicep Curls as an example...

First we determine what your 1RM is. 1RM means "One Repetition Maximum", meaning the maximum amount you can lift and only do 1 rep.

So in the example of Bicep Curls lets say you can lift a maximum of 50 lbs with one arm and then you have to stop and catch your breath.

With Strength Training what you would then do is calculate what is 75% of that and do bicep curls for 5 sets with 5 repetitions each set. Do that three days per week for 3 weeks and then calculate 80% of 1RM and do the same thing for another 3 weeks. Then 85% of your 1RM for 3 weeks and eventually 90% for 1 RM for 3 weeks.

After you're done all 12 weeks then you recalculate your new 1RM, and start back again at 75%, repeating the same cycle every 12 weeks.

Note: To be fair you're not meant to be doing only Bicep Curls. You should be doing sets like this for Squats, Stationary Lunges, Modified Deadlifts, Calf Raises, Upright Rows, Bench Presses, Pullovers, Bent-Over Rows, Military Presses, Preacher Curls and Tricep Curls. The end result is a full body workout.

It also means you will need to determine your 1RM for each machine at the gym, write it all down in a journal and then recalculate your 1RM every 12 weeks of your Strength Training program.

Lets say however that you weren't trying to build strength so much however and you were more worried about endurance...

Here is what you would do instead.

#1. Calculate your 1RM like you would above, but when choosing the amount of weight to be using you instead calculate it to be 50% of your 1RM.

#2. Instead of doing 5 sets of 5 repetitions, you are instead doing 5 sets of 10 repetitions.

#3. You train 4 days per week instead of 3 days.

#4. After 3 weeks of training you don't change the amount of weight you are lifting, instead you increase the number of repetitions to 5 sets of 15. Three weeks later it becomes 5 sets of 20. Then 5 sets of 25.

#5. After the 12 weeks is over you recalculate your new 1RM and start over again with 5 sets of 10 repetitions.

With Endurance Training you are still building strength at the same time, but the focus is on increasing your ability to lift many multiple times without tiring so easily. Endurance training is also safer because it builds up your cardiovascular heart and lung muscles more in a similar way to Cardio training.

Its a bit like comparing Sprinters to Marathon Runners.

When Sprinters train out on the track they might only be running 100 meters at a time, and they stop and rest and when they're ready again they will sprint the 100 meters again. They might do that maybe 20 times on a training day. If they can sprint the 100 in 10 seconds their total exercise time might only be 200 seconds of actual sprinting, but they have spaced it out so they have plenty of time to rest in between sprints.

As such Sprinters typically look strong and quick. Marathon Runners have a strong tendency to look almost anorexic.

In contrast Marathon Runners will be out there running half or full marathons 3 or 4 times per week. Approx. 21.1 to 42.2 km. So for example they might be running 25 km four days per week.

With Marathon Runners they need to be careful to avoid going over 100 km per week because if they do they can often develop "Exercise Addiction", a condition runners are frequently prone to because of the batch of hormonal painkillers the brain releases during long runs which are highly addictive. The side effects of Exercise Addiction include insomnia, loss of appetite, headaches, anti-social behaviour, decreased libido, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (obsessive cleaning, etc). It can even lead to loss of weight / anorexia as the person can sometimes exercise so much they end up burning away muscle and brain tissue for energy. Like any other addiction it can also ruin relationships as the person will choose running over spending time with family or friends.

Even professional marathon runners avoid going over the 100 km limit due to fear of developing an addiction to "Runner's High".

We should note that Marathon Running with an Exercise Addiction is not going to increase your endurance. If the person is running that much the hormonal imbalance in their body causes them to be unable to sleep properly and regenerate muscle tissue during their sleep. Instead they will burn away muscle tissue in order to fuel their obsessive need to keep exercising.

Some Exercise Addicts are known to run 140 km or more per week and get emotionally upset if they don't go outside and run because they're so obsessed with their "Runner's High".

Thankfully that sort of thing doesn't really happen amongst Strength Training or Endurance Training because the focus is still on building muscle, right?

Wrong! Strength is actually prone to Exercise Addiction too. According to some bodybuilders it can even be more addictive, although it is difficult to measure if that is true or not. A warning sign of someone who addicted is their insistence that they have to go to the gym 6 or 7 days per week to work out for several hours, working out for 15 hours + per week.

What is known is that Exercise Addiction is more commonly found amongst "Power Lifters" who develop a psychological dependence on weightlifting - the heavier the weights the more addicted they can become. The psychological symptoms are the same as other Exercise Addictions. It doesn't matter that it is weightlifting instead of running. It is still addictive and dangerous to their mental health.

