KickAssLifeStyle.com » How To Workout

Is Your Fitness Training Plan Flawed…?

Curt Nelson — Sun, 23 May 2010 16:53:06 +0000

There are many areas of fitness to focus on. If you just focus on one area of fitness, your fitness training plan is FLAWED.

Heres how you know if your on the right track. When you go to the gym and other people ask you what the heck your doing, then you know your fitness training plan is headed down the right path.

Are you a body builder type who doesn’t work on conditioning, and functional flexibility & mobility…?

Are you a runner that just focuses on running and forgets endurance strength, power and mobility…?

Are you a triathlete who just swims, runs, rides bike but don’t do anything for functional flexibility or mobility, core stability, strength, or power training…?

Do you do Yoga and Pilates but skip any strength, power, and conditioning workouts…?

To have a complete well rounded fitness plan that focuses on “whole fitness” or holistic fitness you have to incorporate 6 main areas of fitness.

Functional Flexibility and Mobility
Core Strength and Stability
Strength
Short & Long Range Power
Interval Training – Anaerobic vs. Aerobic
Speed
Proper Recovery & Nutrition

Old Way Of Working Out - 50% free weights, 50% machines. Do 4 sets of 12,10,8 and rest 2-3 minutes between each set. Workout 3-5 days all in the gym. Each day you work a specific body part like chest and back or just legs. If this is your fitness plan your wasting your time if you actually want to have a high level of fitness. Following this plan makes you one dimensional or a one-trick pony.

New Way Of Working Out - 95% time spend on free weights, 5% machines. Your sets and reps vary all the time. Depending on which workout your doing you may not even rest at end of your sets, especially if your doing Crossfit. If its a strength or power day you may allow more rest between each lift. You may only need 1-2 days in an actual gym and a couple workouts out of the gym. Instead of working specific body parts your working a combination of the 5 categories above. Your targeting your whole body not just body parts.

We want to be generalists in our fitness not specialists.

Outside Magazine gives you some simple tests to see where you are at for each of the 5 main categories above and remedial training if you can’t currently pass each individual performance test.

If your not able to do the basic movements provided in the performance test for each area, add the remedial training exercises into your current fitness training plan.

1. Functional Flexibility

If your tight in the hips or shoulders you should work more on your functional flexibility and core stability before getting really serious about strength training.

Functional Flexibility is your ability to move completely through the range of motion required for a sport or activity.

Any number of factors like, age, jobs where you sit a lot, or watching too much TV make muscles chronically tight, limiting your full power and strength potential and increasing your risk of injury.

Flexibility shouldn’t be an afterthought. It should be one of the most important things you focus on.

Most functional flexibility tests gauge flexibility in your core, which are where the most problems are.

2. CORE Strength and Stability

Doing core exercises aren’t just about making your six pack better. What everyone should be after is core stability, which is achieved when your entire core, from lower back to upper legs is equally strong.

Having a stable core will give you maximum control of your body, make you less likely to get injured and provide you with greater performance and power and strength in all types of sports and activities.

Everyone of your workouts should have at least two of the major Core Stability exercises.

These would include:

Side Planks, Forearm Planks and Pushup planks
Inchworms
Renegade Man Makers
Wood Chops
Windshield Wipers

3. Explosive Power & Long Range Power

Power is simply energy production, whether its over a short period (sprints, power lifting) or a long period (1-4 hr. mountain biking ride).

Explosive power is usually in the 1-3 rep range with 85% – 100% max weight.

Typical explosive power training workouts are done with a variety of these main compound exercises:

Squats
Cleans
Deadlifts
Bench Press

Keep in mind these are also strength exercises but what makes them a power or strength exercise are the reps, rest between each set and the weight used.

Long Range Power Exercises:

Plyometrics in the 10-20 rep range
Running Intervals
Cycling Intervals

If your a tri-athlete, mountain biker or adventure racer your long range power is crucial to your sports.

4. Strength & Strength Endurance

Strength would be considered doing an exercise for 4-6 reps with 75% – 85% of max weight. Strength Endurance is the ability to do a lift for 8-15 reps or more with 65% of your max weight.

Doing exercises to increase your strength will increase your muscle mass, and keep you burning calories all day long with your increased metabolism. To increase your strength and power you should be doing these types of workouts below.

Bodyweight Workouts
Strong Man Training
Kettlebell Training
Free Weight Power Lifting Exercises
Ring Training
Sandbag Training
Gymnastics Training
Crossfit Training

5. Interval Training – Anaerobic vs. Aerobic

Long boring aerobic exercise doesn’t make much sense unless you just want to run marathons and have a skinny little body with no muscle…

Efforts at moderate to high power and lasting less than several minutes are anaerobic. Efforts at low power and lasting in excess of several minutes are aerobic. The 100, 200, 400 and 800 Meter Sprints are mostly anaerobic.

Events like 1,500, the mile, 2,000, and 3,000 meters are mostly aerobic. Aerobic exercise shows decreases in muscle mass, strength, speed and power. Aerobic activity also has a pronounced tendency to decrease anaerobic capacity.

Anaerobic exercise is more superior to aerobic exercise for fat loss and also has benefits of cardiovascular function. It also allows you to improve power, speed, strength, and muscle mass. So why would anyone even consider doing anything aerobically…?

You will use anaerobic efforts to develop aerobic condition through “interval training”. With interval training we get all the cardiovascular benefit of endurance work without the loss of strength, speed and power.

