The material I wrote covered in this book is designed to educate a broad range of personal trainers with different skill sets varying from novice to expert. This is not on any test, or evaluation. I want you to read, digest, and think. I have never sold this material. I have never shared this with anyone. I have never let anyone read it. I did copy-write, and register, and protect it of course in the library of congress. I will release it soon, however its just for Fit-Pros Academy Students. It is my firm belief that all trainers, regardless of their level of experience, knowledge, and skills, will benefit from the book’s emphasis on moving from theory to practical application. The more knowledgeable and experienced the trainer is the more he/she may find the introductory material elementary, but it is a good review. Even though few of our clients are likely to probe us about the theories that guide our practice, it is imperative that trainers have a comprehensive understanding of musculo-skeletal and cardiovascular physiology, flexibility, and nutrition.
It is important to note that the material presented in this book or any other book is not the last word of aforementioned subjects. If there is one thing that my 30 plus years as a personal trainer and student of exercise physiology has taught me, is that trainers must continually increase their knowledge base. I encourage everyone to continue to be open-minded to new ideas and advances, whether these ideas come from academic research and/or practical experience. Trainers must keep in mind that today’s dearly held “truths” can very well be tomorrow’s regrettable blunders. There is no shame in admitting that a program’s designs could benefit from change; however, there would be shame in continuing a program with ineffective methods.
Think of education as a challenge, similar to as you might challenge a client to push beyond self-imposed limits. Challenge yourself to push the limits of our own knowledge by getting involved with organizations that teach facts, and real science objective truths, rather than someones subjective experimental opinion. Read the journals for the latest research, glean what you can, ask more knowledgeable trainers, explore, and challenge yourself as you expand your knowledge. Both the trainer and clients will benefit from the active pursuit of the broadest possible education. Who knows, you may develop or discover something remarkable yourself!
What I would like this to be more than anything else is an opportunity for each of you, regardless of where you are in your development toward building a personal training business, is to be able to take home a large quantity of practical information. If you are new to the personal training world, or if you have been in it for many years, you will learn and take away something from this book. As a reminder some of the information such as basic chemistry and physiology may be brand new for some and for others it will be review.
In order to provide a foundation, I am going to distill a rather diffuse set of ideas into a model I call “The Fit-Pro Academy Triangle.” The sides of the triangle include flexibility, strength, and cardiovascular fitness. The base is cardiovascular fitness, which includes both aerobic capacity and endurance. Research has shown that a consistent, sensible program of cardiovascular exercise can greatly reduce the risk of many degenerative processes, especially ones associated with Type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease. In fact, the best treatment for type 2 diabetes is movement.
Traditionally, cardiovascular fitness has received a disproportionate amount of attention. Certainly, the importance of cardiovascular fitness cannot be overemphasized, but it must be pursued in conjunction with other elements of fitness. One of these elements is strength, which is one of the support sides of the triangle. Strength as an element of fitness is finally getting the attention it deserves. Fit-Pros Personal Training School / Academy perhaps as a corrective measure to its historical emphasis on type, intensity, duration, and frequency of aerobic exercise, finally seems to have recognized the importance of strength training on overall fitness. In the Fit-Pros latest guidelines there is a significant discussion about strength as a necessary complement in addition to cardiovascular fitness.
The other support side of the FitPro’s triangle is flexibility, an area which research has so far told us little about. There are few studies on what increases flexibility, what limits it, and what kinds of physiologic adaptations occur when stretching. However, the deficiency of research studies referencing flexibility is being addressed. It is worth mentioning that there are no physiological rules that demand loss of range motion as a person ages. However, there is research that supports the importance of keeping joints mobile and moving. In fact, flexibility, pursued properly, can improve more rapidly than strength or cardiovascular health.
The fitness triangle might be viewed as the head of an arrow pointing to a general fitness goal, which is for the average person, attaining and maintaining a healthy body-weight. One does not need to be a trainer to know that a significant percentage of the population of the United States is “over fat” or obese. Despite all the knowledge gains made over the past few decades, research from the Center for Disease Control suggests that fewer people are engaging in fitness-related activities than were ten years ago. While our children are getting fatter, physical fitness programs in the schools are on the decline. There are tremendous opportunities in the fields of fitness training and personal training. If we plan on answering to the growing need, we must take the responsibility to match our capabilities to the concerns of a given segment of the population.
Clients have a variety of specific, often idiosyncratic needs, and it is important to keep in mind that a trainer’s job is to meet those needs. The trainer’s job is not to impose personal wants on to their clients. Since many trainers come from a competitive sports background, when working with any of the three sides of the fitness triangle, there may be a natural tendency to emphasize performance and not fitness with clients. Competitive athletes are often willing to accept great risks in order to increase performance. It is not the trainer’s job to risk clients’ well-being in pursuit of some arbitrary performance goal. The focus should always and must be on fitness and not on performance. Fitness is not only a relatively low-risk goal, but it is the foundation to performance. Clients interested in increasing performance must first be fit. If a client is encouraged to adopt a performance mode before fitness, then that client is immediately put an unacceptable level of risk. A client can always be introduced to performance training after attaining an acceptable level of fitness. The dictum fitness before performance is especially important when working with persons closer to either end of the age spectrum: the young skeleton maturing or the old, mature client.
As a final point on this topic, I would like to introduce the notion of “relative risk.” Trainers are often told there are certain postures no client should adopt and certain exercises no client should perform. These “no nos” are lumped into a category of “contraindicated movements,” for which the knee-jerk interpretation is an overly simplistic “bad!” Yet for every contraindicated movement, there is an athlete out there performing it. The reason is relative risk. If the athlete and trainer determine that the benefit outweighs the risk, then the athlete will perform the movement. Few movements are categorically bad. It is better to keep an open mind with regard to the notion of contraindication. Rather than adopting labels such as “good” or “bad,” movements should be evaluated as “not useful” when the risk of performing it outweighs the benefit.
The Cardiovascular System
The cardiovascular system, cardio respiratory, or cardiopulmonary system is a rather complicated and important system trainers must know the basics about. It is a closed network involving the lungs, heart, and the continual process of blood flow through the vessels. At the center of the larger system is the heart. The heart is composed of four quadrants: right atrium, right ventricle, left atrium, and left ventricle. Blood enters the heart from the superior vena cava travels to the right atrium to the right ventricle and to the lungs via the pulmonary artery. In the lungs the blood releases carbon dioxide and absorbs oxygen, then travels via the pulmonary vein to the left atrium, then to the left ventricle and into the system or rest of the body. The most important side of the heart is the left, primarily the left ventricle. A client, who reports systemic hypertension, already has a hypertrophied or massive left side of the heart. This is important to note that when working with your clients.
The peripheral system is composed of arteries, which are vessels that carry blood away from the heart, and veins that return blood to the heart. The exchange of gases, nutrients, and waste products in the body occurs in the many miles of capillaries known as the capillary beds. These capillary beds are found in abundance in the skeletal muscle where oxygen, carbon dioxide, lactic acid, heat, amino acids, and fatty acids are continuously exchanged among the tissues. Adaptations in the vascular system are among the most significant results of training because this improves the ability to deliver and use oxygen throughout the body.
One of the most important functions of the cardiovascular system is delivering oxygen to the working muscle for energy production. Oxygen is not energy, but rather a necessary component in the production of energy. Just as it is in the cylinders of a car, gasoline supplies the energy, but without oxygen, the gasoline will not combust and the pistons will not fire. Using that analogy, I will now relate it to the human body
The body has two energy systems: Aerobic (literally meaning “in the presence of oxygen”), which requires oxygen to produce energy, and anaerobic, which does not require oxygen. Most of the body’s energy is produced in the aerobic system. This is true because most of the tissue in the body can only function aerobically, a circumstance illustrated by stroke and myocardium infarction. Both of these situations result in instant tissue death caused by oxygen-deprivation, the former in the brain and latter in the heart. A myocardium infarct is a heart attack. Infarct means a localized area of dead tissue resulting from failure of blood supply. The brain and heart provide dramatic examples, but one can have an infarct in other tissues as well, such as the kidneys. It is crucial that fitness professionals bear in mind that the business of aerobic energy is conducted throughout the body, not just in the muscles.
Whether a person is sleeping or exercising, aerobic energy production is a continuous process that runs twenty- four hours a day. The brain and heart are always producing energy aerobically. If the right bicep muscle is being worked to failure in five repetitions, the quadriceps muscles are still producing most of their energy aerobically. The aerobic energy system is the predominant system in the body, day and night, from birth to death. Some tissues in the body, most specifically skeletal muscle tissues such as biceps, triceps, deltoids, pectorals, etc., can produce energy in the absence of enough oxygen. This is known as anaerobic energy production. Remember when a muscle is challenged beyond its ability to produce enough energy aerobically to overcome a resistance, a secondary system, the anaerobic, is called upon.
Aerobic energy production occurs in the body in a particular organelle, a little structure in the cells called the mitochondria. The system begins with the arteries bringing blood away from the heart. The arteries ultimately branch down to the capillaries where oxygen exchange occurs. From the capillaries lying next to a muscle cell, oxygen diffuses across and it goes into a little structure in muscle cells. Each cell has many parts called organelles, which are analogous to the many parts of a car. Mitochondria are one of those organelles which act like the engine of the cell. These structures are in brain, skin, bone, and nerve cells. Capillary adaptations account for a big improvement in aerobic fitness, and there is also a huge adaptation that occurs in the mitochondrial structures as a response to chronic training. It is important to note that the only type of cells that have the ability to produce energy without adequate oxygen is skeletal cells. This is during the anaerobic system. Energy production, for purposes in this book, will be referred to as ATP. (ATP is the gasoline of the cells).
Rapid recall quiz time: Energy can be produced by what two systems? The aerobic and anaerobic systems can produce energy. Which one is the predominant system? The aerobic system. True or false, the aerobic system is operating twenty-four hours a day? [True.] What particular kinds of cells have the ability to produce energy in the absence of adequate oxygen? [Skeletal] What is the energy system that can produce energy without the presence of oxygen? Anaerobic. Great, see you know this!!! Moving on!
The chemistry of energy production is extremely complex, and I do not want to mislead you into thinking that it is not. There are many elements and reactions that occur as energy is produced. I have studied it for over twenty years, and I still do not understand it very well. The biochemistry of energy production can be synthesized down into a couple of very simple principles, for our purposes, in exercise physiology. When looking at the importance of oxygen for energy production, it can be suggested that there are basically two preferred substances that the cells of the body use to produce energy. Energy is produced by the burning of the preferred substances fat or carbohydrate. The word burning is used because oxidation is just that. When something rusts it oxidizes, and when gasoline is burned in a car engine it is oxidized. The same is true when fuels in the body, fats or carbs, are used to produce energy, they are oxidized.
Glucose is the carbohydrate that is the primary fuel in the body. All of the carbohydrates eaten are ultimately converted to the simple sugar glucose, and it is glucose that provides energy. Fructose, maltose, manose, zylose, and all the various sugars that are part of dietary intake are converted to glucose in the body. Glucose is stored as a complex carbohydrate called glycogen. I will discuss carbohydrate loading, glycogen compensation, and glycogen sparing later as it relates to programming design. There is always a benefit if the body can be taught to burn more fat to spare the glucose for improved endurance. There is adaptability in the energy system that is profound, that given proper training and nutrition, there is a great ability to improve energy system capability.
Fat is burned in the presence of carbohydrate and oxygen. This requires the aerobic system to be occurring. There must be a breakdown product, also known as a substrate, which comes from the breakdown of glucose. The substrate is needed in order for fat to enter the mitochondria where it is oxidized and produces energy. Fat is never burned without some carbohydrate being burned simultaneously. All of a muscle’s glucose stores are not burnt up first, then the body switches to fat burning, because the muscle cannot burn fat if there is no glucose available. This is a misconception I often hear too. A muscle with no sugar in it is known as “depleted.” Sometimes one will hear the saying “that runner hit the wall.” It means the muscles that are being used to run the marathon, for example, have lost their glycogen reserve, and there is no available glucose to the muscle. The contractility in the muscle has stopped and the muscle will not “”work” anymore.
Fat is burned only in the presence of oxygen or in the aerobic system. That particular biochemical fact has led to more misconception, confusion, and misinformation than anything else in the fitness industry that I am aware of. I am going to touch on the issue of energy production related to fat burning, so that when questions from clients arise such as “How do I maximize fat burning, and how do I lose fat?,” it will be understood from a very practical point of view. Clients might ask “Do I have to exercise for twenty minutes before I start burning fat?” The answer is absolutely not. Fat is being burned while lying in bed sleeping. However, sleep is not a very good weight control activity, not many calories are being burned. I will discuss why later in the book. A client might ask “Is it better for me to slow down and workout longer if I want to maximize fat burning? Or, “Do I burn fat at a lower intensity more than I do at a higher intensity level of working out?” As one becomes healthier and fit, the harder, longer, and the more often one can workout will increase. If someone wants to get fit as fast as possible, they must workout as hard, long, and often as possible, and improvements will occur most rapidly.
Many of your clients will want results fast; however, the risk of injury increases for the client. As a result, trainers do not program people that way because the risk is too high. Physiologically it is the best way to train, and the most fat will be burned in that type of enterprise. Fat is burned only in the presence of carbohydrate and can never be burned by itself. Biochemically it is impossible. There has to be a breakdown product, also known as a substrate that comes from the breakdown of glucose in order for fat to enter the mitochondria to be burned and produce energy. All of a muscle’s glucose stores are not burnt up first then switched to fat burning, because the muscle cannot burn fat if there is no glucose available. A muscle with no sugar is known to be “depleted.” This means there is no glucose available and fat is not being burned. Instead the body is burning the muscle.
Some of you may have heard the expression “the runner hit a wall.” This simply means the muscles that are being used to run during the event such as the marathon have lost their glycogen reserve and there is no available glucose to the muscle. The muscle contractile ability stopped and the muscle is not functioning properly. Even though there is plenty of fat on the body, if a muscle runs out of carbohydrate it stops contracting. Humans can store a fair amount of fat but we only store about twenty-four hours worth of sugar. Therefore it is important that people understand the dominant nutrient in your daily diet should be carbohydrates. It is the substrate that powers energy production, both aerobically and anaerobically. It is the only substance that can be burned in the aerobic and anaerobic systems. Again, the presence of carbohydrate is required in order to burn fat.
The waste products of aerobic energy production are carbon dioxide (CO2) and water. The waste products are not fatiguing elements and will not make you tired. To get rid of carbon dioxide it must be breathed out constantly through the exchange of gases in the lungs. The CO2 goes out of the blood and is expired into the air. The water is removed via perspiration and expiration. On a cold day, when breathing a person can see their breath, which contains water that is being removed. The production of energy is during this time is relatively low. People are sweating through every pore in their body all day long. The sweat evaporates before it hits the skin and is called insensible perspiration. People buy sauna belts and put them around their waist, they dehydrate the extra cellular space in that area because they are sweating, and creating moisture and they think they have lost fat. The reality is they have not lost fat but they have lost water. Water is constantly being lost throughout the day hence why people need to drink lots of water. Water is one of the major waste products of the aerobic energy system. Water is always being lost, so it must continuously be replaced. When a person starts to exercise there is an increase in water lost. The sweat cannot evaporate before it gets to the skin now, so visible sweat is seen. Sweat has to evaporate before it can cool the body. In order for the sweating process to help affect temperature regulation, sweat has to be able to evaporate. When a client says, “Look, I want to put on my sauna suit and get into the sauna and drop a few pounds.” Every trainer should be thinking “Don’t do it,” because the individual is putting himself at extreme risk for temperature regulation problems. They can go into heat exhaustion or heat stroke simply by doing that process, because the sweat has to evaporate in order to cool down, and that is why exercising in a hot, humid environment, if from a cool, dry climate, takes some time to acclimatize. This puts quite a bit of associate heat stress on the human body.