Worse, Power Lifters are also more likely to use Steroids. Increasing their psychological addiction with a drug addiction that will damage their internal organs. There is a lot of information out there available on this topic if you want to Google the words powerlifting steroids addiction.

How Fast Can You Grow Muscle?

A commonly asked question by people trying build muscle is how fast can it actually be done.

The short answer is approx. 1 to 2 lbs of muscle per month if you are weightlifting daily, but there are a number of factors that affect how fast you build muscle, listed below, which will make you gain muscle faster or slower.

Training Age

Don't confuse this with your actual age. That is a different factor.

Your training age is how long you’ve been lifting weights and engaging in weight training, either as the result of working out or as part of your daily routine (eg. If you're a construction worker you are probably more used to it). If you’re new to weightlifting you will be able to gain more muscle faster than if you’ve been lifting for many years. I know that seems backwards, but that is the way it works.

Hormone Levels

Depending on the person the amount of testosterone and other muscle building hormones in your body can vary wildly because your lifting regimen does not help elicit a testosterone response (you might not be lifting with your legs, or not lifting heavy enough), or your body simply doesn’t produce as much testosterone (due to genetics / personality). Alpha male personalities tend to make more testosterone (in theory you can even become an alpha male with time if you make active efforts to become more confident and your brain will increase your testosterone levels as the result of rewiring of your system - this is harder to do as you get older as such things become hardwired in your brain while you are a teenager).

For women muscle is still governed by testosterone levels, but since women produce less testosterone other muscle building hormones play a greater role in the female body. Cortisol thus plays a bigger role for women, but too high levels of cortisol hurts bone density. Thus for women its better to use short but intense bursts of weightlifting to get the benefits.

Genetics

Everyone has basically the same genetic coding, but there are minor differences in the coding. Don't read too much into genetics because sometimes people can defy the odds through conditioning. Most people (roughly 68%) by definition are genetically average so the chances are likely you're pretty average.

There is a concept of a genetic bell curve. To summarize what this means, some people are naturally inclined to build a lot of muscle because of genetic factors which effect hormonal balance, or the thickness of their frames (big boned) allows them to add muscle easier. A person with a small frame will have trouble building muscle.

Muscle Memory

If you used to have lots of muscle when you were younger or before an injury, then you can regain that muscle faster when you start training again. So if you are an athlete and get injured and lose 30 lbs of muscle you can regain that muscle at a much faster rate than a normal person because your body remembers the muscle being there and will build it at an accelerated rate. Its possible to gain 20 lbs of muscle back in only a single month if you have the muscle memory, because your body has a mechanism for restoring the previous homeostasis.

Protein Supplements / Steroids

Consuming protein supplements and Creatine (a chemical found in red meat) will help you build muscle faster.

Heavy duty supplements like steroids are harmful and will damage your internal organs. So called performance enhancing substances can help you build muscle much faster, but will cause your internal organs like liver, kidneys, etc to shrink and become more prone to diseases/cancer. It also shrinks your testicles and damages brain matter.

The safest route is to stick to natural supplements like whey protein and Creatine.

Muscle Pain - What is it and what to do about it

Do you get muscle pain after exercising? Its normal, but what is it and what should we do about it?

Muscle soreness is caused by a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles. Sometimes the pain is delayed, but usually the soreness tends to show up between 24-48 hours and is commonly called "DOMS" (delayed onset muscle soreness) after exercise.

Everyone gets it too. It's not unique to beginners or bodybuilders. Anyone who strains/rips their muscles is going to experience soreness either soon after or a delayed response. Sometimes the delay is caused by adrenaline and other pain-killing hormones in your system so you simply don't notice the pain until later. This is common for boxers for example who experience pain while fighting in the ring, but the real pain doesn't happen until after the match is over and they can barely stand due to all the pain.

Every time that you exercise and especially when you try new things such as exercises you've never done before, or trying heavier weights or by adding time to the routine, your muscles are simply not used to the demand. What happens is the tiny muscle fibers tear and break, and then they heal and fill in the muscle void with new muscle tissue so that you can handle that same load of work the next time with less effort and less pain. A little muscle soreness is a good thing. Hence the saying NO PAIN, NO GAIN. Muscle pain means that you have challenged your body and that it is now healing and building new muscle tissue.

Example

Lets say you don't normally do situps and your core muscles aren't the greatest. So one day you do 300 situps and that night and the day after your abs hurt. But two days later if you try to do 300 situps again, it will be easier the 2nd time around and you will experience less pain. This is because you've healed and built up more muscle in that region during the healing process. If you kept doing 300 situps every 2 days for a month by the end of the month you would be experiencing almost no pain and your ab muscles would be significantly stronger.

So regardless of whether you are doing weightlifting or ab workouts or even cardio, you are going to experience muscle pain. Even archery causes muscle pain in your arms and back if you aren't used to the poundage of the bow.

