Frequently, the missing link is what’s going on between the ears. Setting specific intentions to make big lifts or improve your skills, mental imagery, and identifying your optimal arousal for the task at hand, can dramatically improve performance in the gym or on the sporting field. ^{1, 2, 3}

It should come as no surprise that going into a workout without a solid target or reason why you’re attempting to improve will produce lackluster results. ⁴ A little less obvious is focusing on your intent around lifting speed and how it relates to performance outcomes.

If you’re looking to improve overall strength, then getting the right intent for speed on the movement/muscle contraction will improve your strength ability. For example, when lowering the weight in a squat or during a bench press, try to do it in a controlled manner with the feeling of tension building up like a bow and arrow. Once you have hit the end range of the lift, then you want to release all that tension, all at once, and try to move your body as fast as you can back to the top of the lift. Remember, it’s the intention of lifting as fast as you can that is the goal because when you have a heavy weight on your back you won’t be moving quickly. It’s just the intention that will give you extra performance and the ability to lift more. On a side note, don’t overlook form for weight or speed. It’s a must to master technique before lifting with speed.

Studying Intent

A recent study examined two groups performing a bench press. They wanted to know if giving an instruction to move faster during lifts to one group would produce more intent than a self-guided group with no instruction. ² The group that had intention and instruction to lift the bar at a faster speed showed a significant improvement of 10% in total weight lifted compared with the self-regulated group which experienced much slower lifts. It was also shown that there was significantly more muscle activation in the working muscles when the intention of a faster lift was set. This could be linked not only to velocity, but also to a mind-muscle connection. ^{2, 5}

It has been well known for some time in bodybuilding communities that there is a strong link between the mind and the muscle. Now, there is science to back it up. ⁵ This isn’t some mystic new age phenomenon—rather, having a clear intention around training and outcomes in your mind will serve you well in your training endeavors.

Intention Strategies for Increased Performance

Applying this concept is extremely simple, all you need to do is focus your attention into the working area. It’s much like a body scan in meditation. For example, in a bicep curl, place all your focus into the biceps and concentrate on the sensations of the exercise while trying to squeeze the muscle as hard as possible for each rep. You’ll be amazed what a difference being present makes as opposed to thinking about what you are going to have for dinner.

Focusing on your mental approach improves performance in strength and speed aspects and can also allow you to make substantial progress in more skill based sports and training. ^{6, 7} Using mental imagery or rehearsal is a great way to improve strength and can help with more complex tasks that require a high level of skill. Practicing your golf swing or snatch in your mind will increase your power output (distance hit or weight lifted) and can also improve your accuracy and precision. ^{8, 9}

It might sound strange, but when you’re driving or walking to the gym, try to think over your program and each lift you will be doing. It’s a great way to arrive ready for action and it will ultimately improve your performance. Always consider what improvements you seek and why they are important to you.

The Role of Arousal

Factoring in arousal levels can also play a big part in results if an optimal range is set for an exercise or skill that is being performed. ¹⁰ If mental arousal levels are too low, then performance will also be less than optimal. An example of this is when you are too relaxed before an exercise or skill work. When arousal increases performance also increases. This continues up to a point then, if the person continues to be over-aroused, performance will drop. It must be noted that each individual has his or her very own specific optimal arousal level. This can be dependent on personality types and/or how complex the skill is. The more complex the task is, the less arousal will be required for accuracy.

Because arousal is highly individual, my advice is to start small with playing some of your favorite music before your next set to see if it makes a difference. Then, you can titrate the arousal up by jumping around and getting your training partner to yell words of encouragement. If you want to go all out, try smelling salts and give yourself a few slaps in the face. Please remember to quantify this by your lift performance. Did you lift more? Was there a benefit? If you are not assessing, then you’re guessing.

Make Intent Work for You

Don’t overlook your mental intention. This is one of the most controllable and influential factors that can increase your performance. Make sure you develop the right mindset for each exercise, establish a mental connection to your muscle groups, use mental rehearsal for complex skills or movements, and establish optimal arousal levels. Attack the mind and the body will follow.

References:

1. Karl Halvor Teigen, ‘Yerkes-Dodson: A Law for All Seasons‘, Theory & Psychology 4, no. 4 (1994): 525-47.

2. J Padulo et al., ‘Effect of Different Pushing Speeds on Bench Press‘, International journal of sports medicine 33, no. 05 (2012): 376-80.