The other side of the energy equation is the anaerobic process, which occurs without oxygen and utilizes primarily glucose. This system does not produce very much energy compared with the aerobic system, but from a functional point of view the waste products are accumulated from the utilization of energy. The primary waste product of the process is lactic acid (lactate). As lactic acid starts to build up in a muscle, the muscle starts to fatigue. The muscle becomes tired and may even begin to burn. Remember, as a person begins to exercise a muscle anaerobically, the combustion of fat in the body will still continue. The combustion of fat as a body-wide process never stops even the heart is always burning fat. This is important to remember when discussing aerobic and anaerobic exercise. It is important to focus on the muscles that are being used during the specific exercise. If I am running, sprinting, and going up the stairs as fast as I can, what energy system do you suppose dominates in my quads, glutes, and calves? The aerobic system is dominating in those muscles. The process of fat-burning occurs all the time, and when talking about aerobic and anaerobic exercise, the discussion pertains to the particular muscles that are being used during that exercise.
The buildup of waste products during the anaerobic process in a given muscle causes quick fatigue. Anaerobic energy production in a given muscle generally cannot be tolerated for more than six to eight minutes no matter how well trained someone is. One of the nice adaptations that occur with training is that the muscles build up a tolerance to lactic acid. A well-trained athlete’s muscles can tolerate up to 2-2.5 times the lactate buildup as an untrained athlete.
Functional Kinesiology
Two statements can be made when discussing the relationship between oxygen and oxygen uptake. A liter of oxygen is equivalent to about five calories of energy expenditure. Now, add the dimension of time, and oxygen consumption is one liter of oxygen per minute. Therefore, one is burning about five calories every minute, and so when talking about the application to exercise and training, obviously the time element must be present. The advantage a fit person has when they increase their aerobic capacity, meaning they can consume more liters of oxygen every minute, is that their calorie expenditure per minute goes up. In the same sixty-minute exercise time, a fit person can burn an awful lot more calories compared to someone who is less fit. That person can double, triple, perhaps even more than that increase the turnover of fat, carbohydrate, and oxidation of calories (k-calories).
These are kilo-calories or k-cals, as they are known in the nutrition community. I will just use a capital “C” or talk about calories, because it can be confusing if I use kilo-calories all the time. If I am untrained and I am working at a ten-calorie-a-minute pace, my heart rate will be relatively high. Since the cardiovascular system is trying to deliver a large quantity of oxygen to the cells, my heart rate will be high. It is probably not effective in the long run because it may not have a two-liter-per-minute efficiency. The venous oxygen (VO2) may not functionally be that high, but my heart rate will still be high. If my level of fitness improves and I work at the same ten-calorie-per-minute pace, my heart rate will go down. The ability to deliver and use oxygen throughout the body goes up. The heart rate relationship is influenced by one’s level of fitness and, more specifically, by the ability to deliver oxygen to the exercising tissue.
At rest, about 50% of energy production comes from fatty acid metabolism, and at maximum effort, 0% comes from fatty acid metabolism. Remember that so if you hear someone say fat is not always burning, this is simply not true. The body is always burning fat specifically the heart muscle. However, a bicep muscle that is at the tenth rep on a ten RM set may be burning very little fat. Very little energy for that rep is coming from fat. My intent of sharing this information with you is that a trainer can absorb some very useful, practical information for their clients and have an effective weight control program maximizing the energy being used. If you are at the point to say, “Look, we’ve just got to get you burning lots of calories. However, we can do the manipulation of your lifestyle to maximize your calories being burned.” All of the substrate elements are secondary to that particular issue. It does take a little while for the body to stimulate the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream and maximize the delivery so fat can be released into the stream, flow through the cardiovascular network, and ultimately get to an exercising muscle. However, in terms of long-term impact and weekly energy balance, it does not matter. It does not matter that I increased fat being burned during the last thirty minutes of a sixty-minute workout than during the first thirty, as long as I burn enough total calories over the week to add up negative. This means that I must burn more calories than I consume to drop pounds.
Enzymes
In order to fully understand the metabolic process by which the body converts carbohydrates and fats into energy, it is necessary to draw a more detailed picture of the chemical processes at work. I am going discuss a kind of protein called enzymes, whose main functions are to initiate or facilitate chemical reactions. Various enzymes handle a multitude of tasks. Proteins in the mitochondria, or aerobic enzymes, are integrally involved in the breakdown of fat and glucose; others facilitate anaerobic breakdown; others release fat from fat cells and into the bloodstream for use; still others remove fat from the bloodstream and store it in fat cells. These last two kinds of enzymes will serve to underscore the importance for trainers of understanding enzymatic function. To illustrate, I will use a typical trainer-client scenario, one involving the negative impact of yo-yo dieting.
An enzyme that all trainers should be familiar with is called lipoprotein lipase, or LPL; it is found in the capillary wall, where it facilities the removal of fat from the bloodstream for storage. Yo-yo dieting stimulates the activity of LPL, making a body more efficient at storing fat, the very opposite of what dieters hope to achieve. What they should be doing is stimulating the enzyme HSL, or hormone-sensitive lipase, called such because it is sensitive to the hormone epinephrine, commonly known as adrenaline. When HSL is stimulated, fat cells are removed from the bloodstream for potential use by working muscle tissue.
These two processes, fat removal for storage and fat removal for use, are simultaneous and ongoing, but research suggests that, once stimulated, the LPL enzyme does not quickly revert back to a normal state. As a result, people who have been yo-yo dieting for years lose weight with greater and greater difficulty and gain it with greater ease. As a trainer, it is vital for you to discuss with clients their diet history so that you can identify the yo-yo dieter. The yo-yo dieter must understand that for him fat loss, at least initially, will take time, more time than it would someone in the same shape but with no history of yo-yo dieting. Before he can lose fat efficiently, he must first reverse the LPL stimulation effected by his yo-yo dieting.
Oxygen and the Heart- Don’t be overwhelmed…just read.
Another informative way of describing the body’s energy output, is to look at the process from the point of view of the effect on the heart. In simple terms, the heart pumps blood, which transports oxygen to working muscles. Most of are familiar with the measure “heart rate,” or the number of times the heart beats per minute. A more telling measure for our purposes is stroke volume, which is the volume of blood released by each contraction of the heart. This measure leads to the following formula: stroke volume multiplied by heart rate equals cardiac output. Cardiac output is just another way of describing oxygen transport.
When a body begins to exercise, muscles demand more oxygen in order to burn fuels for energy, and the heart responds by beating faster and thereby pumping more blood. Using the above formula I can increase the amount of oxygen transported throughout the body by increasing either my heart rate or my stroke volume. Physiologically, this is not as simple as it seems. All things being equal, maximum heart rate naturally decreases as we age. This means another factor must be observed in the equation: stroke volume. Increases in stroke volume mean more oxygen to working muscles, which means increased performance.
That is the view from the delivery end of the heart. If each beat of the heart transports more oxygen to working muscles, one would assume these muscles have more oxygen. This is not exactly how it works. As with any delivery, if no one is there to receive it, it sits on the doorstep. The oxygen on the muscles’ doorstep must be let in the door, that is, must be extracted, and not everyone extracts at the same rate.
Arteries carry blood from the heart, and veins return it. Along the circuit, the blood passes through the capillaries, and it is here that oxygen is extracted. The amount of oxygen extracted can be measured by subtracting the amount of oxygen returned by the veins from the amount delivered by the arteries. This number is called the A-VO2 difference (A is for “arterial,” V for “venous,” and O2 for “oxygen”). Increases in the amount of oxygen extraction result from regular exercise. These chronic adaptations can be effected in three ways: 1.The increase in capillary density. The red blood cells, the oxygen-transport vehicles, will have more sites for offloading their cargo. 2. The increase in mitochondrial density. Oxygen will be combined with fuel, carbohydrates and fats, at more sites, thereby increasing aerobic capacity. 3. If the efficiency of the aerobic enzymes in the mitochondria is increased, then more oxygen will be extracted from the delivering of red blood cells. Capillary density, mitochondrial density, and enzymatic efficiency—these are the body’s responses to exercise; these are the biochemical measures of fitness.
Chronic adaptations occur over time. These are contrasted with acute responses, those that result from sudden exertion. Exertion raises the temperature of a muscle, which increases the muscle’s ability to extract oxygen from the blood. One byproduct of energy metabolism in a muscle is lactic acid, and as acid goes up, pH goes down. High acidity further enables the muscle to extract oxygen. This is the muscle’s immediate or acute response to exertion.
All things being equal, chronic adaptations to exercise generally increase oxygen consumption. As noted previously, on average, a body at rest burns about a calorie a minute, which translates to about a quarter of a liter of oxygen consumption per minute. As fitness increases, the overall ability to deliver and take up oxygen increases. It is important to know some of the factors that complicate the relationship between exercise and oxygen consumption.
The first factor is age. As people age their maximum heart rate decreases. Take two athletes, one twenty-five years old and one sixty years old. Even if both are equally fit, capable of delivering the same amount of oxygen per heart beat, the younger athlete’s heart will be able to run at a higher rate, ultimately delivering more oxygen overall. The second factor is sex. Men generally have higher hemoglobin levels and larger heart chambers, both of which typically allow a male athlete to deliver more oxygen than his female teammate. The last factor is body-weight.
Consider the following: If a 220 lb man and a 132 lb woman, both with a VO2 max of 4.2 liters, there might be the inclination to say that they are in the same aerobic condition. They are not in the same condition. The man must deliver his 4.2 liters of oxygen to 220 lbs of body tissue, while the woman need deliver to only 132 lbs of body tissue. Her lighter weight means she has the higher aerobic capacity. Given their body weight and VO2 max, we can calculate their relative fitness levels. This is typically done in milliliters (of oxygen) per kilogram (of bodyweight) per minute, so some conversions are necessary.
The man: 220 lbs = 100 kilograms; 4.2 liters = 4,200 milliliters
4,200/100 = A VO2 max of 42 milliliters per kilogram per minute
The woman: 132 lbs = 60 kilograms; 4.2 liters = 4,200 milliliters
4,200/60 = A VO2 max of 70 milliliters per kilogram per minute
The man’s max VO2 suggests he is in the average-to-below average fitness range, whereas the woman’s VO2 max suggests she is in the superior fitness range.
There is a cautionary note. Accurately determining maximum VO2 involves sophisticated equipment and specialized medical training. Trainers who lack access to either are left with estimates based on step tests, walking tests, and cycle-ogometer tests. Such estimates are subject to error, so it is imperative to error on the side of caution, that is, to underestimate a client’s VO2 max.
Muscle
No fitness program would be complete without strength training, and in order to design such a program, trainers should understand the basic physiology of skeletal muscle. There are several other kinds of muscle in the body, known as smooth and cardiac muscle. The current concern is an understanding of muscle for strength training, so the focus will be on skeletal muscle, also called striated tissue.
Much of what we know about the physiology of skeletal muscle is the result of muscle biopsy. Muscle biopsies have revealed that, contrary to conventional wisdom, there are not two but three different kinds of muscle cells, or muscle fibers (terms I will use interchangeably). The first type of fiber is called “slow-twitch fibers” and sometimes “red fibers” because of their high levels of myoglobin, a protein which transports oxygen from the muscle membrane to the mitochondria. The fibers stains red from the agent typically used to view muscle cells under a microscope. Slow-twitch fibers are called such because they contract to maximum tension a bit more slowly than do the other major type, appropriately named “fast-twitch fibers.”
Type-one fibers, the slow-twitch variety, are further differentiated from the fast-twitch in that the former are “oxidative.” This means they can utilize a great deal of oxygen, because they have a greater number of mitochondria than the fast-twitch fibers. Slow twitch fibers are the aerobic fibers, capable of sustaining repeated contractions without fatigue. As aerobic fibers, their main waste products are innocuous carbon dioxide and oxygen, not debilitating lactic acid. These fibers fatigue less quickly than fast-twitch fibers. These are the fibers we engage all the time and further recruit for endurance activities.
Type-two fibers, or fast-twitch, are “glycotic,” and glycolysis is an anaerobic energy system, which involves the non-oxidative burning of glucose to produce ATP. These fibers are recruited primarily for explosive, power movements. The anaerobic process by which they create energy generates lactic acid as a waste product; therefore, they fatigue much more quickly than slow-twitch fibers. Type-two fibers are further broken down into two subtypes, which account for two of the three types of muscle fibers referred to above. Type-2A fibers have more mitochondria than type-2B fibers, and are called “fast oxidative glycolytic fibers.” The greater the presence of mitochondria means type-2A fibers have more aerobic capacity than type-2B fibers, but still not as much as type-one fibers.
Muscle fiber type is biologically determined by the size of the motor nerve. The motor nerves in fast-twitch fibers are larger than those in slow- twitch fibers. No matter how hard the strength training regiment is, a slow-twitch fiber can neither transform into a fast-twitch fiber, nor can a fast-twitch fiber change into a slow one through aerobic training. It is possible for athletes at elite training levels to transform type-2B fibers to become more like type-2A fibers, and though such a change can greatly benefit the elite athlete, for typical training purposes, it is best to think in terms of adaptations to existing fiber types rather than transformations in fiber type.
Muscle fibers respond to exertion in a predictable sequence called a recruitment pattern. Any move from rest to activity first recruits type-one. At the point at where type-one fibers fail to provide enough force to perform the activity, type-2A fibers are recruited. When both type-one and type-2A, working in conjunction, fail to produce the requisite force, type-2B fibers are recruited. This sequence seems to be the normal in all situations except one situation known as twitch stimulation. Twitch stimulation is affected by running an electric current through a muscle, which causes the muscle to contract with maximum tetany. If a muscle is electrically stimulated it will contract maximally. Twitch stimulation reverses the normal recruitment sequence: Type-2B fibers are recruited first, then 2A’s, then type-one fiber. This reversed sequence allows the body to recruit first those fibers that offer maximum force, a huge advantage to an athlete who needs more explosive force than endurance. This would be useful during powerful explosive exercises such as a clean and jerk. This type of training has been exploited in particular by Eastern Bloc countries to train elite power lifters.
Very few of us in our daily lives ever need to generate the power exerted by an elite power lifter. That is probably a good thing. The kind of training that leads to the selective recruitment of type-2B fibers is extremely high risk, and potentially compromises connective tissue like tendons and ligaments. A basic understanding of recruitment patterns and their manipulation is important to trainers working with the general public. Even though the average person never needs to train to selectively recruit type-2B fibers, they still need to work through the typical recruitment pattern. They must train hard enough to recruit type-2B fibers. If they do not, they will suffer the kind of physical degeneration that is associated with aging.
