Workout Of The Week - Resting Lifts

The name of this session may be a little confusing, but it is actually quite simple - rest at the bottom of each rep!  This session is a great way to increase your strength at the bottom of a rep, the most difficult part of the rep.  Bench press is the easiest exercise to explain this way of lifting so here goes! 

If you are lifting in a power rack with spotting bars this works best, however you can just rest on your chest.  Lower the bar down as normal and pause and relax for 2 seconds once you hit the bar/chest then press with as much power as possible.  The same format can be used for most exercises, both push and pull.

As this is a session essentially looking at strength you should be looking at completing 3-4 sets of 4-6 reps of 3-5 different exercises.  You can superset with other exercises but try to make them lighter exercises for 10-15 reps.  Adding flyes with bench press for example.

This is a deficult session as once you have rested the elastic energy stored during the downward phase of a movement is negated by the rest.  The muscles stretch shorten cycle is removed, meaning the focus is specifically on rapid concentric contraction.

Workout Of The Week - 21's

This weeks workout is an adaptation of a crossfit session. Now anyone who knows me will be aware that I do have the odd swipe at crossfit, however, I do like some of the session formats.  I regularly use this session as an assessment to get to know the fitness levels of new clients across a range of movements and muscle groups - Pull, Push, Abs, Legs and Cardio.  The session is to be completed as quickly as possible and the time recorded.  The session can be repeated at regular intervals as a rough guage of improvements.

The session involves 7 rounds of 4 different exercises with a 200m row at the end of each round.  The reps to be completed for each round reduce by 3 each time - 21, 18, 15, 12, 9, 6, 3.  The exercises are - 

21 Pull Ups (Horizontal Pull Ups if required)

21 Press Ups

21Crunch

21 Squat

200m Row

18 Pull Ups

18 Press Ups

18 Crunch

18 Squat

200m Row

etc

Fitness Myth 2 - 3 sets of 10 reps if the optimal for muscle gains

As far as I can gather this idea of 3 sets of 10 goes back to the 40’s when it was published by Mr Thomas Delorme in the archives of physical medicine.  He found that 3 sets of 10 was as effective at building muscle as 10 sets of 10 (which we now refer to as GVT (German Volume Training)).  Since then, however there have been quite literally 1000’s of other articles claiming that there are other combinations of sets and reps that are more effective than 3 sets of 10, so why has it stuck for so long?  NOT A CLUE!!  I cannot find any plausible reason as to why this theory has been so etched into the psyche of people in the fitness industry, so I’m gonna give you my own reason.  People who train aren’t always the brightest (I’m including myself in that so don’t get offended) and with all the available blood rushing to the muscles being worked and away from the brain counting to more than 10 is sometimes a stretch.  As for the 3 sets it’s simple – 2 is really easy, and after 3 it starts to get boring so you need to move on.

Now I’ve told you that this is a myth what do I recommend?  Well that isn’t an easy questions to answer.  As a general and very basic rule of thumb you should be looking at 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps if you are looking to build size.  I say this is a basic rule but this depends on how many different exercises you are doing, are you super setting, have the smaller muscles been used doing the compound lifts and so on.  All I will say is mix it up a little bit.  Your body is inherently lazy!  If you always do the same number of reps it will find the easiest way of completing it, and your gains will quickly diminish.

CBConditioning.com

Carbohydrate Supplementation - A Brief History

At the beginning of each year the pavements suddenly become much busier, with people of all ages and abilities pounding the streets in preparation for the many running, duathlon and triathlon events over the next few months.  A common sight amongst these runners is a bottle of lucozade, gatorade, powerade or other carbohydrate drinks, as recommended by trainers and nutritionists worldwide. 

But when was it discovered that carbohydrate consumption and supplementation led to an increase in performance?

The first study to suggest performance could be increased due to carbohydrate intake was conducted by a group of American researchers between 1923 and 1924.  They began by measuring the blood glucose levels of runners after they had completed the Boston marathon in 1923.  It was shown that the glucose concentrations were markedly lower, and from this it was hypothesised that low blood glucose levels are a cause of fatigue.

The following year several participants for the Boston marathon were asked to consume carbohydrates during the race.  Obviously this was before lucozade and energy gels were invented, so the runners were asked to eat candy whilst running.  They were also asked to eat a high carbohydrate diet in the lead up to the race.  All the runners improved their times from the previous year and had a much higher blood glucose level.

In the 1930’s another study was conducted into the use of carbohydrates to improve endurance performance, however, this study used dogs rather than people.  Two dogs were made to run without being fed any carbohydrates.  It was noted that the dogs became hypoglycemic (low blood glucose) and fatigued after 4-6 hours.  The test was then repeated but the dogs were fed carbohydrates during the exercise and the dogs ran for between 17 and 23 hours.

Although neither of these studies would be seen as being scientifically relevant now, they were two of the first to look into dietary supplementation to increase performance.  Hundreds of studies are conducted every year with millions being spent to ensure athletes of all abilities can perform at their peak, however, the significance of these early studies cannot be overlooked.