3. David G Behm and DIGBY G Sale, ‘Intended Rather Than Actual Movement Velocity Determines Velocity-Specific Training Response‘, Journal of Applied Physiology 74, no. 1 (1993): 359-68.

4. Edwin A Locke and Gary P Latham, ‘The Application of Goal Setting to Sports‘, Journal of sport psychology 7, no. 3 (1985): 205-22.

5.  Joaquin Calatayud et al., ‘Importance of Mind-Muscle Connection During Progressive Resistance Training‘, European journal of applied physiology 116, no. 3 (2016): 527-33.

6.  Robert Weinberg, ‘Does Imagery Work? Effects on Performance and Mental Skills‘, Journal of Imagery Research in Sport and Physical Activity 3, no. 1 (2008): 1-21.

7. Dave Smith et al., ‘It’s All in the Mind: Pettlep-Based Imagery and Sports Performance‘, Journal of Applied Sport Psychology 19, no. 1 (2007): 80-92.

8. Vinoth K Ranganathan et al., ‘From Mental Power to Muscle Power—Gaining Strength by Using the Mind‘, Neuropsychologia 42, no. 7 (2004): 944-56.

9. Giuliano Fontani et al., ‘Effect of Mental Imagery on the Development of Skilled Motor Actions‘, Perceptual and motor skills 105, no. 3 (2007): 803-26.

10. Marvin Zuckerman, Sensation Seeking (Psychology Revivals): Beyond the Optimal Level of Arousal,  (Psychology Press, 2014).

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If we think about the opposite of this scenario, then we should have the opposite results, right? Hitting the gym, being active, and having better food choices should push us in the direction of a healthy body. The notion is that if we train more, we should see more results—but that isn’t always the case. More training isn’t always better. Let me explain.

The Way Overload Works

Progressive overload—the gradual increase in volume, intensity, frequency, or time to achieve the targeted goal of the user—is essentially how we gain results in the gym, as is the case with any type of training.

This means that when we push ourselves to a new limit, our body adapts to the new stress (stimulus). If we keep doing the same things, then we can expect the same results, thus we need training programs to increase in difficulty in order to see improvement.

Pushing the envelope will help you move in the direction of improvement. However, there is a law of diminishing returns that must be factored in and for everyone to be aware of. There are limitations that our genetics will impose on us whether we like it or not.

There are new age philosophers that will tell you that if you can see it in your mind then you can achieve it. Well, give those tarot card readers my number because I have been picturing myself playing in the NBA for the last three decades.

More Is Not Always Better

Unfortunately, a lot of people who enjoy group exercise programs fall into the mentality that more is better, like doing 12 spin classes a week to offset all the bad food they have been eating. Don’t think you can out train a bad diet. You might get away with it (if you’re lucky) for a short period of time, but it will come back to bite you in the butt—figuratively and literally.

I love training beginners and newbies in the gym because their percentage increases are the most impressive. Week after week they have dramatic improvements in all areas, and that is when people get bit with the fitness bug.

Moving from point A to point B is rewarding and inspiring. With achievement comes confidence in setting higher and more lofty targets. And there is nothing wrong with that all. “Set goals of ambition and not of a sloth” has been my personal mantra for years.

What needs to be understood is that what took you from point A to point B, won’t take you to point C. Just doing more of the same won’t get you there. There needs to be new methods and a new approach.

The Reality of Progression

Taking someone from 30% body fat to 18% is no small feat, but it is something that I regularly do with clients. Once we get to that target, it’s human nature to want to take it to the next level of single digit percentages. And yes, it is possible, but the amount of effort and work is disproportionate to what was required for the first step.

The time spent dieting, making lifestyle changes, using recovery strategies, and training can resemble a full-time athlete. Any trainer or coach that tells you that it’s easy is either going to feed you performance enhancing drugs or has no concept of reality. It might be easy for them to sit at home on a Saturday night eating green beans and doing 2-hour incline treadmill walks. But for working corporates with families it might seem a little ridiculous.

Don’t get sold the dream without understanding the reality first. When you improve, so must your training and nutrition. Doing the same will produce more of the same. Making incremental adjustments will add up over time and keep you improving.

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(Source: Bev Childress)

Whether you’re new to training or have been battling away for decades, there comes a time when you need a new target or a goal to give you a fresh sense of purpose. Going through the motions and monotony can produce sub-par workouts and results.