Imagine the life of the average person. Few people are lugging logs or rolling boulders. Most people navigate through life without ever calling on type-2B fibers. This neglect leads to a tragically vivid demonstration of the “use it or lose it” principle. The untrained elderly unnecessarily succumb to decrepitude. A lifetime of neglected type-2B fibers causes neural degeneration. This does not have to occur. Trainers have an opportunity to intervene in what too many see as the inevitable process of physical decline associated with aging. Trainers should approach this epidemic by encouraging clients not only to strength train, but to train to the point of muscular failure. Only at the point of failure can a trainer be sure that clients are recruiting type-2B muscle fibers. This is not to say that a client must perform every set of every exercise to failure. The extent to which a client can train to failure will be determined on a client-by-client basis and only after the client has reached an acceptable level of fitness.
Slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers are not equally distributed. Muscle fiber distribution depends on two things. The first is the muscle in question, and the second is genetics. Different muscles have different functions with regard to speed and movement; they differ accordingly in fiber distribution. For example, the gastrocnemius and soleus, muscles of the lower leg, are primarily concerned with posture, keeping the body upright, a nearly full-time endurance activity. These muscles have a higher number of slow-twitch fibers. Triceps, on the other hand, perform what is typically the fastest motion a body can make, elbow extension, and therefore have a higher number of fast-twitch fibers.
We cannot pick our genes, and some people are born with a greater distribution of slow-twitch fibers than fast, or vice versa. Few people born with a high distribution of fast-twitch fibers, and those that have abundant fast twitch fibers are likely to become elite marathon runners. Likewise, the few born with a high distribution of slow-twitch fibers are likely to become elite sprinters. With that being said, I am not implying that the genetics cannot be worked with. Genetically determined muscle distributions predispose certain individuals to perform better in certain areas. The influence of genetics prompted some sports scientists in Eastern Bloc countries to biopsy children to determine which sports they were best suited for. In the United States there is the freedom to choose the sport, but it seems likely that a kind of self-selection takes place, that the sports-minded gravitate to the sports their genes have best suited them for. As an example that was given above, those with an abundance of fast twitch fibers tend to become long distance runners in track or running marathons. This is almost certainly the case at the elite levels of performance.
Muscle fiber types do not integrate. They work in groups that are either all fast twitch or all slow twitch fibers, called motor units. A motor unit is composed of a motor nerve and all the fibers that it stimulates. The motor unit can be as small as five to ten fibers, like the one that controls the dimensions of the eye lens, or as large as 500 to 1,000 fibers, like those found in the quadriceps and gluteal muscles. Motor units are subject to the “all or none” principle, which means that when one fiber in a group is stimulated they all are.
Stimulation induces contraction, and it is necessary to understand the mechanics of muscle contraction if the concept of strength is to be fully understood. First, a metaphor: Just as a car needs both gas in the tank and a well-charged battery to start, a muscle needs energy and stimulation. The energy for contraction is in the form of ATP, and the stimulation is the nervous impulse, which originates in either the spinal cord or the brain’s motor cortex and travels to the motor nerve.
On the microscopic scale individual fibers can be viewed. Further magnification reveals the cells that compose the fibers. Each cell is divided into repeating units, which give muscle tissue its striated quality and appearance. Each unit is called a sarcomere, and inside it are the two proteins involved in contraction. Actin, which takes the form of a thin filament, and myosin, which is a thicker filament, are the two proteins. The actin sheaths the myosin. According to the most widely accepted theory, the Sliding Filament theory, when a muscle is stimulated, protrusions on the myosin protein bind with the actin and draw it to the center of the sarcomere, shortening the sarcomere. Because each actin protein in each sarcomere overlaps with the myosin in adjacent sarcomeres, the shortening of one causes the shortening of the next, and so on throughout the muscle fiber.
Because motor units adhere to the “all or none” principle, the amount of force generated on contraction depends on two things: the number of motor units contracted simultaneously and the size of the fibers in the motor unit. Strength increases when more muscle fibers are recruited in a given move, or when there is an increase in the actin and myosin proteins.
Strength by definition is force, developed. Strength is measured in pounds or kilograms of force developed. Torque implies rotation. Every movement at the joints in the skeleton or body are rotational movements with the exception of the wrist joint.
Power is a very important element of force. Power implies time, and when working with clients, trainers need to understand that power training is full of high risk movements. If an individual can lift two hundred pounds on a bench press, taking three seconds to lift the barbell, and he wants to become more powerful, what changes in his program with regard to the speed with which he lifts the 200 pounds? This individual will have to move from three seconds for the positive movement to what? One second or half a second. Who is very interested in power? Power athletes. Linebackers, baseball pitchers, sprinters, jumpers, and volleyball players are interested in improving power. These athletes want to generate the maximum amount of force, but more importantly, they want to generate it as fast as possible. When looking at power, what fiber group am I really trying to attract? The trainer would be attempting to recruit 2B fibers.
Myth-Conceptions
Why do we do the exercises we do? Where does someone’s “expertise” begin? I am going to discuss some of the myths of weight training. I will bring up exercises that are in various magazines such as Muscle and Fitness that have been around forever. Many people read these magazines every month, maybe you do too, for various reasons which include finding new workouts. I want everyone to put into perspective what I am about to say. I want you to understand that these things are not just misconceptions. I will explain that these are not misconceptions but “Myth-Conceptions.” Misconceptions are misunderstandings and communication problems. A myth is a much bigger deal, because it is an accepted belief that’s unsubstantiated by fact. The problem with a myth is it is passed down from generation to generation with no facts backing it. Think of the Greeks and Romans, their myths were passed down from generation to generation. A myth is what everyone remembers as being the truth. It is very difficult to speak out against myths.
I would like to take a quick moment to take a look at the definition of truth. All truth goes through three steps: The first step is ridicule, the second step is violently opposed, and the final step is accepted as self-evident. The reason it is difficult to talk about the truth is one must get screamed at and beat up (usually verbally) before one ever gets believed for speaking the truth. Those are some tough steps, especially when one is going against potentially centuries of myth. It is not much different in the weight training world today.
I want to make sure I am getting my point across. I will give you another example, a little bit closer to home. Sometimes, when we talk about Greek and Romans myths, most of us cannot relate to thousands of years ago. There are many myths still floating around today, some that are even less than thousands of years ago. In the 1400’s what did everybody think about earth? Back then everybody thought it was flat, correct? If this was a geography class in the 1400’s and I was a PhD in Geography, I would have spent six to eight years studying how flat the earth was. Some would call me an expert. All you ever heard from your parents, teachers, and instructors the entire time up until this point was how flat the earth was. Now imagine if a student in the class raises her hand and says “um, Dr. Flat, I disagree. I think it is round.” Everyone in the class starts laughing at her and she gets all embarrassed. That was a very brave thing to do and she was ridiculed- step 1 – and opposed – step 2. See how easy it is to be unwelcome to new ideas. Really, who wants to be ridiculed or opposed? We would have what we think would be proof. “We all have proof or evidence,” so we think. When you walk to the beach, you look out, does it look round? No, of course not, it looks flat. It looks like there’s a horizon out there and it is just the edge, and if you go out past the edge what happens? You fall off. There is the evidence. We think, what is wrong with that student, or anyone who opposes the current “fact”. Some get called conspiracy theorist. Many think, “can’t they see that, it is clearly flat.” Well, a lot of times our so-called evidence is very short-sighted. It is almost tunnel vision. This is much the same way their evidence was, the earth was flat.
Now let’s think about this in the fitness industry. Many of the things we talk about when people talk about resistance exercising and they say, “Oh, no, no, no, look at that guy. Look at that girl, look at how they look. That’s the evidence.” Just because someone looks fit and healthy does not make what they are doing evidence. Again, that is NOT the evidence. It is very short-sighted. The way someone looks has nothing to do with the safety or effectiveness of an exercise. It has to do with their overall environment (i.e. choices). With that being said, a person’s physique is not the best indicator of whether an exercise is effective, ineffective, or even potentially unsafe.
One of the reasons you are reading this book is to take a look at things from a different perspective. I understand you may have a tough time digesting what I am about to say. I know I did for a long time. Think about it, where do we all learn how to work out? Most people learn in the gym – even if someone says, “no, no, no, I learned in school,” Let me ask you this, where did your teacher learn how to work out? The gym, THE GYM! That is where we all learn, in the gym. We all learn the same things in the same place. All the supported material is the same, monthly workout magazines, people’s opinion, and all this kind of stuff. It is very, very difficult, and I will write about an exercise, and I know someone’s feelings will get hurt. “Why”, one may ask me, because that is the only thing that keeps some of these exercises alive, an emotional attachment. It is crazy to think, but people are married to some of these exercises. I know if I talk about the exercises you really love, I will be presenting facts, and I do not care if I hurt your feelings. Why? We all came from the same place, we all learned from the gym. It is not my fault that we were not taught the facts. That is my mission, to teach the facts and put the exercise in perspective. Yes, I may talk about an exercise you love and are emotionally attached to, so try not to lose your mind. Try to put it in perspective and not get angry with me. I really want to emphasize an open mind when reading this book. Leave the emotional attachment to what you know at the front cover.
I am sure you have seen, heard or experienced it yourself in the gym “Yeah, I hurt, but you know, it’s a good kind of hurt.” That is exactly how many people determine whether an exercise is good or bad, effective, ineffective, etc. They based it on how they felt. You and I learned all some of these things. The “no pain, no gain” theory was prevalent. Yet, the “no pain, no gain” theory is very misleading. I will repeat that the “no pain, no gain” theory is very misleading. A person thinks that because they feel an exercise in a certain place, it must be the place that is working. I am sure you know what I am talking about. I know you have heard this, read this in many articles, or maybe said this yourself, many times. That could not be more misleading.
Thinking an exercise is working based on how it feels, is what I call a sensation. A sensation is a learned thing. Sometimes what is in your head can either enhance a feeling you think you have, or it can get in the way of a feeling you maybe should be having. A sensation is not always the purest form, nor is it the most accurate form of indicating what is really happening in the body. In the aerobics world, perceived exertion is a great scale for intensity, right? What do many people do? They just walk up to somebody and say, “What do you think about it?” “Well, it is pretty darn hard.” “Well, your heart rate’s about 2.” I am sure you have witnessed these conversations in the gym. That is what I mean when I say sensation is learned. A scale is given, and one goes through a learning process to say “Okay, here’s what your heart rate is.” Do you see how a sensation is associated with that? The person then learns to judge his sensations. That is what is meant by a “learned thing.”
Here is a little myth – someone comes in the facility the first day, and the first thing they think they should do to get in shape is aerobic exercise. Dr. Kenneth Cooper, back in the late 1960’s – early 1970’s, came up with this idea of “aerobic.” According to Dr. Cooper, “The most important muscle in your body is your heart. Without your heart, you have nothing. It is the pump, the transporter of everything in the body, and the battery for your life. Someone’s potential life span and the probability of getting a certain disease like atherosclerosis could be affected by working the heart.” All of that information was valuable, but the marketing folks got a hold of it, and soon everyone was doing aerobics. That had nothing to do with Dr. Cooper though. It was the “truth.” Many of the things that are marketed are not the “truth.” After everybody in the late 1970s’ started doing aerobics, people in physical therapy and personal training including myself started making more money. With all the knee and back injuries, everyone decided it was caused by high impact aerobics. That led everyone to start doing low impact aerobics, and they found it just takes a little bit longer to get hurt than it did with high impact aerobics. The injuries were the same. The reason people were getting hurt is it all had to do with the mechanics of the movements they were performing. Now, all of that has been changed, and people are thinking about the mechanics with every move that is made in aerobics classes. That is great, but there is one more critical step that needs to be considered when doing aerobics. The common denominator in both high and low aerobics is the heart. The heart is always working aerobically twenty-four hours a day. Specifically, it is skeletal muscle that is working.
The alignment of the joints has much to do with the skeletal muscle. The first day someone walks into a gym, meets their trainer, the trainer usually says, “We’ve got to get your heart in shape.” Is that what really needs to be done though? Think about a potential client who is lying in bed after having arthroscopic surgery, the heart is getting all out of shape, because the knee was messed up. If you were really thinking about this foundation, the foundation is not in the heart. The foundation is what is necessary to create a situation where one can go out and train their heart. It takes skeletal muscle. Your heart is sending blood to your entire body, including all the skeletal muscle which creates all the movements. Strengthening skeletal muscle is really the first thing we should think about, and at least, even if it is not the first thing, it should be an equal. Heart, joint structure, skeletal muscle should be thought of at the same time. When I refer to weight training, I am referring to someone’s ability to affect the skeletal muscle with resistance. Change its strength, and I am not indicating any specific form that must be used in the beginning. I do not want you to automatically think, “He wants me to take these people the second they walk into the facility and teach them how to squat 700 pounds, and then we’re going to do step class.” That is not what I am defining as “weight training.” A trainer can strengthen the rotator cuff, all the trunk muscles, hamstrings, and hip muscles. Everything that happens to the knee, in terms of lateral movement is related to the ankle and hip. The hamstrings are the key for knee stabilization. Having control over all of those other muscles is an integral part of strength. It is not just whether the tissue can contract. Remember, the brain is responsible for the muscle contraction, at the base level. That is the first part of strength I am concerned about, because if you teach a person how to do these things in proper alignment, then you have improved the ability of those muscles or the strength. Now the individual can perform the way you want them to perform. When I say resistance training, to set the foundation of what I am saying, trainers must do some neuromuscular work. In other words, we have got to get the brain connected to whatever is moving. It is really the key element before progressing to any endurance activity. This is becoming more evident in marathon runners. They have to go out and run 26 miles, and the ones that do strength training have dramatically improved their times.
When we take beginners and start strength training with them, what do all the magazines tell us? They say a foundation is needed so people are not hurt when they start endurance activities. The magazines say to start with “basic compound” exercises. These are multiple joint movements such as the squat or bench press, which are not basic. In exercise lingo, the more joints moving, the more basic it is. In reality, basic should mean simple. A squat is not a basic movement to build a foundation from, because it involves several joints. An isolating exercise, such as one for the rotator cuff, is one of the most important upper extremity foundation exercises. I can increase my bench press by increasing the strength of my rotator cuff, but I cannot increase my rotator cuff strength by doing the bench press. What does that tell you? All of these big muscles are pulling the joint apart, while the rotator cuff is just hanging in there, trying to hold it together. This is also true with the spinal muscles. For each joint there is a truly basic, foundation-building exercise, which rarely has anything to do with a compound exercise.