So what can you do about it?

#1. Only exercise those same muscles every 2 days so you can rest and heal in-between and build up your strength/endurance.

#2. Don't overdo it on the weights. Make gradual improvements on how much weight you are lifting. I know its fun to try and lift your maximum amount, but I only recommend doing that once per month and then keeping a record of what your maximum was.

#3. Stretching / Yoga. Stretching and yoga can help prevent / decrease muscle soreness.

#4. Take a cold bath or shower when you experience muscle soreness. Its really cold, but it helps numb the pain.

#5. Eat lots of beans, nuts, etc after a workout. Or a protein shake or protein bar. The extra protein will help build/repair muscle tissue faster. I don't recommend meat because the protein content in meat isn't as high as people like to think it is. eg. Pork chops are only 18% protein.

#6. Do NOT exercise muscles that are already sore. They're trying to heal. Focus your workout on different muscles on days when your muscles are so. eg. Some people like to alternate weightlifting on one day with cardio on the next. Or alternatively upper body on one day and lower body on the next.

#7. As a last resort, pain killers. Pay attention and learn what is actually in them however. A common painkiller you can find in a pharmacy for bodybuilders is actually just Tylenol 650 mg - which is the same thing people take for arthritis pain. So if you do go that way, look at the prices because seniors pay less for arthritis pills than bodybuilders do for muscle relaxers, even though its the same ingredient.

Always remember that pain is temporary. The feeling of achieving your goals lasts forever.

Motivating Yourself to Lift Weights

I am loving these motivational images from motiveweight.blogspot.ca. :)

Body Weight Exercises

THE BENEFITS OF BODY WEIGHT EXERCISES

#1. No Investment Needed. You don't need a gym memberships or expensive equipment - Seriously, you can get started with a fitness program today just by Googling bodyweight exercises and clicking images to search for ideas (examples shown here).

If you do decide to invest in equipment, buying a rope or chin up bar (or rings) is pretty cheap and frugal.

#2. Highly Effective - Our bodies are heavy. That's all the weight you need. Other cardio based body weight exercises such as mountain climbers, step climbing and jumping jacks raise the heart rate fast because you are lifting your own body weight.

#3. Very Easy to Learn - Body weight exercises are a lot less technical than the form for weightlifting free weights. No messing around with machines.

#4. No Need for Spotters - A heavy bench press needs a spotter to keep the workout safe. 50? 100 push ups? It doesn't matter, you'll be okay on your own!

#5. Anytime, Anywhere! - Need I explain more? You can do body weight exercises anywhere, even in bed!

#6. No Need to Hire a Personal Trainer - I admit this website is for my personal training business in Toronto, but I also love to give free advice on how people can exercise on their own in a frugal manner without the need to hire anyone. You don't even need a gym membership to do body weight exercises!

Body weight exercises can be a workout all on their own or used in conjunction with free weights, machines or as intervals in between bursts of cardio.

Does Exercise Stunt your Growth?

A commonly asked question that people have when they see an image like the one on the right here (a boy who clearly does weightlifting) is how does this effect his physical growth?

Does exercising stunt his growth?

This, as it turns out, is actually a myth. Exercising actually does the opposite. It actually INCREASES growth by triggering the brain to release Human Growth Hormone...

Children who exercise and eat healthy grow up to be "big and strong". Its an old concept similar to Popeye's "I'm strong to the finish because I eat my spinach!"

Exercising, any exercising, causes the brain to release more Human Growth Hormone (HGH), which in turns triggers the body to both regenerate existing tissue, but also triggers growth spurts in children, and in adults HGH works to hinder diseases like cancer and keeps the body feeling younger.

It is one of the reasons why people who exercise are typically taller and also appear younger than counterparts in their same age group. (I am frequently told I look to be approx. 25 years old and almost no one ever guesses I am 33. That is the result of exercise and healthy eating.)

For children who are growing regular exercise needs to be part of their regular routine. Lack of exercise and unhealthy eating will result in children growing up to be "short and stout". Exercise, vitamins, calcium and a balanced diet make a big difference in a growing body.

If children excel at a particular sport, for example competitive weightlifting, it isn't going to stunt their growth and will actually make them taller. Look at the weightlifters at the Olympics. A lot of them are hovering around 6 feet tall or over. That is the result of exercise and eating their proverbial spinach.

Now lets pretend you don't believe me or don't believe in the science behind HGH.

Go ahead and ask some pro-weightlifters when they started exercising and how tall they are. The majority of them will say they started weightlifting around 11 or 12 years old and say they are between 5'9" and 6'6" tall. No shortage of tall people amongst weightlifters.

But they will also stress the importance of proper diet. Nutrition and exercise go hand in hand when it comes to growing both taller and bigger physically.

