by EM2WL | Jun 5, 2014 | Building Muscle, Cardio, Fat Loss / Cutting, Nutrition
Q: I’ve been lifting for about a year. I love my time at the bar, but I’m frustrated by my lack of progress! I see my training partner’s lifts going up consistently, but I can’t seem to push past plateaus! What am I doing wrong?
A: There are a number of possible explanations why you may have hit a plateau with your lifts. Be aware that almost everyone reaches a point where their lifts have stalled, but usually, when your lifts have stalled it is a good sign to look at your programming and determine if a small tweak or two could help.
It’s also important to remember that those new to lifting will make very quick progress regardless of what program they are following. After a few years of lifting however, it’s important to pay closer attention to the details.
Below are a few of the reasons why your lifting may have stalled.
1. Trying to lose fat (cals/carbs too low)
After you get past the stage of newbie gains, it is very difficult to gain strength while in a caloric deficit. You will probably find that you are able to consistently increase strength, gain muscle and lose fat (albeit very slowly) eating closer to your maintenance level calories. This isn’t to say that it can’t be done, but you will probably want to pay very close attention to nutrient timing, making sure to take in plenty of carbohydrates pre- and post-workout.
When trying to lose fat, many tend to view carbs as “optional.” However, if you are desiring to increase strength, cutting out carbs is not the wisest idea. Carbohydrates are your body’s preferred source of energy for intense workouts. Furthermore, when carbohydrates are adequate in the diet, it spares protein from being used for energy, and protein can do its job-build and repair muscle tissue.
When starting a cut, it’s best to decrease carbohydrates and calories very slowly, keeping an eye on your training and the way that you feel and tweaking things accordingly. If you are consistently feeling very run down and missing lifts in the gym, you may want to consider increasing your carbohydrates and possibly cutting back on the amount of fat that you are taking in.
Generally, slow-acting carbohydrates(sweet potatoes, whole grains, and low-glycemic fruits) are best consumed about 30 minutes to an hour prior to your strength training session. This will provide enough time for digestion so that you don’t go into your workout feeling overstuffed. Fast-acting carbohydrates (white potatoes or rice, foods high in sugar, or high-glycemic fruits) are best taken in during the hour after training.
Following an intense strength training session, your cells are depleted of both glucose and glycogen. Cortisol levels are also elevated. Fast-acting carbohydrates cause an increase in insulin levels, which in turn can cause greater muscle growth, when timed appropriately. When consumed, simple carbohydrates can be stored as glycogen, which is the primary source of muscle “fuel” during intense training sessions.
Post workout, elevated insulin levels allow muscle to better utilize stored glycogen for recovery and growth. This also helps cortisol levels to return to normal levels following an intense training session.
Don’t fear carbs, but learn how to use them to complement your training!
2. Too much emphasis on endurance activities
Another common mistake that strength trainers, especially women, make is of doing too many reps, too much cardio, and too many exercises that fatigue the smaller muscle groups. If your primary goal is to gain strength, you will want to keep your reps low and your weights high (3-5 reps at 80-85%1RM) on compound movements. Always do your compound movements (squat, bench, deadlift, rows, and presses) first, and use assistance work as needed to bring up weak points and provide an environment for hypertrophy. Assistance work should still be kept in the range of 8-12 reps for 3-5 sets. If you are able to do more than 12 reps, it is probably a good idea to increase the weight.
Cardio is a question that tends to come up frequently. A lot of women are okay with incorporating some strength training into their workout rotation, but panic at the thought of cutting back on or eliminating cardio. However, if your primary goal is to increase strength, too many endurance activities (i.e., steady-state cardio) can detract from the strength gains you are wanting to see.
If you still want to include some cardiovascular training into your workout rotation, the best scenario would be to add in some short (4-12 minute) metabolic finishers at the end of your strength training sessions. A metabolic finisher is an intense exercise or circuit of exercises designed to increase your body’s fat-burning potential by increasing the “afterburn effect” by increasing the number of calories burned as you recover from your workout. It speeds recovery by returning blood flow to the muscles and improving all-0ver conditioning and athleticism.
Good options for metabolic finishers include heavy kettlebell swings, tire flips, various forms of weighted carries, barbell complexes, sprints, prowler/sled work, and body weight exercises.
3. It’s all in your head
Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy to making progress. If you’re going for a PR, there should be no question in your mind that you will finish the lift. If you approach PR attempts with a fear of failing or a less than confident approach, chances are you will hinder any forward progress.
