Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.
— Oscar Wilde.
This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.
My Fitness Journey
I figured this week I would post a little bit about my own fitness journey. It has been a long one going back maybe 6 years or so. It has long since become a deep passion of mine and potentially apart of my future career.
I would say that my passion for weightlifting and fitness started early in my high school years. I would go to the gym as a scrawny childish looking kid, then I decided I was going to take it seriously, vowed to actually get stronger and look bigger. And that is exactly what I did and have continued to do. I have run through many bumps in the road along the way.
Starting my junior year of high school I would have to go at 5 AM before school every day because outside of work, school, and baseball I had no other time to go, so what I did was make time for it. That’s a large part of becoming healthy and remaining healthy, is making time for it and maintaining consistency throughout the process.
Before I went off to college I broke my hand and it made me unable to lift or do anything physical really for a few months. It caused all of my main lifts to decrease significantly in strength (these lifts being the squat, bench press, and deadlift). Once I got better I had to find the time to get back into the gym with the new lifestyle of college hitting me like a ton of bricks. Eventually, I got the hang of things and got back into the gym consistently. As a result, my strength increased passed what it originally was.
Currently, with the outbreak of the coronavirus I haven’t been able to test out my strength necessarily but have effectively been able to stay in shape. It has mainly been through the work of bodyweight workouts, resistance bands, and mainly any type of weights that I can get my hands on.
The main thing that you have got to remember at the beginning and throughout your fitness journey/process is that everybody starts somewhere and you are not going to get your dream results in the span of a month or even a little longer. It’s called a journey for a reason, it takes time to get to where you want to be, just like everything in life. You have to work hard if you really want to see the results.
Compound vs. Accessory Lifts
Today’s discussion is in large part the comparison of compound lifts and accessory lifts. Each has a vital role within the workout it is largely up to the lifter where they place them within. Depending on your goals and objectives will you perform more of one style than the other.
Compound Lifts
To begin we will discuss compound lifts. Lifts of this sort require the activation of multiple muscle groups to perform a certain action. This is a major benefit of this type because the more muscle groups activated the more overall work you are doing and benefitting from (if done correctly). Exercises such as the squat, deadlift, and bench press are considered to be compound lifts as they each recruit muscles from multiple groups. For example, the deadlift activates muscles from the hamstrings, back, and a little bit of biceps activation. One downfall of these lifts is if not done with proper form it is very easy to injure yourself. I recommend taking a video and comparing it to someone with near-perfect form.
Accessory Lifts
Next, we will be discussing accessory lifts. These are the lifts primarily used to get compound lifts stronger, or what bodybuilders utilize to achieve near-perfect muscular symmetry. Ultimately they can do both if utilized correctly and performed with proper form. By working the smaller muscle groups involved with your compound lifts, it should make them stronger if those lift numbers are also increasing. It can help achieve muscular symmetry through certain isolated accessory lifts (single leg extensions, isolated dumbbell curls, single-arm tricep pushdowns, etc.). It does this because you can truly get a feel for what you are contracting and pay attention if both sides contract the same. If one is out of whack, see what you can do to fix it, the same if one side feels stronger or more coordinated than the other through the movement. The downside of doing just accessory movements is that if you don’t have compound lifts thrown in with them you won’t have a true judge for your strength, and if it is hard for you to gain weight you won’t make the gains you ultimately want to make.
What’s Next?
As you can tell both seem to be a very important part of your training program. As they are, each has it’s own unique importance to the overall program. With the blogs in the coming weeks, I will be discussing the musculature of each of these muscle groups and the best way to activate them within your workout. Following that, I want to assist you in building your own program for whatever goals you may desire. I chose to do it this way because with a base understanding of each muscle group and the functions they produce, it will be easier to develop a program for those interested and making some physical gains or losses even.
