More Bad Information

I'm really sick of reading mainstream media health and fitness articles where their "advice" is just horrendous.

This article talks about how to burn 9 times more fat (more than what, it's not very clear).

Fine, it talks about intervals. sort of.

Exercisers who alternated moderate- and high-intensity cardio intervals burned nine times more fat than the moderate-only group in a study at Laval University in Quebec.

But then I get annoyed.

When you're toning, change the number of reps and the amount of weight you use between strength sessions. Doing bicep curls? Try this: One day you do 10 reps with 10-pound weights, and then the next 20 reps with 5-pound weights or whatever weight feels right to you.

I thought the article was about BURNING FAT not "toning"?? I don't care if you're "toning" (I hate that word) or trying to burn fat, stop making bicep curls a central part of your routine. Do pushups and rows and chinups instead. You'll burn more calories with those exercises AND you'll get "toned."

This one takes the cake:

Going two days without working out is enough to cause the size of fat cells to increase by 25 percent, according to research at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

Hmm. I never heard that before so I looked it up. What do ya know. The author fails to mention that this study that she cites was conducted ON FREAKIN' RATS.

If you want workouts that actually BURN calories without wasting time with bicep curls that aren't going to do anything, go to www.LBworkouts.com and find yourself a low cost 4 week workout that fits what you're looking for.

www.leantraining.com
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Why Your Workouts Aren't Working

This article from Shape gives a list of ten reasons why your workout isn't working anymore. Let's briefly go through them:

1. You're doing the same routine over and over again and your body has adapted. Change it up every 6-8 weeks (although, there's some studies that show that you don't even need to change exercises, just change the rep range and the amount of weight you're using for each exercise and that should be enough to get past a plateau).

2. You're performing the repetitions to quickly (the article states to take 6 seconds for each rep and I think that's a little slow. If you take a controlled movement going down, pause a second, and then come up in a controlled manner, you'll be fine).

3. Get your rest between hard workout sessions. Your body repairs the muscle and breaks down the fat after the workout so give time for that to happen so you don't overreach.

4. Mix some intervals into your workout (it doesn't take a genius to see where I stand on this).

5. Lifting the wrong amount of weight. This is absolutely on the money. Go progressive. Don't just lift the cute little pink weights, challenge yourself but do it progressively so that you don't overtax your muscles too soon.

6. Squats and don't let your knees go past your toes. Absolutely disagree with this. I won't get long winded as I've already written about this.

7. Bend Over Lat Row. It's a good description of the correct form for these. The important piece of it is to make sure you're pushing your butt back to support your body and not just lowering your back down with your legs straight.

8. Tricep Kickback. These are just stupid in most cases. As a friend of mine Lou Schuler once said in an article, these are like Chinese water torture. You're doing a lot of them but not getting any real benefit because they're an isolated exercise and only working a very small muscle. Do pushups and their variations instead.

9. Crunch. I'm actually falling away from doing these as I've found other ab exercises to do that I think are much more effective, such as planks, side planks, bird dogs, mountain climbers, elevated pushups, just to name a few. But, a weighted crunch on a stability ball isn't so bad.

10. Dumbbell Bench Fly. I don't like this for the same reason I don't like the tricep kickback. So see number 8 above.

Clear as mud?

www.leanbodyfitness.com

Follow Up to the "I Hate Mike" Interval Workout

To follow up a little bit on this interval workout that I posted the other day, I got some, well, interesting responses...

They ranged from "yup, you're right, I hate you" to "I hope your house burns down!!" and finally my favorite "DIE MIKE!!!!!! DIE!!!!!!!"

Although they were all in fun (at least..I think they were), I'm glad people gave it a shot and will continue to make it part of their routine.

But don't think it gets any easier. I've been doing it now 2 times a week for the past 5 weeks and I still haven't gotten use to it.

Have a good weekend everyone.

www.leanbodyfitness.com

The "I Hate Mike" Interval Workout

Back a couple of weeks ago in this post, I talked about how hard you should be going in your intervals. Basically, at your own subjective pace, you should be going hard enough to hate doing them.

Well over the last two weeks I've been trying out a new twist with a workout and I absolutely HATE them. I get nervous before doing them. The shoulders tense up. But, when I'm done with them, it's almost an immediate feel that I had one of the best workouts of my life.

This interval workout should take about 25 minutes to do and you'll need either a bike or a treadmill (treadmill is preferred).

What you're going to do is sprint (or pedal) at 90% of your max for 30 seconds, and then get off the bike or treadmill and do countdown pushups.

Let me explain what I call countdown pushups. You start by doing 10 pushups. Then you do 9 pushups, then you do 8 pushups, and so on until you do one pushup and then you're done.

You can do the pushups either the "normal" way with resting your body on your hands and the tips of your feet or, you can do them kneeling where you rest your body on your hands and knees. Regular pushups to easy for you? Then place your feet on some steps or a chair and do decline pushups.

After you're done with the pushups, you'll get back on the treadmill (or bike) and go at a slow pace for 90 seconds (well sort of, I'll explain).

So this is how the workout is going to go when on a treadmill:

0:00 - 2:15 - slow walk
2:15 - 2:35 - faster walk
2:35 - 2:50 - jog
2:50 - push the speed to your sprint level
3:00 - all out sprint
3:30 - press stop button and get off and do 10 pushups

After the 10 pushups, get back on the treadmill:

3:30 - 4:15 - slow walk
4:15 - 4:35 - faster walk
4:35 - 4:50 - jog
4:50 - push the speed level to your sprint level
5:00 - all out sprint
5:30 - press stop button and get off and do 9 pushups

Continue doing this countdown until you've done 1 pushup and then you're done.

Try this out a couple days a week to start.

Now, if you want to change it up and include something other than pushups, go ahead and try it with an inverted row (if you have a squat rack or something you can horizontally pull yourself towards).

Here's how you should look before and after the lift. This would be the beginner variation:



Notice that my hands are in an underhand grip (palms facing towards me).

Here's what you should look like during the lift:



Notice how the center of my body stays in a straight line. In other words, no slouching.....

If that's too easy, try it while resting on the heels of your feet:

Before and After:



During:



And finally, if you want to get more difficult, prop your feet up on a chair or another bench.

Before and After:



During:



Wanna really be a stud? Use pull-ups...

If you've got any questions or if you try it out and want to let me know how it went, drop me an e-mail at mike@leanbodyfitness.com


www.leanbodyfitness.com

Intervals Catching On

Intervals are even catching on in mainstream media sources such as Self magazine.

In this article they talk about intervals and even give a sample routine:

Hop on any cardio machine you like for the time allotted and the exertion level noted (1 is the easiest and 10 is next to impossible).

Warm up for 4 minutes at a level 3.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 7.
Recover for 90 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 8.
Recover for 90 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 9.
Recover for 30 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 7.
Recover for 90 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 8.
Recover for 90 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 9.
Recover for 30 seconds at a level 4.
Sprint for 30 seconds at a level 7.
Cool down for 3 minutes, 30 seconds at level 3.

Give it a shot to switch up your routine a little bit.

NEXT WEEK

Speaking of a new interval routine, make sure to come back here next Monday, February 23, 2009 for a post that I'm planning on a new interval workout I've been working. I think you're going to hate it.



www.leanbodyfitness.com