You won't get too "BIG!!"

If we all strength train we will look just like the women in the picture!!! Not true at all, and that goes for women just as much as men. Let’s first look at what research has agreed upon for reasons for resistance training. There are four reasons: to build strength, hypertrophy, power, and endurance. Endurance training is what results in the “tone” or lean body look that many people are looking for.

The funny thing about muscle is that if you don’t use it you lose it, about 5-7 pounds of it every decade. For myself, that could mean a muscle loss of anywhere from 7-12 pounds that I could have lost already. Luckily, I resistance train twice a week. Muscle can also atrophy (get smaller) a lot faster then hypertrophy (get bigger) muscle. For those that have ever have been in a cast or had a joint immobilized for even a short period of time, you notice a loss of muscle and the previously immobilized joint and surrounding area are smaller then before.

Let us get on track now. A common concern among girls and women is that if they lift weights they will become big and bulky. NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!! Lifting weights is essential and if done properly will result in less aches and pains, more energy, ability to do everyday activities easier, etc, etc. Lifting weights and not getting bulky is easy to do with the proper routines, intensity, and repetition ranges. A common myth is that those not wanting to get big and bulky should just use light resistance for high repetitions or go to group classes that make a “claim” of strength building. Big and bulky muscles may be achieved if that is the goal, but that goal has its own protocols, if the person is capable of even getting “big and bulky.” Genetics has a lot to do with how big a person can become from lifting weights also. Our bodies have an essential amount of fat they need to be healthy and everyone’s body is different in where they carry that fat and muscle. Some people find it easy to gain six-pack abs, but difficult to get any definition in their arms or legs, and yet other people are just the opposite.

The goal of this blog is to set your mind at ease about lifting weights and debunk the myth that lifting weights is all about bodybuilding and that you will only get big and bulky. That is the furthest thing from the truth and if your program is set up correctly you will achieve the look you are striving towards. Remember, like the picture says, "too much of a good thing is still too much."

What are those things on your FEET???

WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS ON YOUR FEET? I get this question all the time, and my response is "my shoes." One of the next things most people say is "No way, those aren't shoes or are they comfortable, do they have any support, etc..."

First things first, yes they are shoes. They have a rubber sole on them to keep your feet protected. They are extremely comfortable, especially if you like being barefoot. Now here is the kicker that gets most people, they don't have any support. This is by design and is a good thing as long as you don't already have lots of foot issues. The idea behind the Vibram Five-finger shoe is to allow your foot to act and work the way it was designed to. The average foot has 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments. With all the support that most shoes give all of those 20 muscles actually get weaker because they don't have to work to support the foot. With the five-finger shoes the muscles have to work and begin to hypertrophy (grow bigger) which improves the strength of the bones, joints, tendons, and ligaments of the foot and ankle. As the foot and ankle gets stronger we can actually improve our balance, posture, and other skills. Once my feet got stronger from wearing these shoes, I noticed that any discomfort in my knees, hips, or back from being on my feet all day long just disappeared.

You can see in the picture that I currently have five pairs of vibram five-fingers and I wear them everyday. In fact I can count on one hand the number of times over the past two years that I have worn other shoes outside of the five-fingers. I have used them for conditioning work, exercising, everyday wear, and I even wore them up on a roof that I ripped off and re-shingled. They do allow a person to still wear socks with them and one of the greatest things about them is that they can just be tossed in the washer and hung out to dry when they start to stink. And they will start to smell if you wear them enough and exercise in them. I'm really not sure what else to say about them right now, but if you have any questions just leave me a comment and I will answer it asap.