Thanks for reading, if there is anything you believe could be fixed or changed leave a comment. If you liked any certain part or learned something new feel free to also leave a comment
Behavior Modification for Weight Management
To begin this post, I would like to point out that modifying your behavior to exhibit a healthier lifestyle will not be super easy, you will have to put forth the effort to see the results. Yet, you can start small and increase the changes you make to keep your goals attainable; therefore not dropping every food you’ve always loved for a diet that requires you to eat meat, vegetables, or grains for every meal (just an example, because that’s what most diets require).
General Knowledge of Behavior Modification
First off, you’ll need a general knowledge of exercise and nutrition for this to really work. Next, start small with what you decide what to eat and not to. You don’t even need to throw these foods out altogether just yet, still eat them just do it less and less until they’re no longer craved. Then, begin replacing these foods with healthier options or snacks. There are plenty of options out there you just have to look and really pay attention. Other things to consider include the frequency (important because the amount you eat plays a large role in weight gain/loss), location (if you eat in multiple places, it may cause you to eat more), and when you typically eat (eating certain foods at certain times cause different effects).
Examples of Behavior Modification
- Keep tempting foods out of the house and out of sight. Out of sight out of mind, right?
- Try to eat only while sitting at the kitchen table, that way you aren’t consistently snacking while doing other things throughout the day.
- Stay away from the kitchen unless you’re making a meal to consume.
- Plan healthy snacks in case you get hungry throughout the day. Nuts, granola bars, fruits, and so much more (look in the store, there’s a link at the end of the post to a website with some ideas.
- Think long-term and developing a new healthy eating style, don’t focus on dieting as it does not produce many long term benefits.
- Look through low-calorie, low-fat cookbooks to get an idea of things to prepare.
- Incorporate the MyPlate tool, which shows what you’re plate should look like at most meals and the type of foods that should be in each.
- Avoid shopping when you’re hungry and plan before you go (such as by making a list).
- Drink a glass of water before eating and keep a bottle with you throughout the day.
- For more tips you can go to, https://www.ucsfhealth.org/education/behavior-modification-ideas-for-weight-management
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/29-healthy-snacks-for-weight-loss
FAD Diets & Why They Don’t Work
This week we will be discussing FAD Diets and a few examples of them. A Fad Diet is a diet that is popular for a short period of time, yet fades in popularity due to further research on the diet. These styles of diets tend to not work for common people due to the fact that they are impractical so the people using them tend to give up on the diet and put back the weight that may have been lost by going back to their old HABITS (habit and behavior is key with dieting, will be discussed in later post).
The first example and one of the most popular fad diets is the Ketogenic Diet. This diet form practically switches the roles of carbohydrates and fats. Instead of consuming primarily carbohydrates to replenish your energy you consume primarily fats. At the beginning of this diet you will enter a phase known as ketosis where the body is not used to using fats as energy, therefore, causing you to be lethargic, and you’ll tend to drain energy a lot easier. This diet is near impossible to stick with because it is difficult to get past the ketosis phase, and there are more healthy food options containing carbohydrates versus fats.
The next example that we’ll be discussing is the Paleo Diet. This diet is based off of foods that in the olden days you could obtain by hunting and gathering. Foods of this sort include lean meats, fish, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Foods that are limited from the diet include dairy products, legumes, and grains; which all became farming about 10,000 years ago around the time that farming emerged as well. The main goal with this is to eat similar to the way that early humans ate; reason being is the people that created the diet believe that the modern human body is not designed to eat according to the modern diet.
Lastly, we will discuss the Dukan Diet. Which limits the amount of carbohydrates and fats you intake and soars the number of protein you consume over the daily recommendations. The diet consists of four primary phases. The attack phase (1-10 days), cruise phase (can be several months), consolidation phase (5 days for every pound you’ve lost), and the stabilization phase (ongoing). Each phase has its own set of complex rules, which if you’d like to view you may in the article I’ll leave attached at the end.
All of these diets tend not to work for the same reasons. Mainly that they are impractical to follow and maintain. Why? Because they all require to restrict one nutrient of the diet for the sake of another nutrient. Strict and sometimes complex rules are put in place to follow the diet correctly. This makes it hard to follow and continue because you get bored with the diet and need more of a variety. Steady weight loss comes with behavioral and habitual changes that you make with the way you eat. Which I will be diving deeper into on my post next week!