Range of motion is a wonderful thing to talk about. When you hear or think of range of motion, the word full should come to your mind. We want our clients to have full range of motion. Currently, full is becoming a four letter word. The way we use words totally determines the meanings. I think at some point, the word “full” will take on a new meaning in the dictionary, and “full” will become equal to the word “excessive,” because that is the way it is currently used in gyms. Full range of motion in weight training currently means, the further you can move, the more full it is, and it is for the most part defined by how far the bar moves. Full range of motion in a bench press is when the bar touches the chest, regardless of how far the joint is moving. Did you know that every single person doing a bench press with the bar touching the chest will have their shoulders moving to a different range of motion? When the bar touches the chest, it is a consistent range of motion for the bar. However, it is the body that we should be really concerned about. Everyone has a different goal. All these different goals require something different. It is unfortunate that trainers automatically ask someone’s goal when they first walk in. We have all learned and been conditioned to do that. Typically trainers take the new person and do the same thing as they have done with every other client. That is really a shame, because everybody has a different goal, and if someone came in and said, “I want to be a power lifter,” then right there in my head it would tell me the way they are going to perform the bench press is different than anybody else in the gym. The range of motion they move through is determined by the weight, not their body, because that is the rule of the sport. The majority of people talk about changing their appearance. Each client may not specifically say this but generally speaking this is what it boils down to “changing their appearance.” The second thing mentioned is health, and most of the people doing the polls figure they are lying about that. Appearance, at least at the beginning, is the major focus. When people are talking about appearance, they are mainly talking about fat reduction and muscle gain. Tone is a bad word, because all muscle is tone. I do not care if someone weighs 900 pounds, whatever muscle is underneath that fat is as toned as muscle can get. Tone is just this visual thing that the world has put together.
Though not really possible, the thing to focus on is specific muscle exercises. If they are trying to get ready for a sport, or even for more functional things, specific muscle training may not be the exact thing that they want to do. In rehab, both are done, and that is a really important fact to remember, because a lot of people want to fall into these schools of thought: Someone only needs functional exercises, because everything else is a waste of time. Or, someone only should do isolated exercises, because everything else is a waste of time. It is all important. If anybody thinks that one or the other is not important, then they are simply not listening to everybody’s goals and understanding what each individual needs for their goal. Everything has its place.
In regards to range of motion, trainers should be paying attention to the joint. I understand it is hard to see joints. It does require a trainer to studying prior to the activity. The joints have limits, and the first limit that you think of with a joint should be the bones themselves. (Need picture for green section). For example, with the shoulder, you get the shoulder out about 90 degrees, and this bone comes up and comes in contact, or very near, to another bone. It is smashing part of the rotator cuff between two bones which is a not healthy. The point is the joint is saying stop, and if we are only paying attention to how far weights move, we are putting people at risk for injuries. How many times have you heard, “Oh, get them up higher, get them up higher” Higher is not always better, and more is not always better. The joint is saying stop. Now you have got to remember that in sports, the body’s limits will often be exceeded to meet a goal. In fact, that is part of what makes a sport, a sport. If it was easy for everybody’s body, then everybody could play. Everybody could be a world-class gymnast. Not everybody can, so that is part of what gets someone to be good at a sport is their structure and whether or not they can deal with the limits and excessive range of motion.
Whether it is passive or active, when we are doing flexibility training, or whatever kind of stretching is preferred, if a bone is hitting another bone, it is time to stop. That is the end of flexibility for that joint. Any more movement is excessive. Think of the knee. When the ligaments become fully taut, the ACL protects the knee from hyper-extension. There is nothing wrong with going to the limits, but we do not want anyone going pass the limits. If anything is pushing someone beyond that point where the ligament is taught, it gets to be a problem. When doing a closed chain exercise like a squat, leg press, or a lunge, the weight is going through the extremity during hyper-extension and the leg is now pushing the body further backwards. This has to do with ligaments and understanding what the specific joints are designed or not designed to do.
All of these limits come into play all of the time, but as soon as you put a weight in your hand, there are other structural issues to take into consideration. As soon as you put a weight in your hand, you have got contraction to worry about as well. The shoulder is a more complicated joint, and we are not usually told very much about it. There is not a lot of good literature about it that can be easily applied to weight training. There are little parallel ligaments in the shoulder running out towards the hummers. (Picture(s) should be added to green section). Now try to picture this: you take that shoulder that is up there, and you bring your arm out to the side like this, and then you turn your arm like this. Now can you picture from that reference point right there what is going on with those ligaments? You can imagine how the ligaments would be all twisted up. That is not a bad thing as the body is designed to move. The body is designed to deal with forces. There is nothing wrong with this position. It is similar to if someone tried to push my knee further than full extension. Those ligaments are saying stop. This position is called a close packed position. Think about this: If you had a rag that was full of water, and you twist the rag to get the wate r out. As you twist, what do you notice about the rag? As the fibers wrap around each other, it appears to get shorter, and that is what happens here. As those ligaments get twisted up, the two bones on the end of those ligaments get closer together. That is where that name close packed position came from. There is not much room for anything to be between those bones, and there is no more stretch left in the ligaments for it to be moved any further. This is known as the end position. Every joint has one position that is very close and tight. What would happen if suddenly you got this surge of strength, and you could just twist it past the end position? The bones might break or the ligaments might tear. As this occurs you will hear a few little pops. If you opened that joint back up, you would probably have to look pretty hard to even find the one or two little fibers that tore. Imagine that you are doing an exercise that forces you further every time you do a repetition, and you do three sets of ten three times a week for a year or three years, depending upon how good your ligaments are in the first place. At first of all is range of motion appears to increase. The “rag” inside there is getting torn up. As it has fewer and fewer fibers in it, you twist it further and further, right? Everybody is excited by this achievement, “Hey, I got great range of motion in my dishrag.” Let’s further explore what is really going on in that “dishrag.” The structural integrity of the joint is decreasing. More range of motion beyond what is considered to be currently normal, or hypermobility, does not necessarily mean better range of motion. It is excessive motion, and the joint is becoming weaker because of it. Do not be proud if you can put your foot up behind your head, because something may be giving way underneath there.
There are some limits that are rarely talked about when a weight is added to the equation. One of them has to do with this mechanical aspect of a muscle moving a joint. The muscle’s ability to do that varies as it goes through the motion. Some of the points throughout a particular motion are weaker or stronger than others. There are several factors that can contribute to this occurrence, with one of them being joint mechanics. It has to do with this angle at which the muscle is stuck onto the bone. When you put a weight in your hand, you want contraction of muscle to occur. Mechanical and physiological processes start to take place. The brain tells the muscle to contract. This is part of the “cross-bridging theory” of microscopic filaments.
Now I will go through some individual exercises. I will go joint-by-joint and take a look at some of the myths associated with the exercises we perform. Keep in mind there is no “perfect” exercise or machine. It is how each individual performs the exercise or how the machine is used that creates the success. It is not what you do, but instead, how you do it.
Please help your members, clients, and people in your classes to understand that sports are not exercise. Did you know that the number one most rapidly rising injury in males between thirty and fifty years old is achilles tendon tears. Almost all of them are associated with basketball. What do most people with Achilles tendon tear injuries do from the time they were eighteen until they begin playing basketball at thirty-five? Up until they were eighteen, their body was growing and getting stronger. After eighteen, I hate to say this, but we are dying a slow, long, and not necessarily painful, depending on whom you are living with, death. We can change that a lot by what we do, because the body adapts to good things. If all of a sudden we wake up one day at the bottom of this pit saying, “I feel cruddy. I was great in high school and what happened. I’m going to go out and fix that. I’m going to do the same thing I did when I was 16 when I was strong,” and they go bounce around with fifty more pounds and twenty-five fewer pounds of muscle, the tendon is very likely to tear. Exercise is required to make sports as safe as possible. That is why professional athletes do not just play on Sunday and that is all they do for physical activity.
Everybody wants to train their abdominals to spot reduce. They go have some fast food “value meal.” “Oh, I’ve got to go do some sit-ups now, because I hate this big …” why? If it is going to make you throw up, that is about the only thing that it is going to help spot reduce an area. The only thing that will be reduced is what was in the stomach. People say the first thing you have to do if you are going to do a crunch is you need to suck in. The belief is if you do not suck in while you do a crunch, your stomach will grow outward. If your stomach is growing outward, it is from pizza and beer, not from doing crunches. The purpose for a crunch is to affect the rectus abdominus muscles primarily. Your internal and external obliques abdominal muscles are movers for that also.
Picture(s) needed for green section.
If you are sucking in, the rectus abdominus is stretching downward. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line. A muscle trying to bring two points together would appear to be in a straight line. If you are sucking in, you are decreasing the effectiveness of the rectus abdominus. The muscle when contracted will get thicker as you go through the crunch and the ribs will slightly elevate as they are crunching. This means the abdominals have to elevate also, because they are spanning the gap there. Everything is going to appear to be moving toward the ceiling as you do a crunch. If the person has a lot of intra-abdominal fat underneath everything the person will have less room for the muscle because the fat has got to go somewhere, and sucking it into the lungs is not the answer. The point is the abdominals are not going to suck in. Someone always says, “Well what about the transverse abdominus?” The transverse abdominus does not move any of your skeleton. It does not move your spine. Its fibers run around you. It just sucks your guts in. It is an important thing, but do not confuse that with crunches.
I am saying just tighten. You can bring someone in that has never done crunches before, and in about two minutes you can teach them to tighten, and their abdominals go “boing!” You bring someone in that has “been doing aerobics classes for twelve years,” and it takes me four months to get them to do one crunch right, because they have twelve years of programming to suck in. They cannot contract their abdominals at all, and it takes a long time to unlearn something and then relearn. The biggest thing to do is not to force them to do anything, but to learn to tighten and that will take a little bit of time. Remember what I was talking about at the beginning of this section regarding neuromuscular education. We need to be teaching what the body is supposed to do before we start applying a bunch of resistance to it. That is what resistance is for, to challenge your ability to do it.
Another big controversy is: Should we maintain lumbar lordosis while we are doing a crunch? This is the dumbest thing I have ever heard in my life. We have names for exercises. The name of the exercise is the Crunch. Then, under crunch, we have rules for the exercise. Now as soon as we put the word crunch on this, we take it away from anything that has to do with the body. The body does not know anything about crunches. Technically a crunch is spinal flexion. When you have a crunch and just a bunch of rules, it takes the meaning all away from the body, so it is easy to get confused. One can say, “We’re looking at all the rules for all the exercises,” and with all the other exercises one will maintain lumbar lordosis. While doing curls, presses, and everything else, you maintain lumbar lordosis. However with the list of rules for the crunch, it is missing. “Well, should we put it on there?” “I don’t know; maybe there’s a reason it wasn’t on there.” “It’s an important part of every other exercise.” “Well, I don’t know.” “Yeah, we’d better put it on there.” When we are just thinking about rules for exercises, it is really hard to figure out. When you get rid of all those funny words and think about the body, it is so easy. It is spinal flexion. Now let me just pose the question this way: should we maintain a position of slight extension while we perform spinal flexion? I will give you another example. Everybody straighten one arm out for me. Keep your arm straight while you bend it. As soon as we start talking exercises it gets kind of hazy, but when you start talking about the body, it all comes perfectly clear. Yes, one will want to maintain slight extension when performing spinal flexion.
Strength Analysis
Whether a trainer is working in a classroom with thirty people or one at a time, it is the same body performing the activities. It is the same mechanics, muscles, same considerations as far as how those things work together, and a lot of the same forms of resistance. There are some education-related things that a trainer can do that are different, as far as cues, and as far as being very individual with what the person needs. This is also true for the different types of equipment that can be used.
The spine can do amazing things, but that does not mean the exercise is safe or beneficial. Just because people can do all kinds of really grotesque things with their spines does not mean that it should be done. The spine is really important in everything you do. If you are walking the feet and legs are important, but your spine is going through a lot of intricate little things when you are just walking down the street. All appendicular function is based around the function of the spine or core. Appendicular function refers to the movement of the arms, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hands, hips, legs, knees and feet. The spine is the most important part of the body outside of what is inside the brain.
When discussing posture, phrases such as “neutral spine, slight lordosis, or slight extension” are interchangeable words. All those phrases mean exactly the same thing. It is much easier to tell when a client or member is not in proper alignment than it is to tell when they are in proper alignment. The focus should be what the extremes are, how to cue, and moving towards proper alignment from those extremes.
The spine is a perfect blend in architecture between mobility and stability. It is critical that the spine is stable and also that it is able to move in all directions. Especially in the directions that are necessary for the goal. If trainers could get all their clients to be able to stabilize their spine, that would change lives, because during the course of most people’s lives, at some point there will be trouble with their spine. Stabilization would reduce a large portion of problems. As you bend forward to pick things up it is a good idea to keep your spine in proper alignment. The problem is, as we bend forward, the spinal extensors are letting go or being shut off by the brain. They are going eccentrically from this position and just letting go. Usually when people pick things up, the spinal extensors are, in essence, turned off. The body is entirely hanging on the ligaments that are deep down inside because the muscles are not supporting the joints. The ligaments along the posterior aspect of the spine, which are hanging on in the spinal flexion position, are really strong near the bottom of the spine. The spinal ligaments are tough like pieces of leather, but they will give out. Many people are walking around with torn spinal ligaments. As a trainer, one of the things that can be done for our people is to help them learn proper alignment. For all the spinal exercises, two things need to be kept in mind: motion and stability. There are two ways of training any spinal muscle, and they are both critical to life.
Spinal discs are talked about all the time. People often say, “I slipped a disc.” Discs do not slip. Discs are for compression. Someone talks about, “Oh, there’s compression in your spine; not compression! Don’t let her compress!” Compression’s normal. Every joint goes through compression, distraction, and sheer. In fact, a joint that is without any one of those movements is not normal. If compression is nonexistent, that means distraction must be excessive. All of those things balance out. It is frustrating when words commonly heard are put in a context that make people afraid of those things. All of it is normal. Only when it becomes excessive can it be a problem, and that can be fixed most of the time. The only job the disc has is to absorb compression. It deals with it quite well. If I have a balloon filled with air, and I smash it between my hands, straight down on that balloon, the balloon squirts out evenly. That is actually a very strong situation, because the rubber around that balloon is being stretched equally to all sides. A vertebral disc is the same way. It has fibers around the outside, and a gel kind of stuff in the middle. If it is compressed evenly, it is extremely strong. No damage can be done. The lumbar section of the spine can put it in a big hydraulic press, and if the bones are in proper alignment, the bone will crush before the disc will rupture. That is how strong the disc is. Everybody is afraid of the injuring the disc, but if you are in proper alignment, you do not need to be afraid. That is why routine visits to the doctor of chiropractic, along with proper exercise form are essential for spinal alignment. The Chiropractors will make sure the spine is in proper alignment and the personal trainer will make sure the client is using proper bio-mechanics when working out.
If I took that balloon between my hands, and I smashed on one side of the balloon, what happens to the balloon? It all has to go one way. When I was pushing evenly, everything got a little stretched, but now all the stretch is coming from this one side. That is what happens in the disc. The lumbar spine can only move from a position of slight extension to being straight, which means if someone’s back is really flat, that is as crummy a position as one can get into when discussing the spine being loaded. At that position, the balloon is being squished out the back side and is being stretched. Similar to the disc, as those little fibers get weak, pretty soon there are different levels of disc bulges. Discs do not slip, but they do bulge. When CAT scans first came out and someone had back pain, they were told, “CAT scan, all right, you have a disc bulge, we’re going to cut you open.” Back then what was considered a “success” rate for back surgeries was around 40%. Not only were the techniques not so great during that period, but the biggest thing was, methods of diagnosis were poor. The first time anyone saw a disc bulge, it was assumed that was wrong. Then some studies were done, and it was determined that not everyone with disc bulges had pain. The pain could have been from something else, but medical doctors were assuming it was from the disc bulge. After surgery, not only was there pain from the surgery, but the original pain was still there. The patient will also have less muscle because he has been lying on his butt the whole time. Getting weaker almost always adds pain. Doctors came to realize disc bulges were actually very common. If the bulge pushed out more the person risked getting a disc herniation’s or disc ruptures where the whole disc tears. Pain was expected with disc herniation’s or disc ruptures, but it was not guaranteed. I have had clients that had very slight pain and found out that a disc was ruptured. 99% of people would be lying on the ground, screaming their head off asking for morphine with a disc rupture, but occasionally it does not elicit a pain response until one of the little pieces from the rupture actually presses on the nerve. There are no consistent things with the spine when it comes to disc issues.