Understanding Interval Training

Targeting Maximum Fat Loss Through High-Intensity Interval Training

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is a form of exercise that is growing in popularity. HIIT combines two of the most effective fat-burning methods.

The first method is high-intensity training, which pushes the body to maximum effort to achieve muscle fatigue and maximum oxygen use in a quick burst. Think sprinting or heavy weight lifting. The harder muscles work, the more oxygen they require. This is measured relative to one’s maximum amount of oxygen their body consumes during exercise. Working your body close to its oxygen max triggers the Afterburn Effect, where the body continues to consume oxygen (and burn calories) up to 48 hours after the workout (it takes approximately five calories to consume one liter of oxygen).

The second method is interval training, which alternates periods of intense effort with periods of moderate-to-low intensity effort. Interval training boosts metabolism significantly longer than a steady workout of equal or even greater length (for example, a 20 minute workout of alternating high/low-intensity periods burns more calories than a 20 minute workout of steady intensity). Interval training also builds lean muscle tissue faster than steady state training.

So instead of jogging for 30 minutes you alternate between sprinting and brisk walking for 30 minutes. Due to the Afterburn Effect it burns even more calories than plain jogging, even though the distance traveled and the time is the same.

By combining the above two exercise methods, exercisers can maximize fat-burning and muscle-building potential through significantly shorter workouts. HIIT also maximizes increased metabolic rate, optimizes muscle building and muscle retention during fat loss, and increases calorie burn during and after workouts.

The Science Behind Interval Training

HIIT taxes and maximizes both aerobic and anaerobic fitness, while light cardio addresses aerobic only. Aerobic respiration requires oxygen to generate energy in the form of ATP, while anaerobic respiration does not. HIIT affects muscle tissue at the cellular level, actually changing mitochondrial activity in the muscles themselves.

University studies indicate as little as 27 minutes of HIIT three times per week produces the same anaerobic and aerobic improvement as 60 minutes of steady state cardio five times per week.

How to Measure Muscle Mass

Some weightlifters like to know what percentage of their total weight is muscle and the lbs / kgs of muscle they have. There are several different methods for measuring or calculating the amount of muscle mass in the human body... And the methods are all highly inaccurate.

The only way to directly measure muscle mass is via cadaver dissection, which is not a good option! The methods described below are estimations, and based on different assumptions, and with varying degrees of accuracy. You've been warned!

The human body is made of several things:

Muscle Mass
Fat Mass
Bone Mass
Blood Mass
Waste Mass (Urine, Excrement)
Organ Mass

And so forth. Usually what people want to know is how to measure their Fat Mass and their Muscle Mass, often represented as a percentage of their total weight. Body Fat % X Total Body Weight = Fat Mass; Muscle % X Total Body Weight = Muscle Mass.

There are machines (electronic gadgets) at gyms that can give a rough estimate of fat mass and then using your weight it can be used to calculate the approx. muscle mass. But its based on a percentage and makes a number of assumptions that, including that the fat estimate was accurate and ignores things like above/below average bone and organ weight.

GIRTH MEASUREMENTS

Girth measurements can be used to monitor changes in muscle mass. As the girth measure will also include the fat underlying the skin, any changes in your body fat will affect the results. Therefore, girth measures themselves are only a rough guide to muscle mass changes. The calculation below adjusts the girth measures based on skinfold levels in the calculation of muscle mass.

The Girth Muscle Mass Calculation equation to use is as follows, where: H = height, FG = forearm girth, CG = calf girth, CCG = corrected calf girth, TG = mid-thigh girth, CTG = corrected mid-thigh girth.

CTG = TG - π(mid-thigh skinfold/10)
CCG = CG - π(calf skinfold/10)
Muscle mass (g) = H(0.0553CTG² + 0.0987FG² + 0.0331CCG²) - 2445

24-HOUR URINE CREATININE MEASUREMENTS

Another method for determining muscle mass is through the measurement of the 24-hour urinary excretion of a chemical called creatinine. This method is based on on the correlation between total body creatine and urinary excretion of creatinine, and assumes that nearly all creatine is within muscle tissue, that muscle creatine content remains constant and that creatinine is excreted at a uniform rate.

BODY SCAN

The following methods are not used routinely to measure muscle mass, though it is possible to get estimates of muscle mass from these measurements. Most of these methods require sophisticated and expensive equipment, not usually available for most people.

Dual-Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) - using this method you can determine body components including non fat soft tissue.
Total Body Potassium (TBK) accurately determines the body's total cell mass (that is, the active growing tissues in the body), which in turn can be used to estimate fat-free or lean body mass. When this measurement is combined with measurements from the Total Body Protein, you can determine total organ and muscle mass.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) - with MRI it is possible to get accurate measurements of the composition of body tissue, by identifying muscle, fat and organs etc.
Total Body Electrical Conductivity (TOBEC) - can be used to estimate lean body mass.
Computed Tomography (CT) - the high quality images can be processed to differentiate and measure the amounts of fat and lean body tissue.

