by | Nov 11, 2014 | Building Muscle, Consistency, Fat Loss / Cutting, Metabolism Reset, Testimonials
Kiki has been bugging me for a while now to write about my weight loss and fitness journey, so here I am finally getting the courage up to writing it. I say courage because in the past year I have come to realize quite a few things about myself that I was ashamed about for a long time and have finally come to be able to face the truth. Yes, I too (as many women do), suffer from binge eating disorder (BED), but let me start at the beginning of my journey, because I couldn’t always admit, or understood that this was going on.
Upon turning 40 (4.5 years ago), I was very unhappy with my body and weight and the fact that hiking was getting hard for me. I live in Arizona and hiking is one of my husband and my passions, especially at the Grand Canyon. Well, it was a trip to the canyon that finally snapped me into reality and made me make the decision to do something about my weight that had ballooned to 185. I am 5’7” and 195 was the highest weight that I had gotten to in the past, so I was closing in on that number again! I decided to give online weight watchers a try and had (what I thought) was great success, after all I dropped 45 pounds in about 4 months! Of course, I quickly hit a plateau and continued to increase my exercise, while sticking to the very low “points” that weight watchers was allowing me; rarely to never eating back my exercise calories that continued to increase with my cardio/calorie burn obsession!
After about a year of weight watchers, I decided not to renew my contract and to switch over to MFP, where I discovered that there was a whole group of Cathe Friedrich obsessed women out there. For those of you unfamiliar with Cathe, she is a workout DVD genius and my guru! I had been lifting weights with her DVD’s along with her cardio DVD’s during the whole weight watchers process. It was a breath of fresh air to meet all of these women with the same workout commitment that I had. Well, long story short, I got hooked up with Kiki through other mutual Cathe/MFP ladies and started to read her blog posts and watched her YouTube videos. This is where I first got hooked up with EM2WL and started to realize that the health industry has steered us women in the wrong direction when it comes to “losing” weight.
After many conversations with Kiki, I was convinced and finally understood that eating really low restricted calories was always going to set someone up for failure, especially when it comes to losing weight and keeping it off and that the healthiest route was to eat to fuel your body and to lift weights, heavy weights! As I mentioned, I had been lifting weights all this time, but never understood why I was never able to make any progress in muscle development and that I had actually lost much of my muscle. Oh, and I should mention that during this plateau, I didn’t understand why every time I would feel like I made some progress I would fall into a binge tailspin. For 9 months, it was 2 steps forward and 1 huge binge step back. Every time this would happen I would absolutely loath myself and shame myself etc, but never understanding that it was partly my body’s way of telling me to “feed me”! (Of course there are also psychological reasons for the binging as well).
I finally let her convince me to do a metabolism reset after being at the plateau for a good 9-12 months and losing and gaining the same 5#. Silly me, I thought that I would reset my metabolism for 6 weeks and then start cutting again. I didn’t understand why after that 6 weeks I had gained a good 10# back and why when I started cutting it didn’t just fall right off!? After more conversations with Kiki and more research, she finally got me to understand that it wasn’t a number that I could assign to my reset, that it could and would take time, quite possibly a LONG time. She also convinced me to join a group of ladies who were starting STS (a 3-6 month Cathe weight lifting program), while bulking (eating above calorie requirement). She did warn me that I would gain weight and boy did I. I gained about 20# back, bringing me back to around 160. I was a little scared, as was my husband starting this process but new it was going to be for my good. After STS was finished I decided to try a cut. I lost some of that weight, but I could tell that my metabolism still wasn’t healed, so I started to eat at what I thought was maintenance and stayed there for a long time.
I should mention, that after I lost all the weight with weight watchers, I told my husband that I thought I wanted to someday compete in a figure competition. I had an unwritten goal of competing before I was 45. Well, I talked about this goal for about 4 years and finally, a (very devout Christian) friend of mine finally pointed out that maybe the fact that I kept bringing this topic up every few months, that maybe, just maybe God was directing me to actually go for my goal. I should mention that within all this time of weight loss and resets, I was born again (which is why she felt it was God calling me to this goal, for whatever reason). We both figured the reason was not because he wanted me to compete, but one much more deeply.
