High Reps Or Low Reps - BOTH

This is posted in the members forum but needs to also be posted in the articles section to make sure everyone sees it.

Rep ranges are a funny thing. Lots of people talk about doing this many reps for this many sets but really have no idea why they are doing that particular number or the effect it will have on their bodies.

Generally, lower repetitions like 3-8 are most productive for creating absolute strength. Repetitions in the medium range like 10-20 produce anaerobic strength endurance. The higher rep ranges between 20-40 produce aerobic strength endurance.

The reason for such varied ranges even within a category of rep range is because people will take varying amounts of time to complete the rep. We know that it is not the actual number of reps but the time that the muscle is under tension that really causes the adaptive response. So if you do 4 reps that take 6 seconds each and I do 6 reps that take 4 seconds each, we have both worked in the 3-8 range and caused that adaptation response that would be caused by putting a muscle under 24 seconds of tension. Read more

Early Morning Cardio Has Benefits

Early Morning Cardio
When is the best time of day to do your cardio? The answer is any time! The most important thing is that you just do it. Continuous cardiovascular exercise, such as walking, jogging, stairclimbing, or cycling, sustained for at least 30 minutes, will burn body fat no matter when you do it. However, if you want to get the maximum benefits possible from every minute you invest in your workouts, then you should consider getting up early and doing cardio before you eat your first meal - even if you’re not a “morning person.” Early morning cardio on an empty stomach has three major advantages over exercising later in the day:

Early morning before you eat, your levels of muscle and liver glycogen (stored carbohydrate) are low. If you eat dinner at 7 p.m and you eat breakfast at 7 a.m., that’s 12 hours without food. During this 12-hour overnight fast, your levels of glycogen slowly decline to provide glucose for various bodily functions that go on even while you sleep. As a result, you wake up in the morning with depleted glycogen and lower blood sugar - the optimum environment for burning fat instead of carbohydrate. How much more fat you’ll burn is uncertain, but some studies have suggested that up to 300% more fat is burned when cardio is done in a fasted, glycogen-depleted state. Read more

Tired of Chicken?

Here is a way to get some flavor into your chicken once that gag reflex starts kicking in…

Grilled Lime Chicken
Recipe Serves: 6

Recipes Ingredients:
1/4 c Chopped fresh parsley
1/2 ts Freshly ground pepper
1/2 ts Grated lime rind
2 tb Lime juice
1 c Dry white Wine (or chablis)
6 x Chicken breast halves *

Recipe Instructions:
* 6 (4 oz each) skinned, boned Chicken breast halves Combine all ingredients except Chicken in a shallow Baking dish. Add chicken, turning to coat. Cover and marinate in Refrigerator for 1 day. Remove Chicken from marinade, reserving marinade. Coat grill rack with Pam, place rack on grill over med-hot coals. Place Chicken on rack, and cook 5 minutes on each side or until done, basting with reserved marinade.

PER SERVING: 146 calories, 25.8 g protein, 2.9 g fat, 2.4 g carbohydrates

Taking Your Results To The Next Level

I combined a series of articles that I have done that are centered around a very important theme. INTENSITY. I thought it would be helpful to pull them together so you can look at the whole picture on one page. Let me know if you have any questions by posting in the comments below.

Have you ever been working out and notice while you were doing your exercises that you could feel what I would describe as a “burning” sensation in the muscle? Nothing indicative of injury, but just felt the muscle working outside of it’s usual comfort zone?

This is a good thing!

This is called training to failure and I do it in 85% of my training with clients. I usually do not have clients stop a set until they cannot move the weight another inch. If that takes them past the rep range they are supposed to be working in on that exercise for that day, then I make an increase in the weight for their next workout.
Read more

Walkouts Bodyweight Conditioning

Walkouts are an exercise that I have been wanting to get up on the site here for a while. They are fantastic for cardio conditioning and muscular endurance.

You’ll also see this exercise in the “house of pain - deck of cards” workout.

We use in the Fat 2 Fit program and commando cardio class. This is the beginner version. Next you want to put a pushup in at the end after you walk your hands out. After that the next version is to do a big circle with your upper body with your hands over your head when you are in the standing position. Read more

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