Science of Fat Loss
In order to have a better understanding of fat loss, we first need to focus on what it is that makes Americans fat or obese in the first place. The main factor contributing to weight gain are dietary or nutritional factors. The consumption of nutrients such as starchy carbohydrates (chips, fried foods, and etc), sugars, and sodium in excess is largely responsible for weight gain. Eating these in excess may even lead to the development of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and many others.
Another factor contributing to weight gain is living a sedentary lifestyle, or in common terms performing no physical activity. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans states that Americans should perform between 150-300 minutes worth of moderately intense physical activity per week. Lots of people don’t reach this limit because they simply are not physically active or don’t know what to do in order to be.
First, we’ll be discussing the dietary factors that play a role in fat loss. Starting with being in a caloric deficit. This simply means eating fewer calories than are required of you to maintain your current body weight. There are calculators on the internet making finding this target number easier to find. The average diet should contain 45-65% carbohydrates, 15-30% fats, and 15-25% proteins. The carbohydrates being fruits and vegetables, whole grains, potatoes, and more. Proteins being lean meats like poultry, beef, seafood, or pork. Healthy fats to consume include olive oil, and nuts. If one consumes a diet largely including these foods while in a caloric deficit could begin to lose weight fairly soon.
In terms of activity, there are multiple things you can do to lose fat. The best activities are those that burn a decent amount of calories. These types of activities may include walking, running, swimming, weightlifting, biking, and much more. As long as you get at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week it’s likely you’ll begin to lose weight. This also depends on what kind of fitness experience and preferences the individual has. If little to no experience start out with activities that are like hobbies such as hiking, kayaking, or even cycling. If a medium amount of experience you can do the same, and maybe throw in some running and weightlifting in the mix.
I will get more into depth on specific routines; including set amounts, repetition amounts, and rest intervals. Fat loss is not the easiest goal to accomplish, but using these tactics along with consistency and progression it can be accomplished.
Science of Muscle Growth
Muscle protein synthesis (or MPS) is largely responsible for the growth of muscles throughout the body. This process occurs mainly after one has an intense workout session. It is when protein is naturally produced to repair muscle damage as a result of intense exercise. The process that does the opposite of this is called muscle protein breakdown. A great way to boost the process of protein synthesis is by consuming an adequate amount of protein immediately following your workout. What this does is replaces any protein that may have been lost during the workout. According to an article I have viewed the greater the intensity of a workout the greater the result of protein synthesis. This simply means lifting at about 80% of your one-rep maximum for about 8-12 reps. Time under tension is another key factor in attaining muscle growth because of the more time allotted to receive enough of a stimulus to produce changes. An optimal time period for a set to take would be between 30-40 seconds per set.
There is a way to intake too much protein after a workout and the excess gets sent out through the liver since the body has nothing left to do with it. The best range of protein consumption is between 20 and 40grams of protein. A study done by the University of Birmingham showed that a 20-gram dose increased protein synthesis by up to 49% meanwhile a 40-gram dose increased protein synthesis by 56%, yet also caused a large accumulation of urea. With that being said it is safe to say that the best range to increase muscle growth and protein synthesis would be to consume 20-40 grams of protein directly following an intense workout session. People typically do this by consuming a quick protein shake immediately following their workout.
Achieving adequate muscle protein synthesis does not come through simply taking a sports supplement, the process varies depending on an individual’s fitness status. The best way to increase protein synthesis is by beginning to lift weights that are on the heavier side that you can still lift with proper form and keeping the sets between 30-40 seconds in length.
Not all people desire to increase muscle growth. The good news for the ladies is that lifting weights does not necessarily equal increasing muscle mass. This is because women don’t naturally produce testosterone which is a key factor with this. Instead women tend to get more toned than big in general terms.
Introduce Yourself (Example Post)
This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.
You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.
Why do this?
- Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
- Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.
The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.
To help you get started, here are a few questions:
- Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
- What topics do you think you’ll write about?
- Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
- If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?
You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.
Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.
When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.