This conversation occurred in December of 2013 and around the same time, my husband got fed up with my talk and said that I needed to just do it! After much discussion with him and other women who had competed and a TON of prayer, God led me to an online trainer who came highly recommended and who was also a Christian. I signed a yearlong contract that began on January 27 2014 that included a nutrition and training plan, with the intention of competing on November 1, 2014. You are probably wondering how did it go!? It didn’t.
After starting with my trainer, I quickly started seeing results, not only in fat loss, but overall improvement in my cardio ability as well as muscle development. I couldn’t and still can’t believe the amount of muscle that I have been able to develop. So why did I not compete? As I said, I felt God had me on this journey for a much bigger reason than simply competing and as it turned out, it has been a journey of healing and learning about nutrition and coming to a place where I can finally admit that I do suffer from BED. Do I still struggle with BED? Constantly! Have I binged during this new goal phase of my life? Sadly yes, but with God’s help I am working on it and have only had 2 major occurrences in the last 9 months, which is a great improvement from binging every few weeks.
So, the reason I didn’t compete? Twelve weeks out from the competition date, when true contest prep would normally take place, I got a response from my trainer that I was not expecting. She felt that with my BED issues, that she could not get me to competition readiness without restricting my calories too much and with my ED, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. After much discussion with my husband, we both agreed that this is why I hired her and I should heed her advice.
We have now moved into a muscle building phase and the new goal is to compete in spring of 2015 and if I am still not ready, than winter 2015. Needless to say, I now know this is a journey of not only physical health, but mental and spiritual as well and I will take as long as I need to get to the point of competing. My mindset has changed from “I just want to be able to say that I did it”, to “I did it and I won!”
I guess I should add my stats for those of you who are wondering (I started tracking in July of 2012 and unfortunately don’t have pictures for the earlier dates):
July 2012: 158 (end of my second reset)
September 2012 (the start of STS and after a short cut): 152
March 2013 (end of my first official bulk): 164
June 2013 (end of my first cut): 150
December 2013 (during my second bulk): 154
January 27, 2014 (the start of my figure training) 25% bf and 154.5
August 11, 2014 (12 weeks out from competition) 18.8% bf and 134
October 27, 2014 (last check in with my trainer) 17.7% bf and 132
by | Oct 29, 2014 | Building Muscle, Cardio, Fat Loss / Cutting, Motivation, Nutrition
With the ever-increasing popularity of intense workout programs like CrossFit, metabolic conditioning, or metabolic resistance training (MRT) seems to be a fitness trend that’s here to stay.
These workouts tend to be intense, impressive, and very cool-looking. Typically, they have the added benefit of giving you a goal to work towards (beat the clock!). Who doesn’t want to flip a big heavy tire, beat things with hammers, and carry around heavy weighted objects as fast as possible?
If you’ve done your part, by the end of the workout, you’re exhausted, sweating from head to toe, and sprawled out on the ground, hoping someone will bring you a protein shake (or maybe a gallon of Ben and Jerry’s…).
Obviously you’ve just had a great strength training workout, right?
Not necessarily.
What is Metabolic Resistance Training?
It can be confusing to understand exactly what this term means since this term is thrown around pretty haphazardly in the fitness world. It is not just a bunch of random exercises done as quickly as possible.
Simply put, Metabolic Resistance Training is a form of metabolic conditioning. The purpose of metabolic conditioning is to increase the efficiency of one of the three pathways used in exercise metabolism. Metabolic conditioning has the added benefit of conditioning the muscles to better use to fuel delivered to them. Ultimately, this should result in a better capacity to burn fat.
I do love pushing vehicles as a supplement to my serious strength training workouts!
Metabolic conditioning can be a great tool if your goal is fat loss. Not only does metabolic conditioning burn tons of calories during a workout, it also increases caloric burn in the 24-48 hours after your workout. This is due to excessive post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC). There are various different types of work to rest periods intended to increase EPOC.
A few examples are:
Tabata: 20 seconds of hard work, followed by 10 seconds of rest for 8 total rounds
30 On/30 Off: 30 seconds of hard work, followed by 30 seconds of rest for 6 total rounds
Circuits: Perform 3-6 exercises in a row with minimal to no rest between sets. These exercises should follow a logical pattern and should include elements of pushing, pulling, squatting, hinging, and carrying objects.