The very premise of training is to create enough stress on the body for it to be able to adapt and improve. Doing the same workout for an extended period of time, you can only expect to stay the same, or even regress with age.

If you’re the sort of person who can stick to a healthy habit that involves the same workouts for months and years on end, I commend you! It’s certainly better than adapting to your couch and being a reality TV expert.

For the rest of us, having something new to look forward to is what keeps us coming back. Despite that, a lot of people get stuck doing the same workouts or plans for a few understandable reasons:

• They enjoy the routine.
• It’s worked for them in the past.
• They are comfortable.
• They don’t know what else to do.
• They lack inspiration for new training goals or target.

Unearth Your Own Goals

The last point I mentioned above is the key ingredient for getting yourself unstuck and inspired to move in the direction of improvement, rather than spinning your wheels.

It’s extremely common for new athletes to lack a clearly defined target or goal. Sometimes it can be a lack of confidence in what they believe is possible, or simply not being able to put a finger on what it is they want. Either way, if they don’t find a way to uncover a meaningful goal, chances are they won’t stick with their training for very long.

In this scenario, I recommend going small and short with the target. This makes it easy to start building confidence and momentum. Don’t overthink selection of the goal itself. I have never met or worked with anyone that didn’t have a weakness or need to improve in a certain area. Pick one of them, and a goal is born.

Ticking off that first goal or overcoming an obstacle will do wonders for confidence, and will create “buy-in” for the next step. People have a natural tendency to want to finish or complete what they began. Making this initial target within arm’s reach helps shift the mind into growth mentality.

(Source: Bev Childress)

Motivation Momentum

“Arriving at one goal is the starting point to another.”

– John Dewey

It’s almost impossible to predict where overcoming a challenge will take an individual in both physical and mental aspects. We often refer to how training makes us physically better, but skip over the psychological benefits that come from improvement and confidence. Confidence comes from experience, and the momentum really builds fast, after you’ve started.

Also, being exposed to a training environment with others operating at a higher level will help cultivate ideas and aspirations for you to want to improve. Modelling those that have done something that you aspire to achieve is a shortcut to success. Why take the long road, when you can learn from others’ mistakes and triumphs?

If you’re getting lost on what your next fitness or health goal is going to be, here are a few simple tips that can get your momentum going in the right direction:

• Start with something bite-sized. Inspiration will come from action, not being stagnant.
• Make a timeline of the first goal, short and attainable. Having an early win will help build confidence, get the creative juices flowing, and build momentum for setting a larger, harder goal in the future.
• Find and immerse yourself in an environment where people are performing at a higher level. You won’t learn anything if you’re always the smartest or fittest person in the room.
• Model people that have the results that you are pursuing. This shortcuts mistakes and pushes you in the right direction.

Remember, you don’t need to see the whole plan when starting, just focus on taking that very important first step, and the rest will take care of itself.

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Investing in a new program or online training subscription? Before you spend all your hard-earned cash, make sure you have the right mental approach to ensure that you will follow through with it. There is nothing more cliché than buying a home treadmill to collect dust or a gym membership that never gets used.

People haphazardly spend money trying to find a solution to their fitness or health problems, only to realize that they can’t buy results without doing the work. Money will only buy you methods, not the motivation to train. Aligning your values and interests are the foundation of a successful plan, rather than focusing purely on outcomes. Below are four key pillars that will help you focus your mind to get the most from your training.

Find Clarity

Being crystal clear with your targets is imperative for fulfillment in your fitness and health endeavors. If you don’t define what it is you are hoping to achieve, then it will be not only impossible to come up with a training plan, but it will most certainly give you less drive to stick with it over the long term.

Clearly define what the goal is and make sure that you have a reliable measure that can assess your starting point, progress, and end result. Remember, if you are not assessing, you are guessing. Gaining clarity on your goals and results with descriptive measures keeps you accountable to stick with the program.

Get Accurate Feedback

Getting feedback has a powerful effect on your emotions, as you can see progress when you follow the plan, or regression if you do not. Receiving negative feedback isn’t always a bad thing, as it can encourage accountability and help alter methods along the way to ensure success.

Be mindful to not over do it with feedback. Some personality types can become obsessive and attach identity to results, which can reinforce negative behavior patterns. Keep to a strict fortnightly or monthly assessment feedback. Daily measurement can fluctuate, which can make people obsess and change their approach when it isn’t necessary.

