I STILL HAVE MY MAN BOOBS
By Mark Clem
A week has passed and I have had two sessions with the Witch Doctor (WD). The last session had no assessment work, so it was a good indication of what the remaining weeks will be like. I can sweat and ache all over yet do very little movement, very interesting.
I always thought of a gym as fashion statement time for women and run or pedal time and sweat for men. Not true. A group of women have a session before me, no fashion statement, lots of pulling, pushing, reaching and sweat.
At weigh in, I had lost 4.5 lbs. in 2 weeks. Not bad but I still have my man boobs. Hopefully they will be gone before the 10 weeks are up in case there is an after picture to compare to the before picture.
There has been lots of fruit during the day and bran buds in the morning. I bury the bran buds in fruit and yogurt so I hardly notice they are there.
The WD continues the punching, pulling and pretzel work so that I can do the exercises and get some benefit. A note to those readers in their 30s and 40s: Get some time with a skilled trainer now, have him or her determine what you need to work on and then do it forever. Do not wait until you are in your 60s and decide it would be a good idea to get into shape. It's not pretty and it's very painful both at the time and for days after. Thank goodness I have access to our neighbours hot tub. I leave a toonie each night I go over.
There are several exercises that I hate and the WD knows it. In hind sight, it would have been better not to let the WD know, but the screams and foul language are impossible to control. It begins with lying on a firm (hard) foam noodle and rolling back and forth on each thigh like rolling paint all over my thighs. It may sound easy but it's not and it's painful.
Next comes the leg lunges with hands on hips and legs far apart. Each time the knee of the back leg must touch the ground and your back must be straight. The rest of my family can do this, but they aren't 60 with upper leg muscles that are a "train wreck".
The last difficult one (so far) are these push ups at a 45 degree angle (feet on the ground and hands on a weight lifting bar well secured to some apparatus). The WD says I will soon graduate to standard push ups and eventually have my feet higher than my hands (reverse position). Hopefully that will be in week 10 at the earliest.
Some good news — I could hold the "plank" for 1 minute. I could have lasted longer but I have learned that the WD would use that against me in subsequent exercises. He wanted a minute, he got a minute and he was visibly surprised that I could do it for a minute.
Do you think this was a trap and I took the bait? The "plank" is a standard push up position (up position) but on your elbows.
Until next week. Remember "No pain, no gain."
HE’S DOWN MORE WEIGHT
By Mark Young. Nutrex Solutions, nutrexsolutions.com/
Mark walked in today and was ready to jump on the scale as is customary at the start of each week when we meet. This week he was obviously spot on with his plan as he managed to successfully drop an additional 3 pounds bringing the total for 4.5 pounds in the first two weeks on the program.
At this point I’m very happy with Mark’s success and expect he’ll continue to do very well. However, I do want to note that maintaining this rate of loss (greater than 2 pounds per week) is not expected or necessarily desired. While it might be easy to lose 30-40 pounds in a ten week span with a severe diet and exercise regime, it is much more likely to return than if the average weight loss is closer to one or two pounds per week.
This is what my wife and I like to call the “soon ripe, soon rotten” scenario that is seen with most rapid fat loss plans.
Typically a bigger weight loss is expected in the first weeks of a plan, but if Mark’s weight loss continues to exceed the expected amount by too much, I will eventually add food to ensure that his results are permanent.
Granted, this is not necessarily as sexy and exciting as losing a huge amount of weight in a short period of time, but it is the single most effective method for long-term fat loss. Period.
Here’s how Mark’s day went today:
Global Warm Up: 5 minute light walk on treadmill to increase body temperature as per usual.
Foam Rolling: As discussed in previous blogs, our primary goals here are to help Mark repair his hunched posture and the improve the condition of the tissues in his legs so that he’ll have less pain in his lower back, shoulders, and knees.
The routine will remain the same until progress is made which should start to occur within the next couple of weeks. As a general rule, the longer you’re body has been in a certain position, the more difficult it is to change.
Dynamic Mobility Work & Movement Prep: These were kept the same as last week, but the time spent on each is becoming much less as Mark gets increasingly familiar with the drills.