Energy Systems – The Goal of MRT
The primary goal of metabolic conditioning is to increase the efficiency of one of three metabolic pathways used in energy metabolism.
Creatine Phosphate Pathway: Also referred to as the Immediate Pathway, this energy system is responsible for providing short (less than 10 seconds) bursts of energy. This is the energy pathway utilized when performing quick power exercises like Olympic or powerlifting-style lifts or sprinting. It takes this energy system about three to five minutes to recover to its fullest potential.
Glycolytic Pathway: Also referred to as the Intermediate Pathway, this energy system provides the energy required for short, intense activities lasting one to four minutes. If you are completing high-intensity cardio intervals or doing multiple reps of a particular exercise, this is the pathway being utilized. It takes this energy system about 1-3 minutes to fully recover.
Aerobic Pathway: Also referred to as the Long-Duration Pathway, this metabolic pathway provides the energy required for longer-duration exercises of moderate-intensity work. This energy system can provide energy for hours of activity, since it has a limitless reserve (fat) to draw upon.
The energy system being conditioned by these workouts is largely determined on the rest period between sets. When structuring a metabolic resistance training circuit, it is important to keep the end goal in mind! The goal is NOT to throw weights around as fast as possible! These workouts should be well structured in order to maximize results.
It is important to remember that regardless of the activity performed, there is always some crossover between energy systems.
Metabolic conditioning is a fun way to get some cardio in, but nothing beats strength!
Is MRT the Same as Strength Training?
MRT typically involves weighted objects such as tires, battle ropes, farmer’s walks, sandbags, and kettlebells. These weighted objects are lifted in rapid succession, and the intensity is kept very high.
However, it is important to remember that the main goal of these workouts is not to maximize strength and to build muscle. The main goal of these workouts is to better utilize energy stored in the body. The primary goal of these workouts is more maintaining strength levels than gaining strength and adding muscle mass.
It’s key to remember that metabolic conditioning is not meant to be a haphazard, random bunch of exercises thrown together with the goal of burning a bazillion calories. These types of workouts are an advanced technique. So advanced in fact, that they are what many elite athletes turn to when they have reached their potential and are simply trying to maintain their current level of fitness. For the average recreational exerciser, it is important to complete these workouts under the supervision of a skilled trainer or strength coach.
The bottom line? You should view MRT workouts as a highly effective form of cardio, along the same lines as HIIT, meant to burn fat. These workouts are not intended to replace conventional strength training.
Is MRT right for you?
MRT can be a fantastic tool in your fat loss arsenal, provided that all other key elements are on pointe.
Alwyn Cosgrove, author of the best-selling series New Rules of Lifting, who has a great reputation for results-driven fitness, has come up with a Hierarchy of Fat Loss that can serve as a great checklist to go through when evaluating whether and how new training philosophies will help you reach your goals. You should think about approaching the following elements in order. As long as you are achieving the results you desire, even if progress is slow, there is no reason to add elements further down the list. Stay patient and trust the process!
1. Nutrition If your ultimate goal is to lose fat and increase lean muscle mass, start with nutrition. Keep it simple, and don’t overthink things. Your first step is to make sure that you are eating enough calories to support a healthy metabolism and maintain your lean muscle mass while you are losing fat. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism, so don’t sacrifice your lean mass for a smaller number on the scale! After you have made sure that you are taking in a sufficient amount of calories, look at your protein. A great goal is to take in approximately 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Take in plenty of healthy fats, and round everything out with some carbohydrates.
2. Nutrition Yes, it’s that important! Until you get your nutrition on pointe, there’s no point in prioritizing anything else! Activities that burn calories, maintain and promote muscle mass, and elevate metabolism Our metabolism is largely determined by our resting metabolic rate (RMR). RMR largely depends on how much metabolically active tissue (AKA muscle!!!) you have. Therefore, activities that increase RMR by maintaining or gaining muscle mass should be of next importance. A solid, periodized strength training program utilizing heavy weights with well-managed rest periods will accomplish this goal. Your strength training program should include plenty of compound movements like the squat, pull, push, lunge and hinge. Depending on your split, you should be lifting heavy weights 2-4 times per week. Bonus points here if your strength training program uses percentages of 1RM to determine your training loads! Circuit training, high-rep, low weight workouts, and metabolic conditioning do not fall into this category. Some of our favorite recommendations for a solid strength training program include STS, Stronglifts, and New Rules of Lifting for Women.
