This guy has the answers!
We had a lot to talk about and here is a look at the show notes and links.
-love to kick off with a recap of some of your 3 minute podcasts
-taking total ownership
-fear and achievement
-what keeps you motivated? We spoke a while ago, in passing, and you said you have the best job on the planet!
Q. Marcus, I am looking for a set of bodyweight exercises to help improve my lower back strength any suggestions where I should start?
Q. I know you guys have spoken about supplements before, do we need them, I see all the kiosks and shops and feel maybe I am missing something?
Q. How do you talk to clients about thinking beyond weight issues when they come to the gym?
-I came across this great article about learning from injuries.
Injuries Bring Awareness, Always
One of the highest-order goals of any fitness journey is stronger self-awareness. This includes body awareness, but also a deeper awareness of how best to care for and nourish yourself in all aspects of life. A fitness journey can be a gateway to a deeper level of introspection. However, regardless of our best efforts to notice, feel, and ultimately learn from everything that arises in our training, we will inevitably miss something. Even the most body-aware coaches and athletes will miss critical lessons leading them further down the path toward injury.
Reframe Your Injury
Resist allowing your injury to tell you that you are not as good/aware/strong/mobile/capable as you thought you were. Rather, let it say:
- “I want to make you better.”
- “I want to show your something that you haven’t seen yet.”
- “I want you to work on something that you didn’t yet understand as important.”
While most of the time outside our conscious control, injuries are never random. When playing detective we can often look back to connect previously-seeming disparate dots. The inspiration for this article comes from my most recent injury, an inguinal hernia. While I had no idea that I was slowly developing this injury, I can now look back to understand the factors that created the perfect conditions for it to arise.
Q. What does walking with a weight fully extended in my hand above my head help build?
Q. How important is it it learn the technique of exercise before jumping into them full speed ahead? How do you deal with people in their 30’s who are still living in their 20s glory?
Q. Can you suggest any shoulder exercises I am chained to a desk
Q. My coach is telling me to work smarter not harder what do you think that really mean?
Q. was reading an article squats vs deadlifts what are your thoughts on which to do 1st?
Start with the lift that you are weaker at. But in general, the squat is a more technical lift that requires a greater attention to detail. Also, be aware that there is a lot of carryover with both exercises, as the low back is taxed while performing them. And while I don’t normally recommend doing both on the same day, it can be advantageous to lifters who are looking to improve these lifts, since performing them more often will improve your proficiency in them. For this option, keep the load between 73% to 93%.
Q. What makes intervals such a great exercise technique?
Not so long ago, many scientists thought that people who reach a certain age should, well, slow down a bit. But a new study that tested the effect that weightlifting and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have on muscles challenges that notion.
After 12 weeks, researchers found that while weight lifting was most effective at building muscle strength, only high-intensity training (alone or in combination with strength training) changed participants’ muscles at the cellular level. More specifically, HIIT boosted the energy producing capacity in the exercisers’ cells, helping turn them from sluggish to supercharged. In the older participants (age 65 to 80), HIIT even seemed to help halt the natural age-related decline in their muscles’ ability to function at a high level.
“If people have to pick one exercise, I would recommend high-intensity interval training,” says study author Sreekumaran Nair, M.D., a diabetes researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “But I think it would be more beneficial if they could do three to four days of interval training and then a couple days of strength training.”
The Safest Way to Start HIIT
So how do you go about incorporating HIIT into your exercise routine, especially if you’re, um, mature, and not exactly an elite athlete? Follow these four steps.
Establish a fitness base. Before you introduce brief periods of all-out effort into your workout, you need to have a solid base of aerobic fitness. For someone who’s been sedentary until now, that means two to four weeks of general strength and cardiovascular fitness, says Cris Dobrosielski, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise and the owner of Monumental Results in San Diego, where he often works with an older clientele. “Start with a 10-minute walk and build to 20 or 30 minutes three days a week,” he says.