All of the exercises from physical therapy end up filtering down into the fitness world eventually. Examples of this are extension exercises. The reason that started was because in physical therapy, therapists said if someone is getting a disc bulge from having the pressure all in one direction, that patient should push the other way and have it push back forward. It did make sense, and it works for some people, unless it is already too far. (If someone is interested in researching these exercises more, look up the McKenzie extension or William flexion exercises.) (Picture should be added to green section). If the bulge is protruding or extruding, when a person goes into extension, this might pinches the nerve even more. Everything is dependent upon the person’s individual problem and the degree of the problem. Do not just follow a school of thought that says, “Oh, extension’s great!” It is all based on the individual’s current condition.
Every seated position exerts 30% more pressure within the spine, within the disc, than the comparable standing position. This is standing in good posture compared to seated in good posture or seated in poor posture compared to standing in poor posture. Poor posture while seated coupled with an improperly bulging disc is bad news. (Pictures would be beneficially for below green section). People are often freaked out about things like stiff-legged dead lifts, and chances are when they are seated on a chair or bent over picking up the weights for their dumbbell curls, they are doing more damage to the spine. People will put themselves in this position, and sometimes they stay bent over here to do their rear deltoids. They may just be picking up their weights to do chest exercises to lie down on the bench. The point is we should never be in this position.
The lower abdominals have long muscle bellies. The transverse abdominus muscle attaches at the origin on the anterior iliac crest, lateral inguinal ligament, thoraco-lumbar fascia, and the cartilage of ribs 6-12. The transverse abdonminus inserts on the abdominal aponeurosis of the linea alba, xyphoid process, and pubic symphysis. If the transverse abdominus contracted the spine would not move, but the guts would be compressed. The action of the transverse abdominus is to help compress the ribs and the viscera, while providing thoracic and pelvic stability.
Many people have the misconception that if hypertrophy were to occur in the abdominals, the stomach would grow outward like a biceps does. The biceps grow outward because there is a bone behind it. There is nothing behind the abdominals. If the muscle were to get thicker, it would do so in a round fashion, growing in both directions. Hypertrophy, to some degree, is what is going to create that “toned” look. Reducing fat will also help with the appearance of the abdominals.
The crunch is not an ideal exercise in general or when working with people seventy -five years and older. I would never crunch or sit-up with anyone with post-operation back surgery. If I had someone seated on a chair with arms crossed, and if I was slightly pushing back on that person, telling them not to move, the abs and hip flexors would keep them from falling backwards. Many trainers have come to think of hip flexors as bad news, even though your abs always work together with the hip flexors. In reality, the abs are always associated with hip flexors. However if you crunch someone to death thinking they will spot reduce, or get six pack abs…you will increase imbalances.
If the seated person was pushed side to side, the obliques and other spinal muscles would be firing to stabilize. In fact, I could take someone and not only am I giving him some slight resistance, I am helping them with proprioceptive training. The client would be learning proper alignment and how to control himself in that alignment. This works so well for so many people, especially the older clients. The older clients spend the majority of the day sitting. By doing this, the trainer would be practicing what they do all day anyhow, only it is practicing it in a better position. If a trainer wanted them to get better at this, he should push harder and harder, because as they are sitting there throughout the day watching the real housewife’s of Miami, it gets tougher and tougher. The length of time to push on them may increase, rather than how hard the resistance is. It is important to make sure the clients are breathing the entire time even if they are sitting and tightening their muscles. Many people say, “Oh, you should never do isometric contractions with these people.” I am talking posture here, and posture, by definition is, for the most part, isometric contractions. There is a big difference though, as opposed to doing some really heavy weights and having the client resist or push the weight while holding their breath. There is a big difference between practicing posture under a super-light resistance for a long period of time and holding a really long isometric contraction. The direction of the resistance can be altered constantly, or it can be changed after a longer period of time. The main idea is to change the direction of resistance.
I can do the following with a client: I will have the client sit with arms crossed, and I will push lightly. Next, I will slowly change directions while the client just meets my resistance. I will eventually add in a rotational component as I alter my direction subtly. As I move from one position to the next, the muscles never get a chance to relax and the client is constantly contracting his muscles. The quicker the switching, the more the client has to stay tight the entire time.
Abdominal machines are a huge problem. The spine has all these little pivot points. The typical abdominal machine with a single pivot point that is lined up beside your spine. It will not work efficiently, because your spine is moving through a totally different path. This is another abdominal machine that is supposed to be the greatest thing since sliced abdominals. A client cannot be in proper alignment when lying on their side unless there is some form of bolstering. This is the silliest thing ever invented. This one works a little better, because instead of lining up a pivot point, the arc of motion is lined up. The arc of motion that is similar to the one people go through when entering that seated position. This machine works pretty well assuming clients want to do more abdominals than hip flexors. Clients will have to stabilize with the hip flexors, and hold the pelvis still. This is just another version with the knees in a really crummy position. I personally kind of like these, but they are not really great for very many people because of the position of the lower extremity. It is still really tough to stabilize the pelvis. Hanging exercises, whether it is with the arms up or down, are very difficult to do correctly if someone is only trying to recruit abdominals. The legs have to be removed entirely just to do spinal flexion. Maximum resistance is not achieved until someone gets to the full crunch; most of the motion was a waste of time. If someone is doing sport-specific things, this may be great. You ever seen people use this? It is one of those back extension benches, only they are flipped over and for doing abs on it. Usually what people do is sit up at the hips, and then they do a crunch at the top. They will sit-up and then do a gravity-assisted crunch. This could be used for a pretty decent exercise. It is just a super advanced exercise. What if he just held himself in that position? What would he be practicing? Stabilization. Some of these things can be made into pretty decent exercises, but the difficulty is very high.
Nutrition
What do all of these exercises need to power them? What does the body need for energy, repair, and maintenance of structures? Nutrition! Nutrition is the study of foods, their nutrients and other chemical constituents, and the effects of those constituents on health and body processes. Food is a basic need for humans. It provides energy, known as calories, nutrients, and other substances needed for growth and health. What are calories? Calories are a unit of measure of the amount of energy supplied by the food. Note: This is also known as kilocalorie or large Calorie. What are nutrients? They are essential chemical substances found in food that are used by the body for growth and health. There are six basic nutrients, which include carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, minerals, and water. All the food we eat in various combinations should provide to us one or more of the six basic nutrients.
I will provide a brief overview of the six nutrients. This book is not intended to replace any nutrition book, but rather give a basic conceptual understanding for the personal trainer. The personal trainer should be able to take the concepts and be able to apply them to performance and exercises.
In general, carbohydrates are the main fuel supply for the human body, providing 4 kcal/gram consumed, and should be about 50-55% of total caloric intake. Carbohydrates describe a very broad category of nutrients. Carbohydrates are substances in food that consist of single sugar molecules or multiples of them in various forms. There are simple sugars, which are one or two single sugars. Simple sugars are the most basic type of carbohydrates that include monosaccharides and disaccharides. Monosaccharides have one sugar molecule. An example of this would be glucose (AKA blood sugar) and fructose. Fructose is a natural monosaccharide found in fruit and honey. Disaccharides have two single sugar molecules such as maltose, which breaks down to two glucose molecules. Mannitol is a disaccharide found in pineapple, olives, and sweet potatoes. Sucrose (not to be confused with the artificial poison sucralose) breaks down to glucose and fructose. It is found in white sugar and fruit. The simple sugars will combine together to form starches.
Starches are complex carbohydrates consisting primarily of long, interlocking chains of glucose units. Complex carbohydrates have many sugar units and dietary fiber. Dietary fiber consists of complex carbohydrates found mainly in the cell walls of plants. Fiber cannot be broken down by the human digestive enzymes; therefore, it cannot be used for energy. There is soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber slows digestion, attracts water, and can be found in oat bran, nuts, seeds, peas, some fruits, and vegetables. Research shows soluble fiber can help lower bad cholesterol and help increase weight loss. Insoluble fiber is found in whole grains and vegetables to name a few. Insoluble fiber adds bulk to fecal material and helps food pass more quickly through the stomach and intestines.
When talking about the appropriate ingestion of nutrients typically most of the carbohydrates should come in the form of starches, which is exactly the same thing as saying that most of your carbohydrates should come in the form of complex carbohydrates. Clients will ask you “Is sugar bad?” or “What do you think about “X” diet which eliminates all sugar?” When answering this question, educate them that sugar is in almost all foods. Be aware of that and be careful when you’re talking with your students and clients if you are a personal trainer about the need to eliminate sugar from the diet. Eliminating processed sugars or foods with high fructose corn syrup, is different than telling them to eliminate all sugar. A person cannot eliminate carbohydrates from their diet and continue to eat a healthy diet.
All the carbohydrates that we eat are ultimately converted in the digestive system to the simple sugar called glucose. It is the glucose form of the carbohydrate which the body uses to produce energy. Energy is ATP. All of the carbohydrates whether from carrots, potatoes, a candy bar, or whatever the source that carbohydrate is converted in the body ultimately to sugar, specifically glucose. The brain can only feed on sugar in a normal state. The central nervous system functions on glucose. The blood sugar level that you have is primarily responsible for sending adequate sugar to the brain.
The following are an important couple of points regarding carbohydrates. The brain demands and feeds off of glucose only. If you don’t eat enough carbohydrates daily in your diet, the body has to produce glucose from non-carbohydrate sources. The body institutes a new chemistry, a chemistry that it normally does not like to invoke, but changes lean tissue to carbohydrate. Gluconeogenesis is the process by which glucose is primarily made in the liver from non-carbohydrate sources. The body is able to make glucose from amino acids in protein and glycerol, the backbone of triglycerides. The body will convert protein and use it for fuel, which is counterproductive to the results a client is looking for in the gym. It will result in “skinny-fat” clients. Therefore, when a client talks to you about cutting out sugar or carbohydrates from their diet, inform them of the dangers and that is a bad idea. Carbohydrates are essential. You have to have carbohydrates on board in order to be able to burn fat. In order to burn fat in the energy production system, carbohydrate has to be available. There has to be a remnant of the metabolism of glucose in order for fat to enter in to the process. When athletes hit the wall or bonk if you are a bicyclist, that means that your muscles do not have an adequate glucose store. It does not matter how much fat is available, that particular muscle fiber cannot produce energy in the absence of carbohydrate. This becomes very important because we do not store very much carbohydrate in our body. In fact, in a typical individual, the body only stores about 1800 calories of carbohydrate. About 1400 calories are stored in the muscles as glycogen. Muscle glycogen is the source of sugar to the skeletal tissue. The liver stores about 320 calories worth of glycogen that is primarily responsible for maintaining blood sugar level. There is about 80 calories of sugar in the blood. The sugar relationship is constantly changing. One of the things that we know is true is the body stores very little sugar. The functional application of this is that if you fast for about 24 hours the body’s reserve of glucose is gone. The liver has to feed the glucose to the brain. Just with normal resting metabolism within muscles, the muscles’ reserve of sugar is going to be drawn into the dietary habit that we maintain especially if we are active. It becomes the most important nutrient with regard to the percentage composition of our daily calories. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of carbs in the diet. Lean people can store a tremendous amount of fat. A male marathon runner who is six to eight percent body fat still has thousands of calories of fat stored in order to power the process of muscle contraction. In order to replace glycogen, in order to put sugar back into the muscles and into the liver, you have got to eat carbohydrates. If I eat a high carbohydrate diet within 24 hours, basically a day, the carbohydrate reserves are back to normal. If you totally deplete your carbohydrate reserve, which used to be a process that endurance athletes would do close to an event, it is fairly difficult to replenish glycogen stores within twelve hours. This would make participating in the event rather difficult. You have to give your body 1-2 days in order to fully replace glycogen even if you are eating a lot of carbohydrates. Glycogen gives your muscles a reliable available source of energy. One’s ability to train intensely is directly proportional to the amount of glycogen stored in their body. When glycogen stores are optimal, muscles appear taut. This is a much better appearance than the flat and depleted look that is common among uninformed, no-carb dieters. In addition, encourage your clients especially, before an athletic event, to not deplete carbs. That is a real functional application for those of you who work with athletes.
Within an hour after exercise eat 5/10 gram of carbohydrate per pound of your body weight. That means that if you are 100 pounds, you need to eat 50 grams of carbs within the first hour after exercise. If you are 200 pounds you need to eat 100 grams of carbohydrate within the first hour after exercise. At the next meal, within 1-3 hours after exercise, eat the same amount again. That means within 3 hours after exercise, if you weigh 100 pounds you need to have 100 grams of carbohydrate taken into your system. Glycogen replacement can occur with either simple sugars, or with glycogen itself. The one aspect concerning simple sugars is pretty much just pre-exercise. Here are some examples of quantities and carbohydrate content for those that are interested. A 100 pound person needs 50 grams of carbs within the first hour, and then within the next 2-3 hours they get another 50 grams if they want to replace glycogen stores. Eight ounces of apple juice gives you about 30 grams of carbohydrate. What is the form of carbohydrate, primarily complex or primarily simple sugar? It is primarily the simple fruit sugar, fructose. A banana is about 40 grams of carbohydrate, one cup of yogurt about 40 grams, one medium bagel gives you about 50 grams of carbohydrates. That means that if you are teaching classes and you have a class in the morning, midday, and a class at night, do you need to eat a lot of carbohydrate that day? Absolutely, you have to. You simply have to do it or you are not going to have enough in reserve. Your students that are very aggressive in their aerobics program should be doing the same thing. You have to constantly be replacing the sugar reserve in your body in order to have enough reserve to maintain proper energy metabolism. It does not make a difference after exercising, if you are ingesting a simple sugar or a complex carbohydrate. However, it does make a bit of difference before exercise, because if you eat simple sugars in a significant quantity before exercise it raises your blood sugar level fairly quickly and that can bring up the insulin levels. People do not want to do that because they burn out their glycogen store more quickly.
Insulin is the most anabolic hormone in the body. Its muscle-building affect comes from the inhibition of excess muscle breakdown, transport of nutrients into muscle cells, and the synthesis of protein in the muscles. People who eat too much sugar can disrupt the insulin ratio, sugar is left in the blood, blood thickens, and they will most likely get type II diabetes. As a side note, the most important thing a type II diabetic can do to reverse diabetes type II is move their body and evaluate their diet. Diabetes is one of the top leading causes of death in the U.S., which can be prevented by lifestyle choices. High blood insulin also inhibits the release of fatty acids into the bloodstream.