3. Adding in activities that burn calories and elevate metabolism. This is where activities falling under the realm of metabolic conditioning come in. Metabolic resistance training, HIIT, circuit training, and tabata training are powerful fat loss tools. They are far superior for producing results than traditional, steady-state cardio. If you have your nutrition on pointe, are killing your strength training workouts, and not seeing the results you desire, you may wish to experiment by adding in 1-2 short metabolic conditioning workouts each week. These are meant to supplement, NOT replace your strength training program. These workouts are very taxing and intense, and you may find that by adding them in, your appetite goes soaring through the roof! Make sure that you are continuing to fuel these workouts and getting plenty of recovery time. Adding a short metabolic finisher to the end of your workout might be a better option if you are new to this type of training or are short on time.
4. Activities that burn calories but don’t necessarily maintain muscle or elevate metabolism. If you still have additional time to devote to your training, you might consider adding in a steady-state cardio workout. These workouts will burn calories, but do not put you at any significant metabolic advantage. You should be aware that these types of activities can work against you if your goal is to build or even maintain your current muscle mass. Therefore, steady state cardio should be included as a last resort, only if you are making sure that these activities do not put you in too large of a caloric deficit, and only if you truly enjoy these types of activities.
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 | Oct 27, 2014 | Fat Loss / Cutting, Nutrition
In the past when we thought of fast foods restaurants — like McDonald’s or Burger King — a picture of greasy fries, burgers, and sugary sodas came to mind. We imagined a line of cars at the drive-thru waiting patiently to receive grease stained bags, passed through the window from a lady with a headset. Nowadays we see commercials of a gorgeous skinny girl holding a burger that’s bigger than her head, piled with beef, cheese, onions, bacon, lettuce, bacon, tomatoes and more bacon that she barely takes a bite of. I’m usually thinking, “ugh what a waste of good protein!” (And, how come those burgers never look like that in real life?! Hmm?) Yes, I’ve had one of those burgers, and it tasted pretty good! Then afterward…I checked the restaurant’s website for the nutritional content, and discovered I ate half of my calories in one meal. (Thank goodness I eat more than 1200 calories…but that’s a completely different blog!)
Although this burger may be OK every so often, we know that we should not eat like this every day, yet we don’t always have the time to cook up a healthy meal. If cooking a meal doesn’t fit into your schedule on some occasions, there are some healthy alternatives that most fast food restaurants including McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s now offer. You just have to do your homework and know what you are going to order before you get there. 
Quiz time! So of these two meals from McDonald’s, which would you order if you are watching your macros, but also wanting a healthy protein packed meal; a small regular cheese burger with an order of small fries or a grilled McWrap with chicken and bacon with and order of small fries? If you picked the grilled chicken and bacon McWrap, you would have picked the one with the higher calorie and fat content. The cheeseburger and fries are 520 calories, 22g of fat, 17g of protein and the wrap is 710 calories, 30g of fat but it has 38g of protein. So if you could remove the mayonnaise from the wrap and replace it with mustard you may have a winner! On the small burger if you remove the cheese you will do even better. But, who wants a cheeseburger without cheese? Not me.
So, if you’re counting calories and your macronutrients, just be careful of the condiments and toppings that you add to your sandwiches. Most restaurants will make the sandwich your way with the condiments you want. Just remember to check it out before you leave to ensure it has been prepared correctly. At sandwich or sub shops like Subway or Jimmy John’s, it’s basically the same scenario that condiments will make the difference. Mayonnaise and cheese aren’t bad, you just have to fit them into your calorie and macronutrient budget.