When you are going for a PR attempt, you must be completely confident as you approach the bar. Training with good spotters that you trust is crucial as you train with very heavy weights, especially as you go for lifts that are near 100% 1RM. There is a time and place for training to failure, but generally speaking, you will always want to end your training session successfully.
If you have any doubt in your mind that you won’t finish a lift, save it for another day.
4. Under- recovery between sets/training sessions
Another common mistake is failing to recover adequately, either in between sets or in between training sessions. It’s critical that the length of your rest periods lines up with your goals. Since it requires about 3 minutes for phosphagen stores to be replenished, 3 minute rest periods are probably most optimal if you are training for pure strength.
Full recovery will allow you to generate the most muscular power for each set, making each set as effective as possible. If you are training for pure strength, slow down in between sets, sip water, and get mentally refocused before beginning your next set.
Make sure that you are taking adequate time between training sessions to recover as well. A good rule of thumb is to take about 48 hours recovery in between intense training sessions. However, you can train opposing body parts on consecutive days (upper body on Monday, lower body Tuesday, rest Wednesday, upper body Thursday, lower body Friday). Make sure that your rest days are truly restful.
In addition, you will want to make sure that you are taking in plenty of high quality food, sleeping well, and keeping stress levels as low as possible to maximize your recovery time!
5. Attempting too much, too soon
It’s important to make sure that the strength goals that you have outlined for yourself are reasonable. Attempting to increase too much weight too soon will most likely result in injury, frustration, and breakdown in form.
Choose a solid, periodized program and determine to stick with it and trust the process! Training with sub-maximal weights will get you stronger over time. On a similar note, testing training maxes too often is extremely taxing on your CNS and will make recovery in between training sessions much more difficult. Focus instead on setting rep PRs, and leave training maxes to once every 4 weeks, at most.
Generally speaking, a reasonable expectation would be to see lower body lifts increase by about 10-20 pounds and upper body lifts increase by about 5-10 pounds over a 8-12 week period of time, provided you are being consistent in your training and paying attention to your nutrition. It may not seem like much, but over time, you will be amazed at your progress if you can learn to be patient with small strength gains.
6. Same old, same old
Our bodies are very good at making adaptations to the stressors that we place upon it. In order to continue to make progress, it is important to switch things up every once in awhile.
If you’re stuck at a strength plateau and have been following the same program or rep scheme for over 12 weeks, it is probably a good idea to switch things up. If you’re used to training in the 8-12 rep range, you may switch to a 5 x 5 for awhile and work on increasing your weights. If you’ve been training with heavy weights and low reps for awhile, you may benefit from an increase in volume. Varying your assistance work is an other great way to keep your body challenged!
However, a word of caution: make sure to change one or two things at a time and stick it out for a minimum of 8-12 weeks before changing another factor. It’s very important to make small changes and make careful notes about what is working. If you change too many things at once, you will never know what’s working!
7. Bad technique
Take the time to learn proper form, especially on the three big lifts (bench, squat, and deadlift). Always train to a full range of motion, and you will get the maximum benefit from each rep and set. If you are unsure about proper form on these lifts, you might benefit greatly from setting up an appointment to meet with a personal trainer, or watching instructional videos on Youtube. Start with the empty bar and be patient with yourself. Once you learn proper technique, it will become easier and easier to add weight to that bar and see the strength gains you desire!
by EM2WL | Apr 29, 2014 | Self Acceptance
At EM2WL, we believe whatever your fitness goals, you should enjoy your journey and celebrate the moments along the way where you are achieving small victories.
Nothing can rob you of that joy more than comparing yourself to others.
Daily, we are blasted with messages from social media, blogs, and even friends and family regarding fitness. We are wise to be on top of our mental game by eliminating messages that will cause us to second-guess the journey we’re on. Surrounding yourself, as much as possible, with like-minded people is a great way to keep you moving forward and motivated.
However, its easy to look at those that motivate us and begin to wonder why we aren’t experiencing the success they are. We can move rather quickly from thoughts like “Wow, look at her, she’s doing great and I’m so happy for her!” to “I wish I had that kind of success, but I’m obviously doing something wrong.” We start to nit-pick the path we’re on, and pretty soon we’re convinced that if we did x, y, and z like so-and so, we would be able to manufacture their success.