WHAT'S THE POINT???

So yes, you can try to measure your total muscle mass. But do you really need a number? What difference will that number make beyond bragging rights?

If you're going to do any kind of measuring the things I recommend measuring is your Personal Best.

How you do that depends on you, but what I like to do when weightlifting is to once a week see what the maximum amount of weight I can lift with a specific group of muscles. And to me it doesn't count as successful unless I can do 10 repetitions of that weight. If I can only do somewhere between 1 and 9 then it doesn't count. If I am going to lift something I don't want to lift it for a few seconds and then drop it and be unable to lift it again because my muscles are too tired. I want to be able to lift it and sustain that weight for a reasonable amount of time.

Once I know I can do that I can say that is my Personal Best and then aim to improve upon that.

Knowing my Muscle Mass percentage is comparatively useless.

Maximum Results + Minimum Time

A lot of people in North America really only exercise for one reason: To Lose Weight.

But they don't want to work hard to do it. Exercise? That sounds too much like work. It is that kind of pessimistic and lazy attitude that causes people to become paralyzed by "I'll do it later."  It is therefore no surprise that America has an obesity epidemic when you considered a combined lifestyle of bad diet and lack of exercise. Also to blame is all the nutritional / exercise misinformation being pushed at them by the food industry and even people in the exercise industry who really just want to sell you something.

Well to be fair, I am selling something too. Personal Training. But I am also a strong believer in giving away free information so that people can go the Do-It-Yourself route.

One of the things people are always looking for is ways to maximize their weight loss... but they want to do it in the minimum amount of time required.

This to me is the typical male approach to getting a task done. If you give a guy three boxes and tell him to carry them upstairs one at a time he will look at you funny, stack all three boxes together and then try to carry them up the stairs all at once. Its not lazy, its male logic. "I can carry all three at once and therefore accomplish the task in one shot."

Part of it might be male ego and testosterone, that is for psychiatrists to decide, but the analogy is good.

So how do we apply this to exercise?

#1. You want to maximize calorie loss per minute.

This means you're going to have to compare exercises and pick one that burns a lot of calories in a hurry. The obvious choice is running because that burns the most calories more than any other exercise, but depending on your goals you might also choose weight lifting, a specific sport, skipping rope, jumping jacks or even yoga.

#2. At the same time you want to be able to keep up the activity for the stated length of time.

So for example if your plan is to only exercise for 15 to 30 minutes per day then you ideally want to be burning a lot of calories during that time period and not stopping to rest. So you want to pick an activity that you're certain you can do. eg. Jogging for 30 minutes.

#3. You want to push your limits in order to maximize results.

One way to do this is via Interval Training. So to take the example of running and jogging you could do the following:

Sprint 1 minute, jog for 2 minutes. Repeat 10 times. Total time 30 minutes.

And if you're still not tired after the 30 minutes, sprint for an additional amount of time until you're ready to quit.

The same method can also be used for weight lifting and mixed cardio.

30 lb bicep curls 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
Pushups 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
Chin-ups 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
25 lb bicep curls 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
Pushups 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
Chin-ups 2 minutes, jumping jacks for 2 minutes.
 20 lb bicep curls 3 minutes, jumping jacks for 3 minutes.

Total time 30 minutes.

#4. The Fun Factor.

Running and weightlifting can be pretty boring however. That is why it is important to mix it up with music and other things to make them more interesting. Try and pick music that makes you feel invigorated.  Eye of the Tiger, Super Trouper, Hungry like the Wolf, TV theme songs... whatever gets your heart and mind racing.

If that still isn't enough fun for you my recommendation is to take up a sport every day for 30 minutes (or longer). If its truly fun you will lose track of time and want to do it every day. (This is why I got into archery and boxing in the first place. They're sports I never get bored of.)

If you can find an activity you enjoy that you can do every day for 30 minutes and it doesn't feel like a chore or work, awesome. Then all you have to do is push yourself to your limits in an effort to maximize your results / calorie loss.

Eventually you will hopefully lose track of time and your worries over "minimizing time and effort" will disappear.

#5. Variety.

Always try new things.

If the only things you are doing is running or weightlifting, your body will stagnate. You will reach a plateau where you can't cross an endurance barrier. To get around that you need to try new things and use muscles you aren't used to using. Yoga is good for this, but you can find many other activities which can activate those rarely used muscles. Once you do so you will be able to push your "maximum" to new heights by awakening muscles you never knew you had.