I recently found out that a very popular Cajun fried chicken restaurant called Popeye’s has blackened chicken tenders. I tried them and they were very tasty. For 3 it was 170 calories and 2 grams of fat and 26g of protein. The same breaded and fried were 310 calories, 15g of fat and 28g of protein. Now if you are also monitoring your sodium and cholesterol, you must take that into account with ALL fast foods. Most are ridiculously high in both. Google foods and check that nutrition information as they may push you above your intake goal.
Many people like to choose salads at fast food restaurants thinking this is the best choice. Did you know that you could take a perfectly healthy salad and add a lot of calories and fat to it by over doing it with dressings, croutons and cheeses? Ingredients that are not being weighed or measured as you’re adding them to your plate, typically have calories that add up fast. In the end, you would have been better off getting the grilled chicken with veggies, mustard and fries.
If fast food restaurants aren’t for you, there are plenty of grocery stores that now have hot delicatessens where they prepare grilled chicken with fairly healthy side dishes like green beans, mixed vegetables and mashed potatoes. (Yes, don’t forget the carbohydrates) All you do is take it home, light some candles, and you have an “almost” home cooked meal.
Of course, the best option is to plan and have great home cooked meal, but we all know life happens and you might not be able to do this sometimes. Just remember, there are plenty of delicious alternatives that you can choose from when you’re in a pinch. With all the different options and choices most fast food restaurants are offering, you will never have to skip a meal or settle for an unhealthy substitute, unless you want to.
Nutritional information for popular fast-food restaurants:
McDonald’s
Popeye’s
Burger King
Wendy’s
Chick-fil-a
Photo credit:
Serge Bertasius Photography
KEKO64
by Trish Adams | Oct 17, 2014 | Building Muscle, Fat Loss / Cutting, Nutrition
The more muscle we have, the more calories we burn throughout the day!
If you’ve been an EM2WL follower for a while you know that we talk about protein – a lot. The truth of the matter is, whether you’re trying to get big or get small, protein plays a very important role in your diet. The cells in our bodies need protein to function and without it, our cells and organs, muscles, connective tissue, and bones simply would not hold together.
Fad diets will be with us as long as there is money to be made from people wanting to gain or lose weight, however, if you understand the role each macronutrient plays in your body and why all are important, you will be less likely to fall victim to the nonsense. Let’s focus on the importance of protein and why we need it in our diet and how it plays a role in fat loss.
First it’s important to understand what protein is. Protein is a macronutrient, meaning it is a nutrient needed in large amounts by the cells in our body in order to function and survive. Protein is composed of amino-acids, the building blocks of life. When protein is consumed, our bodies use these amino acids to build and maintain lean muscle mass.
When we strength train, our muscles experience microscopic tears. Through rest and recovery, these tears are healed, allowing our muscle cells to grow back bigger and stronger after each workout. Protein is key in this muscle repair process, as it works to rebuild those torn muscle fibers. Therefore it is necessary to have an adequate protein intake when trying to increase muscle mass or size. The more lean muscle mass we have, the more calories we burn throughout the day which also aids our fat loss efforts. Win, win!
Another way that protein is fat-loss friendly is that your body uses a lot of energy (i.e. calories) just to metabolize it due to its complex structure. This is known as the thermic effect and for protein it can be as high as 30% of the calories in the protein! Because this process takes a while, protein also stays in your body longer than other macronutrients like carbs, for example. This means that we will feel fuller, longer when we eat protein. Bonus? We’re less likely to overeat when our body is satiated!
One of the challenges with consuming sufficient protein, however, is that it is not as convenient as the other macronutrients, fats and carbs. While it’s easy to grab a granola bar or piece of fruit, portable protein sources are definitely more limited in comparison and you’re much less likely to toss chicken or fish in your purse. As a result, people tend to eat less protein than they should, however, there are ways you can increase your protein intake that are quite simple.
First, move beyond the idea that you can only get protein from meats. Of course, a 4 oz serving of meat a few times a day will certainly put you on the right track, but let’s look at some other ways you can incorporate protein into your diet.
Befriend Protein Powder Protein powder’s convenience and low cost per serving makes it a great option to consider. You can add 1-2 scoops to your baked goods recipes or pancakes and oatmeal. Toss a scoop into your shakes. Nowadays, there are also so many flavors of protein powder to choose from so keep a variety on hand so you don’t get bored.