RESISTANCE TRAINING:
Horizontal Pulling – The Seated Cable Row: I kept this the same as last week with a few minor exceptions. First, I selected a wider hand position on the bar as I found that it was difficult with Mark to really get a good squeeze in his mid back with previous hand spacing.
Then I bumped up the weight a little to give Mark more of a challenge then last week. I think he was very impressed with this, but couldn’t tell through all the four letter words he was expressing.
Horizontal Pushing – Incline Push Ups: Last week this part of the workout was a little aggravating for me. The incline push ups that I had Mark perform with his hands elevated on a bar to make them easier were too easy and normal push ups on the floor were too hard. My secondary exercise choice (the incline dumbbell press) only proved to give his left shoulder some grief.
Since I personally find that push up variations are often easier on those with shoulder pain than free weights, I decided to try this angle of attack again. Instead of the 10 repetitions I had Mark perform last week we aimed for 15 and this seemed to be enough to increase the difficulty to a suitable level with no shoulder pain at all. Problem solved.
Lower Body Push – Split Squats: Of all of the exercises Mark will do during the course of this program, I think this one will be his biggest nemesis because it is just so darn difficult for him. We kept it pretty much the same as last week, but it did seem easier. In future weeks we’ll be gradually taking away Mark’s ability to hold on to a bar to assist himself up.
Interestingly, Mark cannot get up from one knee without using his hands to assist him which is something I see in a lot of clients over the age of 55. If this is the case for you, you need to learn and practice this exercise until you can do this with ease.
Stretching and Cool Down: Mark’s hamstring flexibility is coming along nicely and we’re starting to see some moderate improvements. However, I decided to try something a little more advanced to speed the process along.
In the book, Anatomy Trains, by Thomas Myers, he talks about something called the superficial back line that is essentially a line of connected muscle and connective tissue than runs from the underside of the foot all the way up the back of the body and over the scalp to just above the eyes. Based on this concept, if there is a restriction anywhere along that line it can affect other elements of the system along the same line.
If it helps, think of getting a pull on a thread in a sweater that causes bunching. Since the thread runs throughout the sweater, a pull in one place can cause tightness elsewhere along the same thread. In this case, if there is a restriction in the calf or the bottom of your foot, your hamstring flexibility may be impaired.
To test this phenomenon for yourself you’ll first need to bend forward at the hips to see how far you can reach. It is important to restrict all motion to the hips here and prevent rounding of the lower back to get a true measure of hamstring flexibility.
Now grab a tennis ball, place it on the ground and begin rolling the underside of your foot. Make sure to use a reasonable amount of pressure and go along the length of the foot on the inside, middle, and along the blade of the foot.
Personally I’ve found that most people have a tender spot just in front of the heel which needs the most work. I’d suggest spending about 1-2 minutes on each foot. Now retest your flexibility.
By rolling the bottoms of Mark’s feet (as was discussed in a previous blog) and stretching out his calves, I hope to increase his hamstring flexibility above and beyond would normally be expected in a 10 week span.
The Anti-Cardio Weight Loss Plan, Week 3 – Day 2
As some of you may have noticed by now, I haven’t had Mark do much in the way of “cardio” that would be expected on a typical weight loss plan and that’s because, like most of you, I hate cardio.
While I do commend those who truly love to run, I would hazard a guess that most people just don’t get excited about the notion of spending hour after hour on a sunny Saturday afternoon cooped up in a gym or dank basement on a treadmill or elliptical. And more importantly, if you want to lose fat and have a healthy heart, you don’t have to.
I think that weight training workouts should be progressed to the point where they create a metabolic demand by getting your heart rate up so that you are getting some form of cardiovascular conditioning while training. In fact, many of our clients either step up and down on a step or even skip between sets to get this effect.