Listen, everyone is different. Each of us has a different set of genetics, metabolic capacity, and body type. Beyond that, each one of us experiences different life circumstances. Stress can add in an additional variable to manage. Even if you were able to follow your best friend’s diet and exercise plan to the letter, you would get different results. Comparing yourself to others can only introduce an additional stressor that can do more to hinder than help your progress.
Understand that fitspo is not real
We’ve all seen them, the pictures of super-ripped (read: unrealistically lean) headless females with some saying that is meant to motivate the masses…
Strong is the new skinny
Eat clean, train dirty
When I lost all my excuses, I gained all my results
Try harder, you’re worth it
You get the idea. Gag me. Apparently a picture of a headless chick in a thong and heels doing deadlifts are apparently supposed to motivate us to swear off carbs for the rest of our lives, train so hard we feel one step away from death at the end of our workout, and finally lose all that weight so we can prance around night and day in a bikini. The fact is no one can look like the headless models in these pictures, day in and day out. Some serious photoshopping goes into most of these pictures. Even those models that really do look like those pictures only do so for a short time because it’s very unhealthy and unsustainable to carry such low levels of body fat. Getting a physique like the models in these pictures is generally the result of an extremely restrictive, short-term diet, not a healthy lifestyle. See them for what they are. Be your own fitspiration!
Put yourself on a media diet
It’s not just the fitspiration that’s the problem. Even if we are careful to surround ourselves with a “fit fam” who shares the same mentality and goals as we do, it can be easy to get sucked into the comparison game. Try to limit your time online. If you start to compare yourselves to your online inspirations and are struggling with feelings of inadequacy of failure, it might be time to take a step away. Make sure that your life is about more than your fitness goals! There is a considerable amount of time that goes into planning out meals, scheduling workouts, and training in the gym, but don’t let it become your sole priority in life. Make time for the things that truly matter-your friends and family, your significant other, your spiritual life, rest, relaxation, a personal hobby.
Make sure your goals are your own
Regardless of your goals, make sure that you are setting goals for you, not based on the goals you think you should have. Think about what achieving your goal will mean to you personally and what it will require for you to achieve that goal.
Be proud of mini-successes along the way
Remember that this isn’t a sprint, but a marathon. There are sure to be ups and downs along the way, so make sure to check in frequently with yourself. You may or may not have a goal weight or goal size, but try to set up mini-milestones along the way that are sustainable and achievable. Setting a few performance-based goals in the gym can be sanity saver and gives you many reasons to celebrate along the way. You never know, you may find that achieving that elusive goal weight was never the real goal anyway.
Becca is a busy wife and homeschooling mother to five children ages 5 to 13. About three years ago, she embarked on a journey to health and fitness that resulted in the loss of approximately 100 pounds. Today, she is a competitive powerlifter and strongwoman who loves ice cream and deadlifts. As an ISSA certified personal trainer, she is passionate about helping women to get started on a lifestyle of strength and fitness.
by EM2WL | Apr 11, 2014 | Intuitive Eating
Q: I’ve been tracking my food and counting my macros for about a year now. I’m loving the results I’m seeing, but weighing and measuring everything, counting calories and reading labels sometimes makes me feel a bit obsessive, even though I know I’m eating plenty. Do I have to track my food indefinitely?
A: Absolutely not! In fact, one of our goals for you is to learn to eat intuitively!
EM2WL doesn’t recommend calorie counting as merely a way of restricting food, but rather as a means to determine if you are eating ENOUGH! Using a calorie counter like My Fitness Pal can be a great tool for educating yourself about the calorie and macronutrient breakdown of different foods. It doesn’t take long to familiarize yourself with proper portion sizes and an understanding of setting up meals that will help you reach your macro goals by the end of the day. Many of our clients that begin tracking their food are surprised to learn they are eating far too little.
Photo credit: Stuart Miles
The ultimate goal of tracking food, however, is to trust yourself enough to eat intuitively, even without the security of tracking every macronutrient. Keeping a food log provides an opportunity to educate yourself about how to adequately fuel your body. After a short time period, you are likely to find the best way to set up your meals to reach your daily macronutrient goals. You will probably find what foods make you feel your best, and which foods you’d be better off avoiding or eating less frequently. You will probably find that for the most part, the staples of your eating plan are fairly similar from day to day.
If you’re used to keeping pretty accurate food logs, it can feel pretty overwhelming to make the journey to intuitive eating, but it’s well worth it in the long-term. Instead of an all-or-nothing approach, think about implementing small baby steps with the long-term goal being eating intuitively.