Eat Eggs If you’re big on salads, chop up a hardboiled egg on top for a protein punch. Hard boil a dozen for the week ahead of time and pack them for work to have as a mid-day snack. Another great option is an egg bake like a quiche or frittata. When made with cheese you’ll get even more protein per serving.
Go Nuts Start eating nuts and seeds like hemp, chia or sunflower. Nut butter spread on your favorite fruits or a stalk of celery makes a great snack.
Do Dairy Choose low or no fat versions of milk and yogurts. Non-dairy milks, such as soy, have a higher protein content than regular milk per serving. Cottage cheese and reduced fat cheeses are also a good source of protein.
Protein Snacks One of my favorite portable protein snacks is jerky. It is a meat, yet super convenient to keep in the car or throw in a bag. Another option is protein bars (homemade or store-bought) that can satisfy a sweet craving while still giving you a boost of protein.
When you think about the function of protein in the body, its role in muscle repair and growth and how it can benefit your fat loss efforts, it only makes sense to make sure you’re eating enough. Keep your palate happy by mixing up your protein intake. For all the hard work you put in at the gym, be sure to put that level and quality of work into making sure you eat enough protein.
by EM2WL | Oct 9, 2014 | Cardio, Fat Loss / Cutting
How to Maximize Gym Time
Let’s face it, life is busy. Whether we’re single, married, have ten kids, have no kids, in school, working, you name it- we’re always racing the clock! Although our schedules are hectic, many of us realize the importance of finding time in our day to squeeze in some exercise. When working with a limited slot of time, we want to find ways to optimize that part of our day so we can be efficient, work hard, and get results. There are certain things that we can do to maximize our gym time and get more bang for our buck.
Have a Plan
Unless this is your first time ever reading this blog or hearing from me, you know that my biggest pet-peeve (and with good reason!) is to see (or even HEAR) about people wandering aimlessly about life – well, at least the fitness side of it – with no plan. Ack! I mean, unless you are completely new to working out, or testing out gym equipment is your hobby, get a plan – and work that baby. Not only is following some sort of plan best for maximizing gym time, but it’s best for maximizing RESULTS! In other words, if you want to workout with purpose, having a plan is non-negotiable.
Random workouts – especially once you move past the newbie gain phase – often equal random results. You may ultimately desire to move to a more intuitive style of workouts, but when time is of the essence and you’re not quite familiar with how certain things fit – just stick to the plan.
Trust me, I’ve been there, and I know how easy it is to get sucked into the “atmosphere” and completely lose 2 hours of your day before feeling like you’ve done enough to warrant leaving. I also know that amount of time is completely unnecessary, and is typically a contributing factor to why many of us will totally scrap our workout if we’re running short on time. If you have a plan (preferably created by a professional, unless you are familiar with periodization and putting together effective workout combos) you have an accurate measure of how “done” you are at any given time increments. Let your trainer know that you are time crunched, or search out specifically, workout plans that fit with your goals and available time slots. Don’t follow some random 6-day, 1hour/day, workout split if you only have time to hit the gym 3 days/wk for 30-45 min, tops.
Have a Plan B
Your gym not this big OR empty? Have a Plan B!
This is where the OCD-plan-follower can relax a bit, and the ADD exerciser can rejoice. Yes, an overall, solid, plan is first and foremost, but remind yourself that it’s OK (and often necessary) to be flexible. Why? Because there will be a time that you get to the gym, totally pumped to hit the squat rack. You’ll head in, struttin your stuff with your Converses and new beasty, striped knee-high socks, and bam – all squat racks taken. Argh! This happens a lot in busier gyms during peak times. Don’t rely on one particular piece of equipment for your exercises. Have an idea of what you want to do, but don’t be married to it.
For instance: If it’s leg day – and you’re scheduled to do squats – you’re good no matter what, because you have a backup plan. Full squat racks aren’t stopping you, it’s off to the hack squat machine or an empty area to do squats with dumbbells. Bench day and no rack available? Head for the Smith machine (add extra weight to make up the bar weight difference), or take a set of dumbbells or even the straight curl bar (many gyms have up to 120 lbs) over to the free weight adjustable bench area.