Find Your Purpose

Setting arbitrary goals with no personal significance won’t create enough fire in your belly to make you follow through. When times are tough and you feel like giving up, having a strong enough reason why you want to achieve the target will make you do things that didn’t seem possible. If your life depended on you lifting twice your body weight for 10 repetitions, chances are you would be able to do it. If the scenario was different, and you would only have some sore muscles the following day, would you have the same reason and conviction to complete the task? Not a chance!

For that very reason, you must set goals with emotional significance and purpose. Compare the following two statements in terms of motivation potential:

• “I want to lose 30lb of fat because my doctor said I’m at a high risk for cardiovascular disease, and chances are I won’t be able to watch my grandkids kids grow up.”
• “I want to lose 15kg because my wife keeps nagging me.”

It could be the same person in both of those scenarios, but the key difference is the person with the stronger reason why will have much more ability to find a way to make it work rather than turning to excuses.

Do Something You Love

It might seem obvious, but you need to enjoy the process. Life is too short to get stuck doing something that you despise, and chances are you won’t stick with it anyway. Like it or not, all exercise has some level of discomfort associated with it. Your lungs will burn when you run, you will have sore muscles after lifting weights, and you will smell like chlorine after swimming. The trick is to find something with enough joy in the activity to offset the negative aspect. After a while, the perceived negative will actually become part of the enjoyment by association.

If you are someone who doesn’t like the gym, a coach or trainer that is skilled in the art of coaching can dig deep and find ways to help motivate you. A coach can get you to associate your goals with exercises and once they strike the right chord, then you will be hooked. Don’t underestimate seeking expertise as a way of finding enjoyment in training, because chances are, the coach or teacher loves what they do, and the satisfaction will be infectious.

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We’ve all had those days when 4pm rolls around, you’re tired from work, and you feel like indulging in a late afternoon cake or piece of candy. In this small crisis, you convince yourself to skip the gym tonight, and promise yourself that you will go early the next day instead. The next day, you hit the snooze button and put the gym off till that evening. [Insert vicious cycle here].

Having no structured routine and a sea of choices leaves things open to opportunities to make excuses. When you are trying to zero in on your health and fitness goals, this can be a massive roadblock. Taking proactive steps, planning, and cutting out some of the choices you have to make each day pertaining to your health and fitness is key. 

What Is Decision Fatigue?

Wikipedia defines decision fatigue as “the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual, after a long session of decision making.” A study at Columbia University even reported that judges in court make less favorable rulings as the day drags on.¹

If you don’t take a hands-on approach to shortcutting decisions, decision fatigue can kick in earlier in the day, and chances are you will feel like hitting the couch after work rather than the gym. Most people wake up with just enough time to decide what clothes to wear and grab something for breakfast, at best. That leaves the decision about if you’re going to go for a run or hit the gym later up in the air.

Don’t leave your health up to the random chance you will make the right choices when you’re tired! Buy it and book it, with no chance of a refund or changing your mind. Every good salesman knows that giving too many options is never a good thing. The same applies to your diet and training regimen. Take away options and complexity to ensure better compliance.

Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Mark Zuckerberg and President Obama all chose to wear the same or similar outfits every day, so they could be more productive in their respective fields. Success has left us clues and principles that can be applied to your training and nutrition.

How to Remove Decisions From Your Fitness

If you’re someone who struggles to stick with your fitness or nutrition plan, you must find a combination of accountability, habit, results, and enjoyment. Without those, you will be one of the many that start and never follow through long enough to see the results.

Accountability

This is crucial concept that will help you follow through, even when times are tough and you might not feel like it. Having a coach there, making sure you are checking the boxes each day, has a multitude of benefits for accountability. Not only does your coach give you expert guidance, but the social pressure of not letting the coach down helps you make the right decision and show up for each session.

You can similarly create accountability with a partner, friend or colleague. Get them to commit with you to a minimum of twelve months of training together and checking up on each other’s nutrition. Twelve months might sound like a long time, but if you are serious about turning a commitment into a lifestyle, those that can last 12 months create a habit for the rest of their lives. It might sound a little narcissistic, but posting on social media can create accountability by announcing to everyone what your intentions are. You may even find unexpected encouragement and support from family and friends.