6. Speed & Quickness

Speed is the ability to minimize the time cycle of a repeated movement. In this article we’ll refer to this as being able to do your workouts faster and get them finished quicker while still being safe. Speed increases with time as you get better in the 5 main areas of fitness. If you only focus on 1-2 aspects of fitness your speed will be affected.

You can also do specific drills to increase your speed but most people don’t need to focus on this. You can, but it would mainly be for professional athletes who would have a distinct disadvantage if they didn’t practice certain speed drills.

7. Recovery & Nutrition

Much of your training will go to waste if you’re not devoting equal time and effort to your recovery. The physiological gains from exercise take place while you’re at rest. Blood flow into damaged muscles and joints, capillaries expand for improved oxygen delivery, and tissues prepare for the next assault.

After a workout is the perfect time for foods that are high in the glycemic index. Eating foods that have a high GI replenish your glycogen stores. This is really the only time to eat high GI foods.

If you have questions about the 6 main areas of fitness please submit your question below in the comments box.

PROOF: High Intensity Interval Training vs. Long Slow Boring Low Intensity Endurance Training

Curt Nelson — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 01:16:28 +0000

Whether your a marathon runner, ultra marathoner, cyclist, mountain biker, swimmer, adventure racer, triathlete, or just someone who wants a kickass body with supreme fitness, this article is all about becoming more versatile in your fitness training by doing Cross Training with high intensity interval training instead of endurance training.

Here are the Benefits of doing High Intensity Interval Training ( HIIT ) with Cross Training

You’ll save more time and won’t have to workout as long as you use to

Increase in Cardiovascular Function

Have a better physique, decreased body fat, increase in muscle mass

Increase In Your Strength, Power and Speed

Less chance of injury from over training

Variation makes your workouts less boring

If your serious about improving your fitness and results within your long distance sport you should follow the Crossfit Endurance website and start doing their workouts. Crossfit Endurance is set up specifically for endurance athletes utilizing the Crossfit principles.

On to the PROOF !

There are multiple reasons and side effects from slow boring low intensity endurance training. This applies to you if you consistently do only one form of training or a combination of things where you don’t do anything at high intensity.

Example: My cousin is a marathon runner. He recently ran in the Boston Marathon. He use to train just by running for 8 miles at a time for 4 days a week and never changing his pace. No weight training, no crossfit endurance training, just running.

If your currently still training like this STOP IT right now!

So, lets look at several examples that relate to body structure, performance, and risks of endurance training.

NOTE : 99% of everything you do will be training. Races and Competitions are just roughly 1% of the actual load or cumulative effects on your body. So, “During your training” stop doing the long slow and boring low intensity endurance training ALL THE TIME, mix it up.

1. Look at the difference between a marathon runner compared to a Sprinter. Are their body shapes like this for a specific reason, YES. You decide which one you want to be…

2. Have you ever you heard of the “Jim Fixx Phenomenon”, a popular fitness guru of the 70s…? He claimed that the secret to heart health and long life was endurance running, up until he died of a heart attack while running! This may or may not be a special case as many long distance runners in marathons die every year.

Maybe they all have some type of pre disposition to do with their heart, lifestyle choices or maybe its from the running…?

3. A few years ago, Harvard researchers published the Harvard Health Professionals Study. After studying over 7,000 people they found that they key to preventing heart disease is INTENSITY, not long duration exercise. Can’t Find this article, can anyone find this…

4. Did you know your lung power is the best predictor of longevity? But your lungs shrink with age. Every year your lung cells die off faster than your body can replace them. And if you practice aerobics or cardio you’re making your lungs even smaller and weaker, according to Dr. Al Sears, creator of the 12 minute Pace Program.

5. Long-distance running shrinks your lungs and downsizes your heart’s output. Nature designed your body to adapt to whatever environment it encounters. If you ask it to run long distances repeatedly and routinely, it will adapt to meet the challenge more effectively. When you run long distances like in a marathon you’re actually training your heart to get weaker. Read This –> Marathon Kills 3 More in 16 Minutes

6. Can you name any animal that runs for an hour or more 4 days a week for 10 years or more…

7. Six Minutes of Exercise A Week is As Good As Six Hours – I wouldn’t do just 6 minutes of exercise a week. While this article does prove a point, you should do at least 3-4 workout days a week. With 1-2 being an intense interval training day at no more than 30 minutes and the other 2 days, resistance free weight training, and crossfit or cross fit endurance training.

If your an endurance athlete you may want to just follow the Crossfit Endurance Workouts.

8. Another great source of information to read on high intensity interval training vs. endurance training

The are plenty of academic articles/journals that have plenty of research behind this. They are mostly hard to read or understand for most but if your seeking more info contact me and I’ll give you some more articles.

You may be thinking, isn’t bodybuilding bad for you… no not really. Not unless you use steroids and massive supplements you don’t need. It’s also not a smart way to exercise because most bodybuilders rely on isolation training a certain body part at one time. Which is almost as stupid as doing crunches to try and get abs.

Depending on the type of energy system your training for you should have specific intervals you do in your training depending on your sport. Check out the What is Fitness Article by Crossfit for this.

If running makes you feel good just being outside, continue to do it. But don’t just run slow and steady. Do running intervals or biking intervals. Just by upping the intensity you’ll get way more benefit out of running and it will take less time.