Now this does NOT mean that you should take a professionally written program and chop it up by doing your own take on EVERY move, but you should know how to if you ever truly needed. Take the time on a less busy/off day to get to know alternate pieces of equipment that can generally get the job done (or ask your trainer if you’re working a plan they’ve given you). Often there are pieces of equipment that look completely different, yet perform similar functions (like the seated vs lying leg curl machines)
Superset
Total Body Supersets Workout Plan
When pressed for time, supersets can be a godsend.
Supersets consist of doing two exercises back to back with no rest in between. You can do exercises for either the same or different muscle groups. For example, you can use the rope attachment on a cable machine and do overhead tricep extensions, one set, and then move the rope down a little and do regular tricep extensions, one set, and repeat. Minimizing time between sets not only does the obvious- saves time- but it really adds a burn to the muscles, as it works muscle fibers differently than normal-set weight training.
Tri-sets (three exercises done back to back), and giant sets (four or more exercises done in a row) also fit into this category. With all supersets, you perform the entire set of two or more exercises, then rest as instructed in your program. If no rest period is indicated, typically 30 seconds is appropriate.
Word of caution for the ladies. Many ladies who are drawn to more endurance style workouts will enjoy supersets because they will feel like they are truly “working” – but I would be cautious of falling into the superset trap of thinking that every thing is better when superset. Sometimes longer rests are called for, and necessary, even in shorter workouts – depending on the phase. So if you are always short on time in the gym, be sure to switch up the types of supersets you do (one month superset the same muscle group, the next month group opposing parts, etc), when the supersets are performed in the workout (on every set one month, on every other set the next, etc), and from time to time put supersets aside altogether for an entire phase or two.
Do High Intensity Interval Training
HIIT is praised mostly for two reasons – one, it is a huge time saver and two – the intensity level leads to quicker results than regular cardio and puts your body in a calorie burning state for hours after. Imagine swapping that twenty minute trek on the dreadmill with a quick eight minute sprint session. Suddenly, you’ve gained twelve minutes that you can use to do strength training, ab exercises, stretching, etc. This means that if you were used to splitting up your strength and cardio work to two separate workouts of an hour or so, you can now condense them both into ONE workout that is an hour or less.
Try adding true HIIT or Tabata finishers to your strength workouts, rather than dedicating an entire day to each. What do I mean by “true?” Well, because HIIT has become all the rage, we are now bombarded with HIIT workouts popping up left and right ranging anywhere from 10-60 minutes. While they may all be hard in their own right, true HIIT brings the intensity like no other. Intensity meaning that if you can do any interval for longer than 30ish seconds, or any workout lasting longer than 20ish minutes (not including any warmup/cooldown)…it’s not hard enough. You need super intense intervals where you are going at a crazy, all-out (RPE 10+) effort for 20-30 seconds (and absolutely can’t go longer even if you wanted), and then resting for another 20-30 before repeating. This type of training is short and to the point, making it perfect to tack on to the end of you workout.
A couple words of warning with HIIT. 1) It’s not for everyone, allow yourself to work up to it if you’re newer to working out (perhaps with one of the HIIT-like workouts with longer duration or intervals mentioned above). 2) If a 20 minute HIIT workout early in the AM leaves you worn out and more sedentary than usual for the rest of the day – you are negating the benefits of the afterburn. You may want to stick to 30-40 min of a different cardio activity that will still allow you to get in normal amounts of daily activity/productivity every day.
Stay Focused
Above all, the most important way to maximize your workout is to have laser beam focus. Don’t stress over having to shorten your gym time for a season. Be fully present, engaged in the workout, giving it your all, and knowing that it’s enough. If you head into a workout feeling obligated, and like you just have to get it done to get it out of the way, you won’t be as efficient as possible. If you practice negative self-talk and feel that working out serves as a form of punishment for bad food choices, you’ll have a hard time finding yourself getting in a good sweat (or being satisfied with a less sweaty workout). Remembering why you choose to be active is important, encouraging part of your journey. While physical benefits (toned muscles, smaller waistlines) are a nice perk of working out, living a healthier and happier life far surpass them all.