5 Common Fitness Mistakes

Mistake #1: You Don't Balance Weights with Cardio
Finding the right balance between weight lifting and cardio can be tricky. Especially if you've been told a lot of misinformation from different sources. Weight trainers will be telling you that you can accomplish anything with weight training and that you don't need cardio. This is not only false, they're lying to you in an effort to get your business. By the same tune some cardio enthusiasts will be telling you that you should avoid weightlifting because it won't help you lose weight (which is partially true, weight lifting will help you add muscle [and weight] to your torso, but its not very good at shedding fat).

What you really want is a balance of both weight lifting and cardio. This can be accomplished via a variety of means and you will reap the benefits as follows.

A) Weight lifting protects your existing muscles and promotes muscle growth. You won't get much muscle growth however unless you are doing 3 things: 1. Lifting enough that it becomes painful and you feel muscles ripping. Ideally after a weight training session all of your muscles should be in a moderate to light degree of pain. Avoid over doing it because then you will need to rest longer to recover and will be back where you started by the time you are done resting. 2. Significant repetitions. If you are only lifting weights for half an hour it isn't going to make much difference. A full hour or 90 minutes is much better. 3. Diet. You need to be eating well and taking in enough protein, vitamins to be building the extra muscles you've just ripped. When people diet without lifting weights, research shows that 75 percent of their weight loss is from fat and 25 percent is muscle. That 25 percent may reduce your scale weight, but it doesn’t do a lot for your reflection in the mirror. However, if you weight train as you diet, your weight loss is more likely to be 100 percent fat. Think of it in terms of liposuction: The whole point is to simply remove unattractive flab, right? That’s exactly what you should demand from your workout.

B) Weight Lifting boosts your metabolism. Actually ALL exercise boosts your metabolism. Especially Interval Training. So what you need to be doing is alternating light activities with heavy weight lifting, mixing up your exercise routine. Doing so boosts your metabolism dramatically for 24 to 36 hours after the activity, according to some studies.

C) Cardio strengthens your heart. Want to know one of the leading causes of deaths for weight lifters / body builders? It is heart failure. Because of their over-emphasis on weight lifting they develop a weak heart. Combined with steroids use their heart becomes weakened to the point that it can't deal with too much stress and just sputters or quits. You need to balance weight lifting with cardio and build a stronger heart. Always remember that cardio means cardiovascular, meaning heart and blood pressure.

D) Running and Lifting both burn calories fast. Okay, so you want to cut the calories and fat from your waist. To do so you're going to need to burn calories on a daily basis. Ideally you want to be burning 1 lb per week so you don't end up with extra skin. It’s common knowledge that jogging burns more calories than weight training because most people don't have the endurance to weight lift for a whole hour. But if you alternate between weight lifting and jogging every 5 minutes during a workout you will find that you can maintain your rate of calorie burn at that pace. The alternating between the upper and lower parts of your body allows your muscles to recover a bit and your heart (and lungs) to catch up with the needed energy burn

Mistake #2: You Don’t Use the Right Dumbbells
A lot of women make this mistake. But so do a lot of men too. What happens is a lot of women get dumbbells which are super light weight and they're basically just going through the motions. It ends up being more like a cardio because the weight is so insignificant. Your goal is to challenge your muscles and you should be lifting a weight that if you do 10 repetitions it should start to be a struggle.

For men its the reverse. Many men try to lift the big dumbbells, but they're stopping at 5 repetitions. Lets say they're lifting 30 lb dumbbells with each arm and they stop at 5. So they only lifted 150 lbs total with each arm. In contrast if they used 25 lb dumbbells but did 20 repetitions the result would be 500 lbs with each arm. See the difference? Which one do you think burned more calories? Which one was actually more of a struggle?

Well you might think the 30, but the answer is actually the 25. After the 10th rep the 25 will start to become difficult and by the 20th rep it will "feel" like you are lifting the 30 lb dumbbell.

Its all about balancing the right amount of struggle with a larger number of repetitions.

Want to challenge yourself with your dumbbell routine? Try balancing in different poses and doing bicep curls.

Mistake #3: You Don’t Work Your Lower Body
To cut inches from your waist, make sure you’re working the muscles below your belt. In a Syracuse University study, people burned more calories the day after they did lower-body resistance training than the day after they worked their upper body. “Leg muscles—like your quads and glutes—generally have more muscle mass than those of your chest and arms,” says study author Kyle Hackney, Ph.D. (c), C.S.C.S. “Work more muscle during your exercise session, and your body has to expend more energy to repair and upgrade them later.”

So the best approach, of course, is to hit every muscle each workout. Both in terms of weight lifting and cardio. So you want to be doing jumping jacks or skipping to target both your upper and lower body, and you want to be doing some kind of weightlifting where you are lifting with your legs instead of your arms.