Habit

The secret to your long-term success is, without a doubt, habit. Once your training and nutrition have embedded themselves into your lifestyle, all the hard decisions are gone. Health no longer becomes a choice; it is a necessity.

Results

Seeing results has a powerful reinforcing effect on your psychology to continue with your training and to continue to eat well. They reinforce the reasons why you are maintaining your newfound habits. If you’re not assessing, you’re guessing. Take photos, measurements, blood work, and anything that can show a positive change. This is a tool for your continued success. If you’re not getting the favorable results that you expected, then go see an expert. Chances are you will learn ways to keep improving.

Enjoyment

It seems obvious, but you are more likely to continue with something that you enjoy doing, rather than beating your head against a brick wall and hoping that it will feel better soon. If you don’t like the gym, try gymnastics, CrossFit, basketball, whatever! There is no one way that it has to be done. Anyone who says, “this is the only way” doesn’t know what they are talking about. Training and healthy eating shouldn’t be a chore; it must be pleasurable and rewarding. If you are struggling with enjoyment, find yourself a coach, trainer, or person that is truly inspired and enjoys what they do. You will find their attitude infectious, and the enjoyment will flow through to yourself.

Wear the same clothes every day. Commit yourself to your goals. Make fewer decisions, and you will find success in health and fitness. 

Reference:

1. Danziger, Shai, Jonathan Levav, and Liora Avnaim-Pesso. “Extraneous factors in judicial decisions.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, no. 17 (2011): 6889-6892.

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I always tell people that there are no bad exercises or programs, with the proviso that you can justify them with what the individual brings to the table. What are the perceived benefits? Is it the most effective exercise for the desired outcome? Does the person meet the positional demands of the exercise? Do they have the correct strength profile? Do they have the required experience?

Answering these very questions will make you better at programming, and help you understand why your coach or trainer might have written your program in a particular way. Questioning will help you learn, develop, and defend the reasons why you might have selected your coach in the first place.

The Point Is Progress

One thing that gets me annoyed is seeing trainers pick exercises or programs like they are selecting a movie to watch. “Yeah, this week we are doing 8×8, and next week we’ll be doing strongman circuits!” Without chronological sequencing, exercise selection or programming will produce less than favorable results in the long term. You won’t make all the right choices or selections every time, however the key is to measure and learn from each program. What worked and didn’t work? Could I have improved?

The underlying premise of an exercise or a program should be to progress. We want to induce a certain level of stress in the body to disrupt homeostasis, which will lead us to supercompansate (i.e. make progress). A mentor of mine once said that I should be able to defend every exercise in any program I have written with justification and clear logic. You might not be right every single time, but doing your best, rather than haphazardly including an exercise to pad out the time, is always preferred.

Working with raw beginners, it is less critical to get the programming 100% perfect when it comes to reps and sets, because they will make progress with just about anything given to them (within reason).¹ However, safe, foundational movement patterns and core competencies in the gym need to be in place.²

Complication Can Sabotage Progress

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”

–Albert Einstein

Often when trainers charge a premium price, they have done relevant study in a certain area of training or nutrition, which they can justify to their paying clients. There is nothing wrong with specializing and charging a premium, when the level of service or product increases the value to the customer. However, this is the area where trainers and coaches get complicated for no reason, just to warrant the bigger price tag or their ego.

The trainer might have recently attended a short course on shoulder mobility and health, or bodybuilding methods. Then, all of a sudden, all of their clients are mobilizing their shoulders and training like a bodybuilding pro, regardless of their personal training needs and goals. This can ultimately send progress in the wrong direction.

The same can be said for the use of language and technical terms. Using complex coaching cues can not only confuse people, but can create a level of disengagement because of a lack of understanding. Cueing an athlete or client for a squat with “actively engage your gluteus medius, drop into hip flexion whilst keeping your first rib angle in extension and make sure your patella doesn’t drop into a valgus position…” might sound impressively technical, but the athlete will have no idea what you want them to do. The true sign of a good coach is someone who can explain something that is technical in simple terms that everyone can understand. They should leave their ego at the door and speak the language of the person you are dealing with.

Simple Excellence Beats Mediocre Complication

The role of a trainer or coach is to safely navigate the client from point A to point B in the most efficient and effective manner possible. There is seldom a need to step away from the basics, other than to navigate certain roadblocks and setbacks. If we do an 80-20 (Pereto’s Law) analysis on programming exercises, you would most likely find that 80% of your results would come from 20% of your exercises.