Photo Cred: Danilo Rizzuti
by | Oct 2, 2014 | Building Muscle, TDEE/BMR, Troubleshooting
Experienced lifters know the importance of rest between sets, which can be anywhere from 30-90 seconds, depending on how quickly you recover. They also know that rest days from weight lifting — even during the week — are important, and structure their sessions so they can train one body part while the others are getting a rest. But, did you know that it is even more important to take an entire week off from strength training?
Some refer to rest weeks as de-load or recovery weeks. Whatever you prefer to call them, they are necessary. This is an opportunity to give your entire body rest from lifting heavy weights, and even from high intensity cardiovascular workouts that put a strain on the body and the mind.
Rest weeks are unfortunately over looked by many weightlifters — especially newbies — because they think the few days during the week that they rest (if they rest) is enough. They have the “no pain, no gain” mentality. They feel that the more they do, the better and stronger they will get and the quicker they will reach their goal. Actually, failing to take longer breaks will affect your progress in a negative way.
This magic of building muscle does not happen while you are actually lifting the weights. Instead, it happens while you rest. Surprised? Yes, I was too! When you lift weights to build muscle, you are tearing the small muscle fibers. Quick science lesson…After you workout, your body begins to repair damaged muscle fibers through a cellular process where it pulls the fibers together to form new muscle protein strands, or myofibrils. These repaired myofibrils increase in thickness and number to create muscle growth. Muscle growth occurs whenever the rate of muscle protein synthesis is greater than the rate of muscle protein breakdown. All of this happens while you are not working out! This machine — called the body — is truly amazing!!
I know a whole week away from the iron may put some into withdrawal! But you can make it an active rest week where you’re engaged in your favorite sport or in low intensity cardio like walking, yoga, or your favorite aerobic DVD a couple of days during the week. But, no lifting or HIIT! And, don’t forget to continue to eat balanced meals of proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. It’s important to continue to feed those muscles while they are repairing. This simply means DO NOT restrict or lower your calories because you are not working out as much! In fact, it may be a good idea to eat at your TDEE along with making good food choices during this rest period. If you are cutting during your recovery, you may want to decrease your deficit from 10% to 5%. You want to make sure any losses that week are not muscle. Remember, the whole point of recovery week is for your muscles to have a chance to repair. So, don’t plan to run a marathon during this time!!
If you’ve been lifting weights and/or doing high intensity workouts and have not taken a rest week, you are well overdue for a much needed break. It’s a good idea to plan a rest week every 4 to 5 weeks to let that muscle rest, repair, and grow. Then the weeks following your rest, you will feel refreshed, energized and ready to take your performance to the next level.
Photo credit: stockimages, naypong
After about a year of weight watchers, I decided not to renew my contract and to switch over to MFP, where I discovered that there was a whole group of Cathe Friedrich obsessed women out there. For those of you unfamiliar with Cathe, she is a workout DVD genius and my guru! I had been lifting weights with her DVD’s along with her cardio DVD’s during the whole weight watchers process. It was a breath of fresh air to meet all of these women with the same workout commitment that I had. Well, long story short, I got hooked up with Kiki through other mutual Cathe/MFP ladies and started to read her blog posts and watched her YouTube videos. This is where I first got hooked up with EM2WL and started to realize that the health industry has steered us women in the wrong direction when it comes to “losing” weight.
I should mention, that after I lost all the weight with weight watchers, I told my husband that I thought I wanted to someday compete in a figure competition. I had an unwritten goal of competing before I was 45. Well, I talked about this goal for about 4 years and finally, a (very devout Christian) friend of mine finally pointed out that maybe the fact that I kept bringing this topic up every few months, that maybe, just maybe God was directing me to actually go for my goal. I should mention that within all this time of weight loss and resets, I was born again (which is why she felt it was God calling me to this goal, for whatever reason). We both figured the reason was not because he wanted me to compete, but one much more deeply.
So, the reason I didn’t compete? Twelve weeks out from the competition date, when true contest prep would normally take place, I got a response from my trainer that I was not expecting. She felt that with my BED issues, that she could not get me to competition readiness without restricting my calories too much and with my ED, she knew it was the wrong thing to do. After much discussion with my husband, we both agreed that this is why I hired her and I should heed her advice.
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