Sometimes we might even add a couple brief (i.e., 30 second) sprint type intervals during a workout. Beyond that, I simply do not believe that running, spinning, or any other form of long, steady, boring cardio is needed at all.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do believe that physical activity is important. I just don’t think it should be something that you hate. Mark plays a few hours of tennis per week and referees some basketball games. Occasionally he’ll go for a long bike ride on a nice day. My only suggestion to him is that he performs at least 3 additional hours of activity outside the gym per week.
Whether he does that walking, playing tennis, bike riding, or in a spin class is up to him. The key is that he does what he enjoys and doesn’t set himself up for failure by doing something that he doesn’t want to do in the first place. If you love to run, then run. But if you hate it, then find something you love to do.
Here’s how Mark’s day looked today: Global Warm Up, Foam Rolling, Dynamic Mobility Work, Movement Prep:
Since you’re probably staring to get the drift here, this is going to remain pretty much the same until progression is needed or I identify something else that needs addressing. I did change one ankle mobility drill for Mark to continue to loosen up his calves, but the rest was left unchanged.
RESISTANCE TRAINING:
Vertical Pulling – Modified Pullup: Mark was able to increase his strength on this exercise by 2 levels this week. However, I should note that strength typically jumps rapidly in the first 8-12 weeks of training due to changes within the brain and nerves, but the most noticeable muscle changes don’t start until after this period so it is always important to keep training beyond this period if you dramatically want to improve your appearance.
Vertical Pushing – Lateral Raises: Last week when doing this exercise I had Mark rotate his thumbs upwardly to decrease the pressure on one of the tendons in his left shoulder (the supraspinatus). However, my experience has lead me to believe that this is most likely to happen when one of the other muscles (the subscapularis) doesn’t perform properly which allows this pressure to take place.
To test this theory on Mark, I gently massaged this muscle on the underside of his shoulder blade with my thumb to break up some of the restrictions that prevented it from working properly. If you’ve never had the “pleasure” of having this done, I can assure you it is not the happiest experience of your life, but it works.
Consequently, Mark was able to lift more weight this week without using a modified hand position. He also had no pain at all until the third set where it started to creep in to the left shoulder again. My guess is that with continued work on this muscle Mark will have no pain limitations on this exercise at all.
Lower Body Pull – Cable Pullthroughs: As would be expected, Mark increased his strength by 20 pounds on this exercise this week.
Core Work: Although we’ve done some core work until this point, I have purposely chosen to leave it out because our philosophy is a little different and is bound to make some people upset. Nonetheless, the time has come and I’m ready to jump into the fire.
Essentially, we believe that stability balls and balance equipment have only limited application in core training and are most often used as a marketing gadget to draw people into fitness facilities. Scientifically speaking, they do have some proven applications in rehabilitation, re-injury prevention, and advanced training, but beginners have absolutely no business using these.
We also think crunches are junk and most of our clients haven’t performed a crunch in years. In my experience, crunches cause more back pain than they fix and there are loads of other options that will yield results that are just as good in terms of strength.
Interestingly, when they try to herniate discs in spinal research labs they place them in a machine that bends them back and forth until they pop. Kinda sounds like a crunch to me. Frankly, I think there are better options and I’ll detail our progression more in upcoming blogs.
Truth be told though, your nutrition and overall fat loss routine has more to do with the way you stomach looks anyway. If you want a six pack or a flatter stomach, you need to start in the kitchen instead of the gym.
Stretching and Cool Down: We continued our assault on Mark’s calves and hamstrings and the results are coming steadily.
NUTRITIONAL NOTES:
When reviewing Mark’s nutrition log from last week I noticed that he’d done exceptionally well, but (as with most clients) my biggest concern is the longevity of the plan. I noticed that Mark’s snacks, which are primarily focused on fruits and vegetables, were a little repetitive and boring. Here’s a suggestion I gave him for a nutrient dense snack that will kick up your taste buds.
Nutrient-Dense Snack
In a blender add:
* 5-6 pieces of chopped fresh pineapple
* 1 big handful of baby spinach (trust me, you won't even taste this)
* 4-5 frozen strawberries
* 1/2-1 cup of water
Take something as simple as a few fruits and some nutrition packed spinach and turn it into an instant favourite. Even your kids will eat this!