Getting bogged down in the complexities without focusing on the fundamentals will always play second fiddle to those mastering the things that count. If your teacher or coach is telling you it’s a complicated process, then you’re heading in the wrong direction.

When selling courses, education programs and new gadgets, it’s hard to market something that is solely focused on the basics or fundamentals. People are generally drawn to what is the latest and greatest trend in the market or scientific literature.

Let results guide your programming, and you will find that doing few things with excellence will win.

Learn more about self-motivation:

Raise Your Game: Be Your Own Coach

References:

1. Mark Rippetoe, Lon Kilgore, and Stephani Elizabeth Bradford, Practical Programming for Strength Training, (Aasgaard Company, 2006).

2. Thomas R Baechle and Roger W Earle, Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning, (Human Kinetics, 2008).

The post Don’t Bog Down Your Training With Complicated Programming appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

I have noticed a significant shift in the last couple of years toward general gym-goers having a much higher level of knowledge pertaining to training application, programming, nutrition, and supplementation. Several years ago, you would see many more ill-informed people doing incorrect things in the gym with bad form. Now, people are getting fed information via social media on when to take a deload, on carb cycling, or how to mobilize a talocrural joint, just to name a few. Often times I’ll go up and ask people where they learned whatever they are doing, only to get the response, “I saw it on YouTube.”

The truth is, there is no shortage of information out there, and anything you need to know can be found online. With the uprising of knowledge, people are pushing their limits in the gym more frequently with advanced methods, whether it’s strength, athletic performance, anaerobic conditioning, or body composition targets.

Getting access to the training protocols of top-level athletes in CrossFit, bodybuilding and sports via social media is a common occurrence. This can be both good and bad. People sometimes apply high-level training to an intermediate or novice lifter, which is not only dangerous, but skips over the fundamentals. On the plus side, it shows the general population the amount of work and dedication it takes to perform at the highest level.

The Stuff You Won’t Watch on YouTube

As social media is driven by likes, shares, and views, the less engaging content, like rest and recovery, gets glossed over because everyone wants to see what the wolverine can deadlift, and what the bikini competitor does to develop her glutes. It’s going to be far less engaging to see them sleep for eight hours and eat large quantities of green vegetables.

But therein lies the secret sauce, which is how well you can recover from your training protocols. Little do people realize that the majority of their results (provided they do the work) are based on how well they can recover and adapt to the training stimulus they are applying. You can flog a dead horse until the cows come home, but unless you’re recovering it doesn’t mean a thing! You need to think of exercise like administering medicine: too much or too little won’t give you the desired outcomes. Getting the right dose of training along with appropriate recovery strategies is the recipe for success!

How Training Makes You Better

The whole premise of training is to adapt to the stimulus that you are exposing yourself to. When you lift weights or go for a run, you are exposing yourself to stress and your body will respond accordingly. Cardio training will help capillarization, increase stroke volume, and improve mitochondrial density, while resistance training will increase muscle cross-sectional area, and improves strength and power output.^{1, 2}

These effects are explained by something called “General Adaption Syndrome,” also known as supercompensation.³ It is a four-step process. Step 1 is the application of training and the body’s reaction to the training stress. Step 2 is the recovery phase or active rest. This phase will result in the energy stores and performance returning to baseline (homeostasis). Step 3 is the supercompensation phase, with a positive reaction from the stressor producing an improvement. Step 4 is the loss of the supercompensation effect, when there is a decline straight after the peak.⁴

Supercompensation can’t happen if you never allow your body to recover.

Real-Time Recovery Monitoring

Just as general populations have improved their knowledge of training techniques and protocols through technology and social media shares, I believe that the next trend is the final frontier for improved results, which is learning the latest science on recovery strategies and monitoring techniques.

There has already been a wave of technology made accessible through wearable devices that gather data on sleep, sweat, movement, heart rate, and heart rate variability. With that data alone, we have unprecedented insight into energy expenditure, rest, overtraining, and nervous system motorization.^{5, 6}

The exciting part of this is that it’s just the beginning. Future devices will be able to measure in real time things such as blood glucose, cholesterol, hormone levels, and much more. The implications for this will be huge, with implications for diet, training and sleep. Giving more descriptive measures will not only make people more aware of what their body will be suited to, to enhance the recovery process, but will inevitably help with behavior change. For example, getting direct feedback on your blood work just after eating a donut can act as an effective deterrent, by letting you know what it can do to your health immediately after consumption!