NO BULL! STRENGTH AND PERFORMANCE wants to send a big congratulations and keep up the good work to one of its clients. Okay its not only one of my clients it is also my mom. You see, back in December she was found out the news that she is now full-blown type 2 diabetic. It was that news that inspired her. My mother stands about 5’ 1” and was weighing in extra heavy to be kind. After finding out the news of her unfortunate circumstances, although brought on totally of her own doing, she went through the process of visiting the nutritionist to get the information needed to live with her new found “friend”. With kudos to my mother she complied quite well with her new diet and in combination with that started visiting her personal trainer on a weekly basis, albeit no more then twice a week. And within the last two months she has lost “30lbs.” This has been a great transformation thus far and hope that she continues to make strides toward a healthier life. It hasn’t been easy for her though, she has a bad hip, and both knees are bone on bone. She does have a couple of other health issues brought upon by her obesity, but, she pushes through and sticks with the program the best she can. Even with these issues, when she could just easily say NO, she looks to me for motivation and guidance for her resistance workouts each week. I want to again say congratulations to her for the hard work and please don’t think that I am trying to toot my own horn. She is the one that made the decisions, I am merely the facilitator and coach that continues’ to teach and motivate.

Resistance training equipment

At NO BULL! STRENGTH & PERFORMANCE we use a variety of tools to train the body. Looking through the pictures on the website you'll notice machines, free weights, resistance bands, chains, suspension trainers, etc... You may also notice the brand of equipment. We use Nautilus machines for our non-plated loaded equipment. The reason for this is that our bodies are usually in a mechanical disadvantage. Each muscle has a unique strength curve and within that strength curve there are the points in the muscle when it is weaker, known as a sticking point, and points when the muscle is stronger. For example the hamstring muscle would have a strength curve of strong, weaker, and weakest at full contraction. To properly work the hamstring muscle you would need a variable resistance machine using a cam that works within the strength curve and allows the weight being used to drop off at the weak point of the motion and to drop off even more at the weakest point of the exercise. Another example utilizing the picture of this post is within the bicep curl. The bicep muscle has a strength curve the is weak, strong, and weak again. Look closely at the cam in the picture and you will notice that it is an odd shaped cam. The shape of the cam allows the weight to seem lighter in the beginning, then it gets heavier in the range of motion in which the muscle is strongest, lastly the weight will drop off again at the end allowing the lifter to "stick" the lift at the top and achieve a full, hard contraction. With this being said if you go into your local fitness center look at the equipment and see if the cams that the belt, chain, or cable runs around is just circular or actually changes its shape to produce better results in your resistance training program. Now I'm not saying that free weights, chains, resistance bands, and other implementations do not work, but if you want to get the best out of your workouts you need to use the proper tools. Along with using the proper tools, they need to be used in a safe, progressive, and intense manner to force the body to adapt.

Misconceptions with resistance training #1

Over the years I have been in many health clubs and talked to numerous “so-called” experts about how often I need to train to be able to make gains and stay healthy. All the while I knew the answer. More times than not they all said it depends on what your goals are. BULL! Research has shown that you only need to resistance train 1-3 times a week. Once a week will maintain your current status and make consistent gains. Twice a week will give you 88% of the results that you’ll receive from three days a week. Three times a week is the maximum, because of the time the body needs between resistance training workouts to rest and recover. Personally, I lift twice a week. The clients I currently have resistance train no more than twice a week and if you were to talk to them, they would tell you about the great results they are getting. You see, the more important thing when resistance training is the intensity level at which you train. Resistance training at the proper intensity level twice a week is all anyone needs and is very beneficial.

Resistance training more than four days a week will bring detrimental effects from training called overtraining. Overtraining leads to plateaus in your lifting, fatigue, illness, or even injury. So if anyone tells you that resistance training more then three days a week is the only way to get results, let that information go in one ear and right out the other. Most trainers are interested in making money over other things, my goal is to do things right so that my clients reach their goals and the rest will take care of itself.

This doesn’t mean that on the other days of the week you do nothing. After a hard training session you’ll want to stay active and help keep the muscles from tightening up too much and help the waste materials get moved out of the body. On your off days from resistance training try some conditioning, participate in a sport, housework, gardening, etc. The most important thing is to stay active everyday.