Athletes should never eat simple sugars before they compete in any event. Hopefully you do not eat simple sugar before you teach your class, because it can bring on an earlier onset of fatigue. For pregnant women, total calorie recommendations would be higher. As a percentage, total carbohydrate would also go up if 60% of total calories come from carbohydrates. If you or your client does not replace carbohydrates within this time frame of one hour post exercise, you do not get any replacement. Physiologically the body can only process so much simple sugar at a time. Anything above what the liver cannot process gets converted to triglyceride and pumped into a fat cell. The process becomes facilitated if I have high blood insulin. High insulin tends to activate the lipoprotein lipase enzyme, which allows extra sugar to be converted toward triglyceride more quickly. Try to space out your carbohydrate ingestion rather than eating a whole bunch of it all at one time, because like most things, the body processes better over time than it does in one great big volume. If you do not eat, all you are going to do is delay the replacement process. If you are waiting 5 hours then that depressed level of glycogen is going to remain until you eat. Anything that is going to potentially put the equilibrium of blood sugar in jeopardy is going to give you a sense of lethargy, because the central nervous system functions on sugar. If you are not replacing your sugar store then obviously your body is going to protect itself, which will inhibit muscle building and may induce muscle catabolism. There is a direct connection between duration, intensity of one’s workout, and sugar consumed. The more important consideration is that this half a gram of carb per pound of body weight in a general sense is what the body can process biochemically. The more fit you are the more you are able to increase carbohydrate intake as a total volume and be able to process that into glycogen rather than having it converted to fat.
Sometimes people look at caffeine as a supposed ergogenic substance, and the reason is that in some people, that is the key phrase, caffeine has an effect of stimulating a greater release of fatty acids into the blood stream. In other, people it does not have that effect and it can actually have the opposite effect. Some athletes can take some caffeine prior to an event and spare glycogen storage. The reason they spare glycogen stores is because they activate a more rapid and high volume release of fatty acids. It does not always work. You are not going to get that kind of an effect with one cup of coffee. You cannot make a blanket statement that caffeine creates ergogenic effect with regard to glycogen sparing. Half the people that have been studied did not get that effect. A small percentage of people even had a negative effect. Athletes at an elite level are interested in sparing sugar stores so that they can go for a longer period of time at their competitive pace. It does not make them go faster, but it does make them go longer without tiring. If that was what was happening with you, then you would know that in your case, perhaps the caffeine was sparing. That might just be a real temporary effect of the caffeine, a simple nervous system burst of fatty acids. Most of the studies would suggest that you need to have 200-250 milligrams caffeine in order to suggest this potential for effect. I recommend no more than one cup of coffee per day. It is also important to note coffee is very acidic, and an acidic environment is not healthy for anyone.
It makes a lot of sense that we have adaptability that as we become more fit, the body increases its ability to store carbohydrates. The untrained individual will store about 13 grams of glycogen per kilogram of body weight, while the fit individual will store approximately 32 grams of glycogen per kilogram of body weight. The trend of carb loading with endurance athletes is diminishing. Here is the recommendation that I would make for endurance athletes. Continuously maintain about a 60-70% carbohydrate diet. In most cases this translates to about 3-5 grams of carbohydrate per pound of body weight per day. So if you weigh 100 pounds that means that you probably need 300 to 500 grams of carbohydrate per day. I used to coach Nordic ski racers for fifteen years. I had them eating high protein- high fat diets for a few days, and it was not surprising that a lot of them had a decrease in performance for a while because that can be a very negative effect energy wise. So I changed the exercise. Three days prior to the event I would cut back the exercise routine to only 20 minutes. What you want to do is maintain a small turnover of sugar. There’s an enzyme in the muscle called hexokinase, which is responsible for getting the sugar out of the blood stream and getting it into the muscle. It is important to keep the activity of that enzyme functional. If you stop exercising 3 days before, then by the time the race started, you would have a depressed activity. Keep that enzyme active. The same is true for two days before the event. There only needs to be about 20 minutes of just modest intensity activity. The day before rest! That is a hard concept for many athletes, because they think, “gosh tomorrow is the race, I need to go out to train today to get that last little edge.” The best way to get the edge the day before an event is take a day off. Rest! Go to a movie and just totally relax the day before, and continue to eat the normal high carbohydrate diet. On the day of the event the athlete is ready to roll.
Proteins are a critically important part of our body and our function. Proteins are substances found in food made up of amino acids. There are twenty amino acids, which serve as the building blocks for protein. Nine of these amino acids are essential, meaning they must be consumed in our diet. The essential amino acids can be combined by body processes to produce the other eleven. The rest of the amino acids are called non-essential, because from the essential amino acids, conversions biochemically in the body, convert those essential amino acids to the structure that forms the non-essential amino acids. Certain kinds of food provide all of the essential amino acids, those are called complete proteins. For the most part those are provided by animal foods. The proteins that we find in those kinds of foods are typically complete proteins. Plant proteins do not contain all of the essential amino acids and are called incomplete proteins. There has been a fair amount of discussion and literature that has been written to discuss how to make plant protein in combination to form a complete protein. It has been discovered that certain kinds of plant foods grouped together provide the essential amino acids in adequate ratio and adequate proportion so that they become complete proteins. If combined carefully, then we can get a meal that has the equivalent quality of protein to having animal foods in the meal. That is how true vegetarians that eat no animal food what so ever are able to supply themselves with a complete protein in their diet. The major combinations that work in this fashion are combining legumes, beans and peas, with grain. Many cultures and societies on the Earth do not have access to animal foods in the abundance that other countries do, and so they depend very strongly upon the combinations of plant proteins to provide their body with the adequate protein nutrition. If I combine corn and beans for instance, that makes a complete protein. Many cultures have that as a staple in their diet. There are a number of ways to manipulate a diet to have complete proteins. Everything that grows for the most part contains a little bit of protein, because protein is structure. One of the things that I really want to make sure you understand, is that when you read articles or information that suggests certain kinds of recommendations toward combinations of nutrients or combinations of food groups, you must think down to the very basic elemental structure of food so you can evaluate whether or not it is a reasonable supposition. Make sure that we all know that everything that grows has to contain a certain amount of protein otherwise it could not grow. Clearly protein is a very important part of our nutritional spectrum. The biochemistry of most organisms is likewise built on protein enzymes. Like sugar, glucose is the building block of complex carbohydrate or starches, amino acids are the building blocks of the various proteins. It is the various combinations of these 20 amino acids that describe a particular protein function. All of the various proteins are different in function simply because amino acids are chained together in a little different sequence. The specific function is related to the genetic matching of amino acids to amino acids.
At the top of the list in people’s questioning about proteins is “how much do we need?” Protein is constantly being converted from one area and reconverted to another. The body can provide protein from its own pool, which leads to a constant biochemical conversion and movement of amino acids. It is generally suggested that people eat between (.5 and .8) grams of protein per day per pound of body weight for maintenance. Someone weighing 100 pounds would need 50 to 80 grams per day. Those people engaging in resistance training with the desire to add lean muscle mass can eat up to 1.4g of protein per lb of body weight. The increase in protein must also have a proportional increase in other nutrients as well. Those looking to lose body fat can have up to 1.27 g of protein per lb. of body weight with no side effects. Cold processed, undenatured whey protein from grass fed cows has shown to be optimal for weight reduction and lean mass gains. The body provides protein metabolism from what is called its own pool reserve. The proteins in the body are constantly being reconverted, and an amino acid from the biceps muscle today might end up down in some other structure tomorrow. A sedentary man does not do any activity what so ever, obviously the pure need would be somewhat smaller. It surprises a lot of people to discover that the research has shown in 1988 in the Journal of Applied Physiology that elite medal world class endurance runners actually require a bit more protein per pound than do body builders working at the elite level. The point is to keep clearly in mind that while protein is very important, you do not need massive quantities of protein everyday in order to even build substantial hypertrophy or growth of muscles.
Seven ounces of tuna, one can, provides in some cases the total protein required on a daily basis. It is an animal food, a complete protein. On the other hand, two tablespoons of butter gives you 8 grams of protein. Butter is an incomplete protein, so one would want to combine some kind of grain with that in order to provide the complete protein spectrum. A person does need more protein when getting involved in an activity program, especially if he wants to develop a lot of strength. You do need necessarily need a little bit more protein, but what a person really needs is more food, more calories. It is carbohydrate, which provides the essential energy for much of the biochemistry in the body, and in fact, to produce muscle, what one really needs is more carbohydrate to be the substrate for the production of energy. When training clients, emphasize they do not need more protein when lifting weights, but the focus should be on eating more clean foods. The protein quantity will increase in the proper ratio with more fats and carbohydrate. No one should just consume more protein by itself.
One myth that I hear a lot of times and unfortunately is something that from a physiologically and a nutritional point of view is not true at all. Meat is not bad food, necessarily. In fact lean grass fed red meat is the best source that we know of for iron. The particular kind of iron is called the ferrous form of iron. The kind of iron that is found in plant products is a little different chemical structure and much less bio-available in the system. I recommend meat from grass-fed, hormone free, antibiotic free animals. When working with clients and students, help them to understand that unless they have some ethical or philosophical reason why they do not want to include meats in their diet, meats are very nutritionally sound. In addition to iron, meat is an excellent source of the nutrient zinc, which is functional in a number of different chemical processes. Four ounces of beef compared with four ounces of chicken is very similar in protein content and total calories. I recommend organic, non-gmo, free range chicken. Look at the difference between iron content in red meat and chicken. One can conclude chicken is not better than red meat, because it depends on what nutrient is being referenced. Red meat may have slightly higher fat, but it also has a higher content of iron. Sometimes people will ask if there is a difference between food nutrients and supplements. There are some things that must be taken into consideration, such as are the supplements bio-available. Bottom line is food nutrients or supplements are both absorbed in the digestive system. The body is not able to discriminate where it is coming from. An example would be, ferrous iron is ferrous iron if from a supplement or from food nutrient.
Again, protein sources that I encourage are always organic eggs, grass fed meats (make sure it is 100% grass fed with no corn and free from hormones and antibiotics), cold processed, undenatured whey protein. Other great protein sources are wild caught fish and raw nuts. (Note that peanuts are a legume.) Proteins essentially provide cellular structure, but they also provide enzymes for energy production and other biochemical processes, such as the production of hormones.
Fats are substances in food that are not soluble in water. Fats have a bad reputation because of the media. When most people hear fat, they tend to have a negative emotional reaction to the word. Fats are an essential nutrient in the diet though. All humans need essential fatty acids from their food. There are two types of essential fatty acids. Linoleic and linolenic. Linoleic is known as the Omega 6, while linolenic is the Omega 3 fatty acid. Linoleic is found in corn and soybean polyunsaturated vegetable oils.However my personal opinion is never put soy in your body-99% is GMO. Linolenic is found in flax. A lack of either linolenic or linoleic can lead to illness and/or deficiency symptoms. However, when linoleic is absent from the diet, arachodonic acid becomes essential.
Linolenic acid (Omega 3) is essential for normal growth and development, a component of cell membranes, and is converted to longer chain Omega 3 fatty acids including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). EPA and DHA have been shown to protect against coronary heart disease, sudden heart failure, which is possible because of their anti- arrhythmic, thrombotic, atherosclerotic, and inflammatory mechanisms. Omega 3’s are also known for controlling inflammation of arthritic conditions and protecting against neurodegenerative diseases. In general, people in the western hemisphere need to consume more linolenic acid (Omega 3). Sources of Omega 3 are fish oils, seaweed, flax seed, hemp seeds, organic eggs, grass fed meats, and wild caught fish.
Different parts of the cells use linoleic acid as a component in the processes of cell signaling. The ideal ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 is 5:1. Recent research shows the western diet ratio is around 20:1. Therefore, we must encourage our clients to eat more Omega 3’s. Today I recommend Krill oils above all oils on the market.
Your clients may also ask about the difference between the types of fats. Saturated fats are very dense and solid at room temperature. Some examples of saturated fats include: cheeses, lard, butter, palm oil, tropical oils, and coconut oil. They generally come from animal products except coconut oil. As you are working with clients to help them read labels, if a product primarily contains palm oil, the fat will be mostly saturated.
In general, saturated fats tend to raise blood cholesterol levels. In fact, research demonstrates when dietary cholesterol goes up, the body’s natural production of cholesterol goes down. Cholesterol is a fat soluble, colorless liquid found in animals, but not in plants. It is manufactured by the liver.
Unsaturated fats are found in plant products. Monounsaturated fats are liquid at room temperature. Some examples of these are extra virgin olive oil, peanuts, avocados, pecans, and other nuts. Polyunsaturated fats are also liquid at room temperature. Examples of these are sunflower oil, cottonseed oil, and linolenic and linoleic acids. In general, you want your client to be eating fats that are primarily unsaturated fats. There is a big controversy with organic coconut oil. It is “saturated” at room temperature, but it melts at about 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Therefore, it is “unsaturated” in the body. Clients need fat for the production of high density lipoprotein cholesterol, which removes excess “free” cholesterol from the blood. Trans fats are a type of unsaturated fat made by the chemical process of hydrogenating oils. Your clients need to stay away from these substances. Fats are essential. We need to have essential fats in our diets. Essential means we need to get these fats from our diet. Fats are the most concentrated form of energy in the body, providing 9 calories per gram. One is not going to absorb vitamin A and cross the lumina of the intestine unless he has fat present within the intestinal tract. Vitamin D, E, A, and K are fat soluble. Unless there is a fat structure in the digestive system one will not absorb those nutrients. Taking a vitamin pill, specifically of vitamins D, E, A or K, with a glass of water in the morning without any form of fat is a waste of money, because one is not absorbing any of the fat soluble nutrients. Fats also add flavor.
When a person eats a meal that has a high fat content, it tends to stay in the stomach for a prolonged period of time, so one feels full longer. This is known as satiety. A high fat meal has a satiety enhancing effect. Fat is also the source of fatty acids like linoleic acid, which is one of the primary essential acids that you have to have in order to perform a number of processes. The amount of time that fats stay in the system depends on a number of things, primarily the total volume of the meal. A very high fat meal may actually be in the stomach as much as 3-4 hours before it exits through the pyloric point of the intestine. A high carb meal on the other hand probably takes 1-2.5 hours before it passes into the small intestines.
Look for the word partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated oils in labels. When teaching clients how to read labels, it is important to help them to cut back on saturated fats in their diet. Remember, fats contain 9 calories per gram while proteins and carbohydrates contain 4 calories per gram.
To recap, the body prefers fats and carbs for energy production. When fats and carbs are not available, perhaps that person is not getting enough food every day; the body goes into protein catabolism for energy. Vitamins and minerals are not energy, but they are extremely important for the body. Vitamins are for proper functioning of many tissues, like nerve and muscle fibers. They play an important role in energy production. For example, if I am deficient in vitamin B, the process of glucose metabolism does not function very well.
One substance that you should be aware of is alcohol. Alcohol has no vitamins, minerals, or any of the other nutrients. When working with people with weight issues, one of the things that kind of sneaks into the picture sometimes that they do not think about is how much alcohol they are drinking everyday. In one ounce of alcohol, there is approximately 200 calories of energy. If a client or student is having a couple of glasses of wine everyday or a few beers a day, they are adding 400-500 calories to their daily intake, which they might not even be thinking about. Even though it is not nutritious in regards to vitamins, minerals, proteins, and fats, it is very calorie dense. The excess of anything is not good. Excess alcohol has a number of negative effects in addition to many calories, such as causing fatty liver disease and ultimately cirrhosis and/or myopathies of cardiac tissue. Because alcohol is processed in the liver, in excess it tends to depress normal sugar metabolism. In reality, the real negative effect is that it destroys liver tissue so that it cannot store glycogen. It depresses the ability to maintain blood sugar levels. Always think of the relationship relative to a glass of wine with dinner. There is nothing wrong with that at all physiologically. It is when things are consumed in excess that the negative physiological consequences take place.