The Pitfalls of Inadequate Recovery

Recovery is beneficial to everyone, with no exceptions; whether it’s weight loss, muscle gain, athletic performance, or just for general health purposes. You might be able to cheat the system for a short period of time, but in the long run, you will have to pay for it through rest, recovery, and nutrition. For example, if you’re seeking weight loss, it’s a harmful strategy to simply increase training frequency without factoring your increased physiological needs. You may be burning more calories with the increased effort, however the long-term metabolic impact caused by raised cortisol and stress levels will be detrimental to sustainable results.⁷

The same logic applies for the heavy-hitting bodybuilder who thinks that just increasing the intensity, volume, or frequency of weight training sessions will lead to packing on more lean muscle mass, faster. Think again. Without adequate recovery, the consequences could actually be catabolic, as the true magic of hypertrophy occurs during the all-important recovery phase, not actually during the work.²

Recover as Hard as You Train

Until technology evolves enough to do the thinking for us, here are some general strategies to ensure your training isn’t ruined by inadequate recovery:

• Sleep: There is an individual point for most people, but as a general rule of thumb, aim for seven hours, and adjust accordingly upon tracking and self-assessment.

• Nutrition: Make sure you meet all your macro- and micronutrient requirements. With increased training, there will be increased requirements for certain nutrients. I highly recommend getting blood tests as a way of tracking certain micronutrients. If you don’t know what your requirements are, always seek professional help in the area of sports nutrition.

• Deload/Planned Taper: This is highly dependent on the macrocycle of your training schedule, but as a general guideline, there should be a deload or a taper in your training every six to eight weeks. The three main ways to do this are to reduce either intensity or volume (around 15%), or you can do supplemental lifts or cross training as a substitute.

• Active Rest: Rest doesn’t always mean plonking yourself in front of the TV and doing nothing. Movement training, mobility drills, self-myofascial-release (SMR), and hot and cold water therapy are great ways to improve recovery.

• Breathing and Mindfulness: Both breathing exercises and mindfulness have been shown to increase parasympathetic tone, which is a crucial factor in the recovery process.⁸ Plus, research has reported increases in performance and reduced anxiety levels.⁹

Don’t Bankrupt Your Fitness

Think of your body like a bank. You go into debt every time you train or exercise. Your fitness level, genetics, intensity, frequency, and volume of the training will all play a factor in how much debt you can take on before you have to pay up with rest and nutrition. If you don’t save enough by taking much needed time to recover, then eventually you will be paying for it through sickness, injury, or extreme fatigue, causing a reduction in performance and ultimately, long term results.¹⁰

How far in the hole are you?

Sleep Debt Accumulates Quickly

References:

The post The Next Frontier in Recovery appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Applying this advice to a global audience can be misleading and dangerous if not qualified, or put in the wrong hands.

It’s virtually impossible to escape all the videos and articles on social media telling you that a specific exercise is the answer to fixing your “pancake butt,” “spaghetti arms,” “chicken legs,” or [insert cliché fitness statement here].

Applying this advice to a global audience can be misleading and dangerous if not qualified, or put in the wrong hands.

For example, somebody says “ass to grass” squats are a must for everyone, because research has shown us that a full depth squat has the greatest glute activation when compared to parallel or partial squats.¹

Chances are, you will get great results, if you can meet the positional demands and execute the technique properly.

For the rest of us, we will find ourselves moving closer to injury, if we haven’t already hurt ourselves. Without assessments and knowledge, people who blindly follow exercise trends quickly fall victim to the laws of natural selection.

How Different Bodies Respond to the Same Movement

Often, it won’t be blatantly obvious or visual that something is faulty with a certain movement or exercise.

It might be something minor that could become an issue over time, or with volume and loading.

It’s like running a marathon with a pebble in your shoe—you’re barely able to notice it in the beginning, but after a few miles, things can be catastrophic!

Generally speaking, isolation exercises have less demanding requirements to perform safely, in comparison to the complex nature of compound movements like the classic barbell lifts.²

This is part of the reason why it becomes much harder to identify problems in compound movements, as the body has an innate ability to compensate for a deficiency.³ Often, it’s only under maximal loading that a weakness becomes visually obvious.