Mistake #4: You Don’t Watch What You Eat
You can’t exercise properly a bad diet.

You can eat a 1,000-calorie fast food burger in just 5 minutes, but it’ll probably take you several hours to burn that many calories with physical activity. So make sure you’re not using exercise as an excuse to eat whatever you want. Exercising and then pigging out on 500 grams (1.1 lbs) of bacon.

FACT: A 500 gram package of mild cured bacon contains 1900 calories and only 50 grams of protein. 20 slices of bacon may sound like a great idea when you're starving, but that many calories will go straight to your waistline.

Over-eating and sneaking snacks will sabotage your workout goals. Ideally what you want is three balanced meals and if you feel like you need a snack, eat a fruit. Find a fruit (eg. grapes) that you love and use that as your go-to snack when you feel the need for a snack.

Mistake #5: You Skip Workouts
We’re all busy, but that’s really just a lame excuse. Even busy people can find time to exercise.

Plus when was the last time you heard someone say they regretted their workout? But you will regret missing your workout if you fall off the exercise wagon and go back to your old routine.

U.K. researchers found that workers were 15 percent more productive on the days they made time to exercise compared to days they skipped their workout because they can concentrate easier. They were also 15 percent more tolerant of their coworkers and 15% less stressed. Hmm. There is probably a connection there.

Now, consider for a moment what these numbers mean to you: On days you exercise, you can—theoretically at least—accomplish in an eight-hour day what normally would take you nine hours and 12 minutes. Or you’d still work nine hours, but get roughly 10 hours worth of work done, leaving you feeling more productive, less stressed and happier with your job, another perk that workers reported on the days they exercised.

And you can find plenty of times to exercise. While gardening. While spending time with your kids. During your lunch break. Before work. After work. Before bed (a little hank panky counts as exercise if you are energetic about it).

Morning Weightlifting Exercises

Doing weightlifting in the morning for 10 minutes every day is a great way to build muscle and add to your daily routine. For best results, exercise right before eating a breakfast with a fair bit of protein in it. eg. Eggs or Pancakes.

Some people argue in favour of eating some carbs before exercising in the morning so you have more energy, which is great for jogging, but with weightlifting its typically better to exercise first and then eat something with protein in it so you are getting the benefits of post-exercise muscle growth. The sooner you eat protein after weightlifting the better. (Or even eating during the routine, although that can result in cramping.)

Handy Tips!

#1. Focus on lots of repetitions. If you can't do 10+ of the same weightlifting exercise then you are picking something too difficult. Ideally you want to be doing something 30 to 50 times.

#2. Use a variety of different exercises which emphasize different muscles. Don't just focus on your biceps. Target your forearms, triceps, core muscles, leg muscles, triceps, pectorals, obliques and more. If you only focus on one set of muscles you will see very little results. A full body approach garners better results.

#3. Hydrate! Drink lots of water, or better yet, drink juice while exercising.

#4. Listen to music to help you build a rhythm and motivate yourself while weightlifting.

#5. A small whey protein drink with your breakfast after you've exercised won't hurt. Plus a multivitamin is also a wise choice.

#6. Avoid lifting anything too heavy that you hurt yourself. You want to rip muscles, not throw your back out and be in pain for a whole week.

#7. If your primary goal isn't to bulk up with muscle and your goal is mostly to lose weight then mix your routine with cardio to give yourself a better calorie burn.

#8. Stretches! Stretches help keep your muscles limber and you maintain the full range of motion. Practice doing a variety of stretches before and/or after your weightlifting routine.

#9. Bodyweight Exercises (see the Frugal Exercise on this website) are a great way to add more challenges to your weightlifting routine without costing you an extra dime.

#10. Use your Anger! If you've got pent up emotions like anger in your system use that anger up while weightlifting. It will relieve stress and boost your adrenaline levels, allowing you to endure more than you normally would.

Happy Weightlifting!

Revamping your Weight Training Workout

Ever get bored of your weightlifting routine? After awhile it does become stale and boring and it gets much harder to stay focused with your strength training routine when you don't feel as motivated.

To fix that problem try these tips to revamp your workout to make it more interesting.

1. Try Plyometric Training

Jumping squats, powerful push ups and agility based strength training will really work muscles in a different way than just lifting weights. Plyometric training develops power. It's a great technique for sports training and is highly recommended for athletes. With summer coming, plyometric training will really add a new dimension to your basketball, soccer or football game and give you an extra edge!

2. Try Bodyweight Exercises

Bodyweight training is great if you are on a budget, but also great if you have a limited home gym because it uses very little, if any equipment. Lunges, squats, planks, push ups, pull ups, chin ups, step ups and dips are all examples of effective body weight training exercises. See my list of Frugal Exercises.