1. Keep a food journal, but don’t count calories
If you’re afraid that a break from logging will turn into an all-holds-barred eating fest, keep yourself accountable by keeping a food journal while you make the transition. Don’t worry about writing down amounts, but do jot down times and foods consumed, along with a few notes about how different meals make you feel. Are you satisfied after each meal? Struggling with emotional eating? Notice you don’t feel so hot after a particular meal? Struggling to get through workouts? All these observations can help you to make informed decisions about making a few simple tweaks to your eating plan.
2. Listen to your hunger and fullness cues
In addition to paying attention to how different meals make you feel, make sure that eating when you are hungry and stopping when you are satisfied, but not overstuffed. This may seem too obvious and simple to even mention, but for those who have spent a long time dieting, counting calories, and/or eating at specified times, it can be difficult to discern when you are hungry and full.
3. Log late in the day
Photo credit: Praisaeng
Another approach that can be helpful is to eat intuitively throughout the day and then check how you’ve done once you’re done eating for the day. You may choose to continue to weigh and measure foods during this transition, but remember the ultimate goal is to rely less on weighing and measuring foods and learn how to trust yourself to make decisions about food choices and portion sizes. It may be helpful to continue to weigh and measure “big ticket” items like fats and starchy carbs during this time, and eyeball things like lean meats, fruits, and vegetables since they have less potential to be overeaten.
The following rule of thumb might be helpful to remember:
1/2 cup rice or grains=1/2 baseball
1 1/2 ounces cheese=4 game dice
2 tablespoons nut butter=1 ping pong ball
3 ounces lean meat=deck of cards
1/4 cup dried fruit or nuts=1 large egg
1 tablespoon butter=1 game dice
1 cup cereal=1 fist
Bodybuilding.com also has a pretty awesome visual guide for eyeballing your macros.
4. Check your “eyeballing” occasionally
Occasionally, after you’ve already portioned your food, check in with your digital food scale to make sure you’re still on track. Hopefully, you will be pleasantly surprised that your portion sizes are pretty spot-on! If not, a few days of getting back to weighing and measuring should get you back on the right track.
5. Take a short break from logging
If a break from logging food makes you extremely uncomfortable, consider taking just one or two meals per week off. Over time, you might be able to extend this time into a full day, and over time you are sure to find that you are trusting yourself more and more comfortable with eating intuitively.
Photo credit: lamnee
6. Don’t give up!
Be patient with yourself and forgive yourself if you run into some bumps along the road. Those things that are truly worth it in the end rarely come without a few obstacles. Ultimately, you are sure to enjoy the freedom you find from being able to eat intuitively. If you seem to be struggling to stay on track, you can always go back to logging for a few days. Remember there’s no time limit here and this is your journey! You can take as much time as you need to accomplish your goal. We look forward to hearing your success stories!
Becca is a busy mother five children ages 9 to 17. About seven years ago, she embarked on a journey to health and fitness that resulted in the loss of approximately 100 pounds. Today, she is a competitive powerlifter and strongwoman who loves ice cream and deadlifts. As an ISSA certified personal trainer, she is passionate about helping women to get started on a lifestyle of strength and fitness.
All photos credit of www.freedigitalphotos.net
by EM2WL | Apr 7, 2014 | The Journey
So I’ve sent in my success story before of my weight loss but I just thought I would follow up.
I hit my “goal weight” almost a year ago but when I hit it I knew I wanted more! Being 5’3 everything says I should weigh 130-140 so I’ve been trying for a year to get my weight down…during this time, I stopped counting my calories and tried to make better food choices by eating no processed food as much as I can but it slips in their here and there ;) I kept my weight training in and just recently added in a bit more cardio.
The scale never goes down, this whole time it only goes 150-155 and I’m so frustrated so I started meeting with a trainer and he’s been tracking my bodyfat, and in three weeks I went from 17% body fat to 16% and down 3.5lbs (of fat) but the scale has never moved. It’s been the same! That means I’m gaining muscle and losing fat! I feel so great and I finally believe that the scales LIE!!!! Here is a picture of only three weeks in which I went down in bodyfat percentage but not the scale.
I know how success stories keep me going everyday! Life struggles are always there and knowing the little things can push you through is what its all about!
Thanks ladies for all the inspiration!!!
Melanie
Have an EM2WL transformation to share? Willing to let us tag along on your journey? We’d love to see it! Be featured on our Transformation/Journey page by submitting your story to Success@EM2WL.com
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