Introduce HIIT gradually. “I’m a firm believer in the concept of gradual progression, no matter your age,” says Dobrosielski. Once you’re comfortable with walking 20 to 30 minutes three days a week, consider adding some brief, high-intensity intervals during one of those workouts. (See below for a sample workout).
Recover fully between intervals. The safest way to incorporate HIIT into a beginner workout is to allow for ample recovery time between intervals, says Mary Edwards, fitness director for Cooper Fitness Center in Dallas. “I might have a beginner exerciser work at high intensity for 15 to 30 seconds, and then actively recover at an easy pace for two to four minutes.”
As your fitness improves, shorten your rest periods. “The more fit a person is, the quicker they recover” says Edwards. Use your Fitbit tracker to gauge how quickly your heart rate drops after an intense effort, and then adjust your recovery time accordingly.
The Best HIIT Workout for Beginners
Ready to give HIIT a try? This workout, from Dobrosielski, incorporates periods of light jogging, which studies have shown can add up to three years to your life. It should be safe for anyone who has been exercising consistently for a month, but don’t push yourself past what you’re comfortable doing. Seek a doctor’s opinion before starting, if necessary.
Warmup
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Interval training
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Cooldown
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Week 1
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5 minutes easy walk
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3 x (1 minute brisk walk/2 minutes easy walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Week 2
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5 minutes easy walk
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4 x (1 min brisk walk/90 seconds easy walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Week 3
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5 minutes easy walk
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5 x (1 min brisk walk/1 min easy walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Week 4
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5 minutes easy walk
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5 x (30 seconds jog/2 minutes walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Week 5
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5 minutes easy walk
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5 x (30 seconds jog/90 seconds walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Week 6
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5 minutes easy walk
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5 x (30 seconds jog/1 minute walk)
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2-5 minutes easy walk
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Q. why is logging workouts, food … a good idea?
REASON #3: YOU’RE WATCHING YOUR SALT INTAKE
If your doctor tells you to limit salt in your diet, food logging can help you spot the sneaky sources. Start inputting your meals and snacks, especially packaged and prepared foods, which contribute more than 75 percent of the sodium in the average American diet. (Pro tip: The barcode scanner in the Fitbit app is useful for quick logging.) Once you’ve been doing it for a few days, log into your Fitbit dashboard online, and navigate to your food log (click “log” at the top, then “food”) to see your total daily intake of sodium.
REASON #4: YOU’RE CUTTING CARBS
Following a low-carb diet? Cutting back, or completely eliminating, certain foods can cause you to miss out on essential nutrients, like fiber. Log your meals and snacks for a few days, then go to your online dashboard and check to see if you’re getting the recommended daily amount (25 grams for women and 38 grams for men). To avoid a sluggish gut, do it before your system gets clogged.
REASON #5: YOU’RE ATTEMPTING TO GAIN MUSCLE
To bulk up you need to partner a good exercise program with a solid nutrition strategy. Logging your food intake for a few days can help you understand how many additional calories you need to gain weight. Then, it’s important to keep tracking, to make sure you’re getting those extra calories and to balance your macros. Getting the right amount of protein immediately after your workouts is key for building muscle mass.
REASON #7: YOU EXERCISE A LOT
If your fitness goals include breaking tape or getting an age-group podium spot, eating right is just as important as your training plan. Current thinking suggests competitive athletes (and those who work out like them) benefit from manipulating calories and macros according to training level and intensity. So when you’re training hard your body should be getting more calories and carbs, and during rest and taper weeks you can ease up. Food logging can help you get into the nitty gritty of those numbers, and hit all of your performance goals.
Spending a week logging your food and getting to know all the nutrition features offered in the Fitbit app can be eye-opening. You’ll get a big picture view of your calorie needs, and be able to keep an eye on your macros. And digging into even more data in your online dashboard might reveal places where you can improve (so long, sneaky salt; hello, whole grains and fiber!). What you discover about your eating can help keep you on the path toward achieving your personal health and fitness goals.