3. Try New Equipment

If you can afford it try new exercise equipment either at home or at the gym. You don't need expensive equipment either. A simple resistance band can an extra challenge to your regular routine.

Even doing the same old exercises with a resistance band will change the routine and work muscles in a slightly different way. Adding a simple piece of equipment like push up handles or a medicine ball can makes things exciting enough to motivate another couple of months of training.

4. Try a Strength Oriented Sport

Take up a sport that requires strength. eg. Archery with a bow that requires a lot of torque to pull it and hold it steady. Other similar sports like shot put, mountain climbing / rock climbing can also test your strength limits.

Get The Most From Your Training Using Pre-Workout Supplements

Anyone who does bodybuilding knows that it takes a lot of time, effort and commitment and for this reason; it's worth squeezing every last ounce of muscle growth out of every weight lifting session. And whilst making sure you are working out in the most effective way is a large part of this, there's also a lot you can do before you start doing reps to maximize your training.

There are a huge range of supplements on the market and it can be difficult to decide which ones would be of real benefit to your training. Most of them are completely bogus. Here's a guide to some of the most effective supplements you can take before you head to the gym which could quite literally re-energize your whole regime.

The benefits listed on most pills

There are a vast range of different supplements but there are a number of key ingredients which have been robustly tested and scientifically proven to help achieve the desired results. My advice is to skip the supplements which are mostly untested and overpriced gimmicks and go for the ingredients we know work because they're in what the pros use - And oddly enough what the pros use is often naturally occurring things like Whey Protein which is derived from milk and Creatine which is found in red meat.

The kind of benefits you could typically expect to see after taking a pre-workout supplement including the following:

• Increased muscle growth
• Increased power
• Decreased muscle cell breakdown during and post-training
• Heightened protein synthesis
• More stamina and endurance
• Better energy levels
• Less muscle soreness post-workout
• Improved mood
• Sharper concentration

The exact benefits you will see depend on what supplements you choose to take and how you take them; some can be used in different ways to get different results.

Strength and Power

For many bodybuilders, increasing muscle and strength is the only thing they are after. Some of them don't even care about how strong they are, they just want to look beefy.

Creatine is one of the most popular supplements but not everyone understands how it actually works. Muscles can only contract when they can access stores of Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) but unfortunately only small amounts can be stored. These means that each contraction can only last for a few seconds, before the ATP store has to be replenished. The body manages this by breaking down Creatine to replace it - but if Creatine levels are low, you might struggle to complete your set.

Thus Creatine helps regulate the flow of ATP to your muscles, giving you an effective energy boost which allows you to do more reps. In other words by taking a Creatine supplement you are effectively providing direct fuel for your muscles, allowing you to complete the reps for each set whilst maximizing the weight.  Experts suggest approximately 5g of Creatine half an hour before you work out will achieve the desired result.

And the best part is that Creatine is found naturally in red meat, so if you lack the supplement just eat some beef before you workout.

Endurance

Endurance may seem like a quality more suited to a cross country athlete but bodybuilders also need stamina in order to complete each set and finish their planned training. For this reason, adding a supplement which improves endurance can result in better muscle growth as the workout will be far more effective.

Citrulline Malate is a type of amino acid which not only optimizes blood flow, driving power to the muscles, but also enhances the production of ATP, thus it works really well in combination with Creatine. However, it is particularly effective in reducing muscle fatigue during workouts, even during high intensity training. Citrulline works by removing lactic acid and other endotoxins which are produced during exercise, allowing the training to last longer and for the individual to continue to perform at a higher level. The removal of the acids also means that you will suffer less muscle pain after you are done.

Because of its excellent results, many pre-workout supplements include Citrulline in their ingredients but it is also possible to take it during your training session too.

Energy and Concentration

Although workouts need physical strength, mental stamina is just as important in order to get the best results if you need to stay focused and not get distracted.

Therefore, a good dose of caffeine is a great idea as it will help you stay on track. The added benefit is that caffeine is a very effective fat-burner, ramping up metabolism and freeing fatty acids to be used as energy.

However, it's important to get the balance right as too much caffeine can actually impair focus and concentration and reduce performance. It also takes a while to be absorbed into the blood stream so make sure you take it at least 30 minutes before you start training; around 200mg is usually the right dose. You will need to check the label on your coffee or other caffeine source to make sure you don't overdo it.

Notes

There are many other useful pre-workout ingredients such as whey protein, tyrosine, anti-oxidants and BCAAs.  You do not need to take pre-workout supplements on days you aren't training but when you do train, they should usually be taken on an empty stomach to maximize and speed up absorption.

Remember that you may also want a post-workout supplement - such as a whey protein shake - afterwards too.