The B vitamin complex is intricately related to the enzymatic processes of ultimately breaking sugar down into ATP. We must have vitamins. I get energy from enough carbohydrates and fats. A person eating highly refined sugars like candy and pop will not be getting many of other nutrients. The person might get adequate carbohydrates, but they are not getting processing factors. Grains and legumes tend to provide not only the carbohydrate, but also give you a lot of the cofactors that are essential for the processing of those carbs. Minerals, like vitamins, are cofactors. Calcium we know is important for the maintenance of skeletal structure and is critical for muscle function. For contraction of skeletal muscle tissue, inadequate calcium can be a factor related to improper muscle functioning. Magnesium is a mineral that may even be related to essential hypertension.
Water is the sixth essential nutrient, and often times we do not think of water as a nutrient, but it is a nutrient. It is a very important nutrient we have to have it in order to function. 60-70% of the weight you see on the scale is from water! You need a lot of water that is preferably purified. For every gram of carbohydrate stored as glycogen, 3 grams of water is stored. One of the major ways that the body maintains its water reserve is with an adequate carbohydrate diet. Hopefully one has a very clear understanding that carbohydrate ingestion on a daily basis is critical for optimal nutrition and certainly optimum performance. If someone does a carb loading a day or week before an event, he or she will feel logy because they are saturated with water. Within the first few miles of the race the body starts releasing the water as it metabolizes carbohydrate at a rate of 3 grams of water per gram of glycogen. The reason people on low calorie diets lose a lot of weight in the first week is for every gram of carb they deplete in their diet and not replace it, they also lose 3 grams of water, resulting in dramatic weight loss. 15% or more of this loss is just water! Now the person is dehydrated as part of their weight loss program, which is obviously not only ineffective, but it is not healthy! The water tends to move through compartments from inter-cellular to extracellular to the vascular space. One of the problems with becoming dehydrated and then drinking a whole bunch of water is that the water does not go from the blood stream right into the muscle cell. If there is a high volume of water at once, it goes to the kidneys and gets excreted. It is better to drink several small portions of water than one great big lug. One of the first statements that become very important with regard to water is “drink before you get thirsty.” In the human organism, for some reason by the time we have the sensation of thirst, we are already partially dehydrated. We must create the habit of drinking fluids, even when not thirsty. Here are suggestions that some recent studies have shown us. Within the first two hours before exercise you need 2-3 eight ounce servings of water or 16-24 ounces of water within two hours before exercise. It is preferred to drink the water over a two hour period opposed to all at once, since the body increases the absorption rate of the water. Fifteen minutes before you exercise drink another cup or two of water to bring in the fluid level that is needed. Every fifteen to twenty minutes during exercise drink another cup of water. What I recommend especially to endurance athletes, is to break that down even further and every ten minutes try to drink about 4 ounces of water. This keeps the body constantly hydrated. For example, when running a road race, every time one passes by the aid station, take the cup and drink some fluid, because it is needed to complete the race well. Within the first couple of hours after the race, one must drink exactly the same amount of water as was consumed before and during the race. Water is important! Emphasize to everyone the need to rehydrate after the exercise session similar to what was done prior to the exercise session.
Sometimes clients ask me about suggestions for electrolyte replacement drinks and that kind of stuff. As a general rule, if the activity or program is lasting less than 90 minutes, only water is needed. Even a well trained athlete working at a very high intensity less than 90 minutes is going to have adequate sugar. If the person has been eating clean and with the proper nutrients, their electrolyte balance is going to be well maintained. However, if a person is working out longer than 90 minutes (ex. A tri-athlete, an ultra-marathoner, or a long distance cyclist) then sugar levels must be replaced. Recall the liver. Within 1-3 hours into a race the ability to maintain blood sugar levels is depressed. It is an absolute must to prevent our clients or students from getting into a hypoglycemic state. Make sure he or she is getting about 6-8% sugar or electrolyte drinks. I used to prepare for my clients, who were competitive skiers, a 5% solution in a big jar with table sugar. There are a number of products that are on the market right now that provide a similar percentage as well. When looking for products make sure there is no propylene glycol, sucralose, or aspartame. Also, make sure that there is not higher than 8% sugar. If it becomes more concentrated than that, the body has to draw water into the stomach to dilute the substance down to the 6-8% before it can exit into the intestines. This is the opposite of what one wants to happen. One wants the fluid to get out of the stomach very quickly, so the glucose or the sugar can be absorbed into the blood stream. I recommend “Want more energy” from Isagenix. Another alternative is an all natural, organic juice diluted. For instance, take apple juice and dilute it in half with water. Citrus fruits do not tend to perform as well, because in some people, they are a bit of a gastric irritant during exercise. I recommend apple or pear juice. In my opinion, half of a banana, some sugar water, diluted juice, or “Want more energy” electrolyte drink is all that is needed. I cannot emphasize enough if one is eating well they do not need electrolyte replacements, unless they are competing in endurance events. Most of the people that you work with I suspect are not going to need electrolyte replacements. I cannot emphasize enough if one is eating clean, an electrolyte replacement, is not necessary, unless he or she is competing in endurance events. Most of the people that you work with are not going to need electrolyte replacements. Sodium and potassium are two electrolytes that also get a little bit of press in terms of the need to replace those during exercise. Typically the diet provides plenty. If one is eating a good healthy diet, one will have plenty of sodium. In regards to potassium, a person will have enough if eating clean foods. A loss of 500 milligrams after an hour’s worth of aggressive exercise may occur.
The government has recently released the “choose my plate” to replace the food pyramid. I am not sure how I feel about the plate compared to the pyramid. However, it is a good tool for your clients. The majority of the plate is vegetables. I recommend organic, dark, leafy vegetables, tomatoes, onions, different color of peppers, and other various vegetables. Explain to your clients that iceberg lettuce has no nutritional value. In addition, if they are eating salads, they should not smother the salad in dressing, cheese, croutons and so forth.
Another great tool is to teach yourself and clients about reading labels. Teach them about reading the serving size. I do not focus much on counting calories, but some people need it. In addition, teach them that the fewer the ingredients the better. Ingredients I recommend avoiding include: sucralose, aspartame, and hydrogenated oils to name a few.
Half a cup of legumes is generally considered a serving. Some vegetables are cups and other vegetables a half a cup is a serving. There are a number of excellent resources one could have for client. The serving size is great because it also helps one understand portion sizes. I want you to understand that when you get questions from your students such as, “Can I eat proteins and carbs as a meal?” you must think down to the very basic nutrition. Most foods are made of the six basic nutrients. Our bodies are made of the six basic nutrients. It is simply the relative proportions of those six nutrients that describe different characteristics, structures, and functions. Take grains for instance. Grains are very low in fat typically, but there is fat especially if it is unrefined. They are an excellent source of fatty acids. I recommend getting as much unrefined grains as possible. In addition, grains are a source of protein. Combine grains with beans, peas, or legumes, and now there is a complete protein. 12% of grain in barley is fat and protein and 88% is carbohydrate. It surprises a lot of people to discover that lettuce can be 9% fat. Keep in mind that is 9% of not very much. Lettuce also does not have much protein or total calories. Likewise, beans and peas are low fat and an excellent source of protein, with the exception of soy beans. In fact, a lentil bean has more protein per gram than beef steak. Lentil beans are an excellent source of protein and an incredibly good source of carbohydrates. Think about the statements that are often made from a real sensible point of view. People do not think of fruit as a protein source. A tomato has 17% of the calories from protein. Avocados are very high in fat. About 82% of the calories come from fat. One avocado typically is about 240 calories, but it is highly unsaturated fat, which limits negatives effects. The fat still provides 9 calories per gram. Grapes are a great snack with very high carbohydrates, which is mainly fruit sugar. In an overall diet that is maybe 3000 calories a day, I can eat a lot of grapes and not have anything to worry about fat wise. Do not think of things as absolutes, but try to look at the relationships of the nutrients within foods to be able to help people understand the food plate. If you really want to get into depth with somebody, have them do their 3 day diet records and match it to the plate. Then evaluate how the client is doing. It becomes an excellent tool to help them just keep things in perspective.
Food science is extremely fascinating and has created many chemicals in food. One of the concerns that I have heard from the dietitian committee is that people are thinking because these foods like ice cream are fat free, they can eat as much of it as they want. A person will not enough fruits and vegetables and instead substitute with non-fat foods. This food might be very low in fat calories, but that is secondary to the fact that you still need to eat according to the plate. If someone wants ice cream for dessert, fat free is probably a better choice. Do not eat ice cream in place of enough of the right kinds of food. I always caution people to be aware of eating too many chemicals. Coconut milk or almond “milk” ice creams are excellent alternatives to ice cream.
The CDC makes some suggestions about what the typical American eats. The recent studies say that probably between 37 and 40% of the typical American’s calories every day come in the form of fat. A high percentage of those are saturated fats. The suggestion is for people to be eating somewhere between 20 and 25% of calories from fat, 60-70% from carbohydrates, and 10-15% of calories from protein. Now I know without any hesitation that if you give these numbers to your typical clients that you work with, they are not going to have a clue about how to eat. They do not know what 20% of something is, because there is no relationship to total volume. I cannot emphasize enough to you to teach clients about the relationship of servings on the food plate, and that they eat according to the recommendations there. Any given food might be about 80% in fat, like peanut butter for instance; does that mean you cannot ever have peanut butter? No, because this is percentage of total daily calories. If you are eating 3000 calories a day, how many calories can come from fat according to this recommendation? What’s 20% of 3000, over 600 calories of day can come from fat. If I have a serving of peanut butter that is giving me 80% fat, which is a small number of calories relative to the total 3,000. My recommendation is do not get into a pattern of saying “this is good food” or “this is bad food.” Every food you eat does not have to have less than 30% fat calories. People will become neurotic when you do that. There is nothing wrong with eating a snickers candy bar every once in a while. It is high in fat, chemicals, and simple sugars. If someone wants to have a snickers candy bar, it is not a big deal if that person has a clean diet overall. Be capable of putting it in to a relationship for people to understand it. If you tell a client they cannot have another snickers, then the client will want a snickers bar. It is our job to get people to understand this is a lifestyle change, and teach them how everything they eat affects their body. Help them understand the relationships. All the calories that clients put in their mouth must be counted for in the previously mentioned ratios by the end of the day. One of the major advantages you should be well aware of is that because of the density of nutrients, if I am eating 40% of my calories in the form of fat, I do not get to eat very much food every day before I have 1500 or 1600 calories. With a high fat volume of food I am not getting a lot of vitamins and minerals that day in the diet. If I can help my student or client understand that if I can cut that 40% of calories back to 20% by eating more fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, by reducing animal products and junk food, not only do I get a lot more total food volume, but I also supply my body with more vitamins and minerals. The vitamins and minerals are usually much more abundant in the fruit and vegetable group. I also recommend at least 1 Isalean shake a day, which will provide all the vitamins and minerals a person will need at the bare minimum. I can eat exactly the same total calorie content and not deprive myself of food volume. One can actually eat more food based on food choices. Personal trainers must educate and work with clients to help clients understand and the importance of eating a sensible diet.
The bottom line of weight loss, control, management, and fat loss more specifically, is the thermodynamics of calorie balance. I know there is a lot of press, and some people say, “Well it’s not total calorie balance.” The fact is that the body stores energy as fat and very little carbohydrate. If people want to lose body fat reserve in any kind of substantial quantity, they have got to burn more calories than they consume. There are a number of processes that are related to energy expenditure other than exercise. Some people genetically have a little higher resting metabolism. Research has identified energy conservers that tend to have less of a sodium potassium ATP activity across membranes and lower activity in the brown adipose cells. There are a number of things that influence this. Individually variables are time of day for eating, number of meals consumed, and thermogenic properties associated with nutrients. Taking energy for the body to digest foods and transporting them into the blood is called the thermogenic effect of nutrients or specific dynamic action. You only get about 60-70% of the available energy from carbohydrates into the body because you spent 30% processing it.
In order to burn one pound of fat, one must burn 3,500 more calories than the number of calories taken in. Often time people are inclined to say “This isn’t that difficult of a process if all it is only energy balance, all I’ll do is quit eating.” Hopefully you can very quickly and understandably explain to them that a low calorie diet is an incredibly negative process. It is perhaps the least effective method in the long run and ultimately can lead to an increase in body fat levels over time. Recent studies at Cedar Sonai in L.A. have explained the potential mechanism for this. When a person does not eat enough to power the processes of life sustenance, the body shuts down. We call the inadequate intake of calories starvation. The body apparently has a very substantial built in or innate starvation protection mechanism. The first step that occurs in a hypo-caloric environment is the shutdown of basic metabolism. For instance, this situation would occur in people that eat less than 1000-1200 calories a day, which is generally regarded as the bare minimum. Some studies are suggesting that a better way to approach it, if people need to lose weight, is to not reduce their total calorie intake more than 500 calories per week. If you go from whatever level they are and induce a greater than 500 calories reduction, some of these starvation mechanisms are invoked. If they are eating 3,000 calories and you know they do not need that many, DO NOT take them from 3,000 to 1,500 in one week. Do it over the course of 3 weeks so the body can adjust its metabolism without having a decrease in BMR. If people are on really low calorie diets, they are lethargic, irritable, sleep a lot, and in general do not function well. The reason being the body is not in a good energy status.
The research at Cedar suggested that in very obese people, an increase in the activity of this enzyme called LPL, lipoprotein lipase, which is the enzyme that is found in capillary walls which clears triglycerides out of the blood stream. The activity of that enzyme tends to have a dramatic impact on the amount of fat that is going to be stored in fat cells. Most importantly is the activity of this enzyme appears to increase most dramatically in abdominal fat stores. It is the amount of abdominal fat that influences coronary artery disease risk. The more fat a person has under the skin in the abdominal area suggests there is more fat inside the abdominal cavity as well as around the heart muscle. When a person yo- yo diets, the weight might stay the same, but abdominal fat increases. Now instead of being 25% body fat they are 40% body fat. The reason being is that with each diet they have lost protein and a lot of water. When they start eating their normal diet again they replace the protein and water with fat because they have increased the ability to store fat. The research suggests as you increase the activity of the LPL enzyme, the activity never goes back down. The application of this is: Clients may say, “It is much easier for me to gain weight now and very difficult to lose the weight. Ten years ago I could drop weight easily, but now I can’t.” Ask them what they have done, and they may rattle off various diets, which are all dietary approaches for low total calories. They made themselves very efficient conservers of energy and not very efficient wasters of energy. A client may ask how long after the yo-yo diets does it take their body to get back to normal. The answer to that is it probably depends a lot on the individual, on how many times they have done it, their own individual chemistry, and age. A number of factors have yet to be elucidated. In my opinion, when you are working with somebody who is interested in losing body fat, spend a few extra minutes finding out what their food habit or dieting history has been. For those who have done a lot of low calorie dieting, you need to make them understand that the process might be drawn out a bit more. Let them know it may take more time.