Applying a single exercise can have varying outcomes with different genders, posture profiles, limb length, and torso length.^{1, 4, 5}

If you have two people perform a low bar back squat and one of the individuals has a significantly longer femur and shorter torso, this can create differences in squat mechanics and structural loading.

The individual with the longer femur and shorter torso will most likely develop more torque at the hips by an increased moment arm (hip break), compared with the shorter femur, longer torso person.

If the person with the longer femur and short torso has a program with substantial low bar squatting combined with intensity, there is a propensity for lower back issues to develop if they are not careful.

The low bar squat can have up to 11 times the torque (rotational force) at the hips compared with a high bar squat.⁶

If we factor in a long femur and short torso, there can be even greater force the at lower back and hips, thus creating back pain issues if not monitored. Possible changes in squat style to a high bar, safety bar, or front squat would reduce this issue.

This doesn’t necessarily make the exercise bad, but it’s important to know, as we need to look at the whole picture when selecting exercises. It is crucial to factor in how outcomes can be affected by gender, anthropometrics, soft tissue restrictions, and structural anomalies.^{3, 7}

Find Movements That Work for You

Without taking these factors into account, it can become a matter of trying to jam that square peg into a round hole. Not everyone is suited for every exercise that has been invented, much like food.

What might be considered as a “healthy food” can literally kill someone if they have a strong enough allergy to it. “One man’s medicine is another man’s poison.” With this, it’s imperative that we understand that the cookie cutter approach will ultimately create less than optimal results.

To quote the elite strength coach Brett Bartholomew, “Cookie cutter cultures and organizations never last or succeed long-term, because high quality individuals cannot be mass produced.”

Utilizing what an individual brings to the table is a skill in itself, and must be promoted ahead of the one-size-fits-all approach.

Unfortunately with most “online fitness gurus,” screening, relevant programing, and technique are not as important as how to market and sell the program effectively, with as much automation as possible.

This leaves a large chunk of people up the creek with no paddle, when they inevitably run into soft tissue or structural limitations, technique flaws, and lack of individualization.

Luckily , there is no shortage of coaches, clinicians, and resources that can assess and help you understand what movements or exercises are better suited for you, or how they may be adjusted or avoided for optimal results.

It’s important to understand that getting hurt must not be an accepted part of training!

From time to time, especially when you’re working with maximal loading, there will be niggles and potential set backs, but by no means should training be creating regular injuries. A coach once said to me, “there are no bad exercises, if you can qualify, justify, and execute with good reason.”

Nobody says you have to back squat. Find the movement that produces the greatest benefit for your body.

Your Guide to Better Choices: Find a Coach

When it comes to selecting exercises and training protocols, don’t underestimate the benefit of human interaction and working with a coach to help make the right choices. Having that second set of eyes helps pick up areas that need attention, and to push you in the uncomfortable direction of improvement and growth.

People tend to stick to the things that they are good at without consciously knowing it, and put off the harder tasks. If we’re completely honest, we love doing things that we know we are good at, because we get compliments, a sense of achievement, purpose, and validation, not to mention a stroke of the ego.

It’s part of human nature to move towards pleasure and try to avoid pain or perceived pain.

This is often a problem when people are left to their own devices for picking the correct exercise to maximize improvement.

When I’m working with people, it’s always apparent which exercises that they can perform with ease, and which they avoid like the plague because they are less proficient at them.

The greatest level of growth and bang for buck comes from doing the exercises that you are not good at.

Take the guy at the gym that always skips leg day—he might be able to bench press like a power lifter, but he can’t seem to lift his own body weight on a barbell back squat. Wearing sweatpants to the gym and walking past people half his size as they warm up with weights that he couldn’t lift for 1 rep can’t be a great feeling.

The most significant change and results for this guy won’t come from him furthering his bench press; it would be from stepping out of his comfort zone and attacking his weakness, because therein lies the biggest capacity for improvement. This takes character to act without ego; to work on the weakest link with humility and conviction.

Please don’t be a sheep with your training. Regular, recurring injuries are not okay. Seek unbiased information, learn what works for you, and make sure you step outside your comfort zone on a regular basis. 

How are you going to get where you want to go?

Set Goals and Go: How to Become Unstoppable

References:

The post Prioritize Results, Not Popular Advice appeared first on Breaking Muscle.