There was a study that had a group of 30 subjects, and they were the first ones that were really identified with an increased abdominal LPL activity. Many people are familiar with the research that suggested there is a hypothalamic set point in the brain. There is a mechanism that somehow regulates body fat stores. Researchers in bariatric physiology are suspicious that there is a kind of an indicant functional override on weight loss and weight gain. This is the first link to the biochemistries of suggesting how this increase in body fat levels occurs to maintain body weight. There may be a relationship between a person’s age and how the systems work. In fact, I reported on some studies in Las Vegas when we did the research review that suggested that as we all get older, there is an increase in our percentage of body fat. Those of us that stay active as we age will reduce the increase in body fat percentage. Make practical suggestions now to your clients about how they can approach the dietary aspect of weight control. The marriage of exercise and diet is critically important with any effective weight loss program. Help clients understand that even small reductions in fat intake add up very quickly. If you can help somebody eliminate 20 grams of fat a day in their diet, you may have helped them remove almost 200 calories. If for breakfast you eat 2 eggs, 2 greasy bacon strips, and a couple pieces of toast, you have got 500 calories. 25% carb, 55% fat, 20% protein, contrasted with 2 cups of cereal and a medium banana. With 2% milk, it would be the same 500 calories, but with 75% carbohydrate. People are going to say, “Yes, that looks good, but the cereal and banana do not look so good.” That is their choice. You just have to be honest with them and explain options.
Putting all of this stuff into the practical application for your students is obviously the most critical issue and what you want to be able to effectively do. Chicken and duck are both poultry right. Are they the same food? NO! In one pound of chicken there are 385 calories and 15 grams of fat. Duck is 1215 calories per pound and 109 grams of fat. When you cut back on fat, bring in carbohydrates. One of the things that I want you to be able to share with people is that they have to eat enough food everyday if they want to effectively lose weight. The body powers fat metabolism by having enough carbohydrates in reserve to accomplish that process. How many calories if you are a 150 pound aerobics instructor and you are teaching one class a day in addition to the rest of your busy lifestyle do you need? You will need in the range of 2,000-3,000 calories everyday in order to power that. If you can help people understand the human body is an energy craving machine, then sometimes they are much more comfortable with the concept of eating more of the right kinds of foods. How many calories does a world class endurance athlete need everyday? A 180 pound Nordic ski racer needs 6,000-7,000 calories, which is a lot of food in order to power the process. It is appropriate to spread out the meals over the day to help maintain blood sugar levels, and if I eat a whole lot of food at once, it stores it all as fat. The point is at the end of the week if I have got a 3,500 negative balance, I am going to lose one pound of fat regardless of how I have done it. I have a little bit of thermogenic effect each time I eat, which creates a bit of an elevation in metabolism versus if I eat it all at once. If I eat a good breakfast and lunch, it helps maintain blood sugar levels, which keeps me from becoming hypoglycemic late in the morning or late in the afternoon.
Metabolism Studies
I want to preface this all by saying that most of these abstracts are reviews of fairly small samples. In addition, the studies are not typically replicated because it is new research. A master’s degree student or PhD candidate, must do some research if they are going to do a dissertation. Try to understand that as we get more into the studies, that this is not absolute truth, dogma or postulate. However, it is quite interesting.
The first study that I would like to mention is called “The Effect of Carbohydrate Consumption on Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness,” or DOMS. DOMS is the latent pain that people feel two, three, four or five days after doing some kind of resistance type of work or training. This is also known as the latent pain. Now, some manufacturers may claim that the products that they sell not only enhance performance, but also have an impact on recovery process. In some cases, this may also include the amount of delayed soreness that might occur. That is the reason that I wanted to reference that study.
The study looked at twenty untrained men; this is important to know from the status of connective tissue integrity in the muscles that are being worked. They did eight sets of ten eccentric lifts. The subjects did three lifts – a bench press, leg press and a biceps curl. That is a lot of sets and they are doing eccentric lifts to maximum. To clarify, eccentric is the negative phase of movement; we are not talking about a dual movement of positive and negative. In the study, ten of those subjects ingested carbohydrate fluid after the work out. They ingested about five tenths of a gram of carbohydrate per kg bodyweight or four tenths of a gram carb per kg bodyweight. The other ten took a placebo. The measurement for delayed soreness is often referenced as an enzyme called creatine kinase. Creatine kinase is an enzyme associated with connective tissue processes and metabolism, typically when there is eccentric lifting involved. Creatine kinase is associated with the delayed soreness process, much more predominantly with the eccentric phase of a movement than the concentric phase. Creatine kinase is measured in the bloodstream to see if there has been any connective tissue damage. In comparison of the two different groups, there was absolutely no difference in the amount of creatine kinase, nor was there any difference in the perceived soreness. It was a subjective profile on ranking for degree of soreness. The point is that just be very cautious about making recommendations or read with an open mind the claims toward any kind of nutritional supplement that can potentially have an impact on the process of delayed soreness. In all of my years, of experience, I have found only one company in which their products have inhibited soreness for me and many of my clients. I recommend the Isagenix product line, which I will focus on later in this book.
The next study I would like to discuss is the study on low energy availability, altering the resting metabolic rate and core temperature in lean and active women. I would like to add, this is a master’s thesis, not a doctoral dissertation. With that being said, it does not minimize the importance or interest. This study took eleven active, fairly fit women for three days; the study was a total of seven days long. For three days, the women ate a diet that was about 2,300 calories; that is an average amount of calories for the eleven lean, active women that were in the study. The next four days, the women reduced their calorie intake 1,000 calories a day for a total of 1,200-1,300 calories a day. This is obviously right at the bare margin for sufficiency for caloric intake per day. During the time frame of the study, the women exercised every day, approximately 45 minutes to an hour a day, expending about 500 calories a day. As a result of the study, even in the seven-day period, the discovery was made that the women had a significant decrease in total body weight and resting core temperature. Core temperature reducing shows some suggestion toward decreasing metabolic processing, and resting respiratory exchange ratio (RER). To recall the RER (sometimes referred to as the RQ or respiratory quotient) is a reference toward percentage contributions from fat and carbohydrate to energy expenditure. The higher the RER, the greater the contribution from carbohydrate, and typically that is associated with an increase in metabolic process. The lower the RER, that suggests there is a great contribution coming from fatty acids, and also can suggest a decrease in metabolic processing. All these things together plus the final element of interest, there was a decrease in resting VO2. It is important that whenever you are looking at a study or a review of a study that discusses metabolic processes, the major relationship has to come from oxygen consumption. For every liter of oxygen that we consume, how many calories do we turn over? That is correct; there is five calories of energy expenditure. If you are not familiar with that relationship, in regard to metabolism, that should be the first think you think about. If there is a decrease in resting VO2, that suggests a decrease in energy turnover. The reason being there is less oxygen being taken up per kilogram body weight per minute. In reference to this study, it seemed to support this information, which by the way is not new information. There is a suggestion that in order to maintain resting metabolic rate, you have to have adequate calories. Many times when people go on weight loss programs or people who are active in the fitness industry as instructors, are expending lots of calories every day in their activity, they do not get sufficient calories in their diet. The negative consequences in terms of resting metabolic processes may well attenuate some of the positive effect of exercise. This is a very important study, with a small group or small sample size, in a short period of time. Overall, I rate it as a very well done study.
Another study I would like to talk about, discussed the short-term exercise training in the absence of weight loss, altering lipid metabolism. Often times when we work with people who have risk for coronary artery disease, typically men and post-menopausal women, the suggestion is there is potential for positive impact of aerobic training. This study indicates there is evidence that strength training can have elevated HDL levels. This can create a very positive change in terms of lipid risk profile for coronary artery disease. (As a short reminder, HDL is Happy cholesterol or the “good” cholesterol, many people talk about). In this particular study, the researchers were looking at the short-term exercise training in the absence of weight loss; the reason being most studies look at lipid changes or lipid dynamics associated with exercise and weight loss, not just exercise alone. That is one of the most significant differences about this particular study. The study took ten men between the ages of 56 and 72. (This is a very appropriate population for suspicion for coronary artery disease risk). During the ten to thirteen days of the study, the men exercised sufficiently every day consecutively to burn about 425 calories a day, every single day. Their diet was controlled so they would maintain a stable weight. It was important to the researchers, to make sure that during this period of observation, there was no decrease in body weight. The reason being a decrease in body weight can influence triglyceride levels and other factors associated with lipid metabolism. Hence the importance to maintain the weight during this period, fortunately each man was able to do so. The results of the study were: In a period of less than two weeks, there was a 2.1 milliliter per kg increase in VO2 max, the HDL cholesterol increased by 3.3 milligrams per deciliter, and there was increase in lipoprotein lipase activity. I am going to take a moment to comment on each of these observations. First, the increase in VO2 max, certainly this was not a huge increase, but it is of interest in this population. Secondly, the change in HDL, recognize that is not a huge number difference; however, it is very significant. Say for instance one individual had HDL at 35 pre-study and now HDL is at 38 post study. That is a great movement in numbers toward the direction of reducing risk. The point I am trying to make is, it does not have to be a huge number or statistic to necessarily show a statistical significance. Lastly, there was an increase in lipoprotein lipase activity. Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is the enzyme that clears triglycerides form the blood stream. Recently, there has been a lot of suggestion that chronic weight cycling- lose weight, gain weight, lose weight, gain weight, alters the activity of LPL specifically within the adipose tissue store area. That is a negative change in lipoprotein lipase. There is also LPL that clears fats into muscle and clears fat into myocardium; in regards to the study, this was the LPL activity increase that they showed in the study. This is a very positive change in such a short period of time. The LPL activity increase was all done with the absence of weight loss, and exercising at a relatively modest intensity, burning three to five hundred calories a day. It does not stop there; the study also showed that there was a decrease in the total cholesterol to HDL ratio of about .8 raw value. What exactly does that mean? The average risk for a guy is about 5.0, so if a guy came into the study with a total cholesterol HDL ratio of 6, in the short period of less than two weeks, he would bring himself from a slightly higher than average risk down to an average risk for coronary heart disease. The impact a little bit of exercise can have on one person’s health in a positive way and specifically the impact on their cholesterol is significant. In addition, the individual’s triglycerides reduced about 55 milligrams per deciliter. I am not exactly sure, feel free to verify in the study itself, but the average beginning number of triglycerides was somewhere around 260 milligrams per deciliter. That is a very dramatic drop in a fairly short period of time. Finally, there was a 43% reduction in chylomicron remnant activity. What are chylomicrons? When you eat a meal most of the fats in that meal are packaged into a little structure called chylomicrons. Chylomicrons enter either the lymph or the blood stream, circulating through the body and then metabolized out, leaving LDL. The process metabolized out, means the fats are taken out. The LDL is the cholesterol factor that impacts increasing the risk for coronary artery disease. With that being said, a 43% reduction in the chylomicron remnant activity in such a short period of time is fabulous. The point in application is that if one is working with a population at risk for coronary artery disease or if there is a suspicion of lipid abnormalities, you would want to prolong modest activity for much longer than thirteen days. Consecutive exercise may or may not be appropriate in that population. That population does not necessarily have to lose weight. In conclusion, one can say weight loss is not a necessary component of triglyceride reduction.
The next study was very interesting. “The review studied visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue response to exercise and caloric restriction in obese men. To clarify, visceral refers to the internal organs or the tissue surrounding the organs. Subcutaneous means under the skin. As visceral fat stores increase, so does the greater the risk for coronary disease. The sample size of the study is not a reflection of the general population, but targeted specifically men that were significantly overweight. The participants were thirteen obese men who were studied for sixteen weeks. Five of the men did aerobic exercise, six of the men did strength training and two of the men served as controls. The purpose of the controls was to look at any differences based on activity. All the men decreased their caloric intake equivalent to about 1,000-calorie-a-day deficit. To clarify, if he was eating 3,000 calories a day pre-study, he would now be consuming 2,000 calories a day during the study. This is a fairly substantial reduction in caloric intake. In addition, MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) was used to measure the visceral and subcutaneous adipose stores around the body. The results of the MRI were fascinating. The MRI showed that there was a significant decrease in both subcutaneous and visceral adipose stores, so there was not any selective discrimination about where the triglycerides were taken from, but most importantly the changes occurred in both groups with equal fraction. There was no significant difference in the turnover or the decrease in adipose stores in the people doing strength training compared with the people doing aerobic training. Very interesting find! This certainly is not what is typically suggested to our clients who need to burn adipose tissue; typically, people think aerobic exercise is what is needed to burn the extra adipose tissue. A significant limitation of this study is they did not identify how many calories were burned every day, so the reader is not sure of the protocol, how many sets, how many reps, how hard the participants were lifting or doing aerobic exercise, or how many calories per day were burned. This would be a great follow-up study for someone doing a dissertation or thesis to record exactly what the participant’s did in much greater detail, as this is a very important piece of information. The researchers also did what is called serial imaging, where MRIs from the torso and extremities all the way down into the legs. There were no differences parametrically in terms of where the fat was taken from; meaning, the men showed the same turnover in the trunk area as shown in their arm and as shown in their leg. This study supports a lot of things that I and many others have said regarding spot reducing is a nonexistent process. In addition, the study also supports that there are significant reductions of fat in high-risk areas, not just underneath the skin. If I were you, I would keep my eyes open for more research to occur regarding strength training and the impact it has on adipose reduction.
Alright folks now might be a good time to put the book down, stretch a bit and then get back to reading. Welcome back! Another interesting study was done by an old colleague of mine, Wayne Miller. Wayne worked on this at the University of Indiana. The title is “Dietary fat promoting body fat storage during exercise training when energy intake is reduced.” This study was done on rats; sometimes, extrapolating information from rats to humans is a big jump, but not too big of a jump. 34 male rates were used in the study and each was on a treadmill for 90 minutes a day. Have you ever seen a rat running on a treadmill? “Let me off of here!” thinks the rat. He cannot get off; that is a lot of work for a rat, more less a human to do. I would classify this as an extreme study. The rats ran on the treadmill for 90 minutes, five days a week for eight weeks. When thinking about a rats life span, that is a long time. Seventeen of the rats were fed a diet that provided 78% of the calories from fat. Another seventeen were fed a diet that had 69% of calories coming from carbohydrates. That indicates there were two groups, one high fat and one high carbohydrate diet. The results were that the rats that were in the high fat group had a body fat percentage that was 3% greater than the group of rats that were eating carbohydrates. Recall the rats were on a treadmill running over 90 minutes a day, think about how much energy they were expending every day. With that much caloric expenditure, there was a tendency to increase body fat storage. What does that extrapolate to in terms of humans? I do not know since most humans do not eat a diet that is 78% fat. 40-45% calories from fat are considered to be a high amount. It is important to realize that even in combination with activity, it is equally important to look at an individual’s dietary habit. The higher the fat percentage consumed, the more potential there is to attenuate the positive impacts in body composition that are associated with activity.
American College Of Sports Medicine did this study: “Metabolic profile is unchanged subsequent to large fluctuations in weight.” Weight cycling is repeated bouts of weight loss and weight gain. (Yo-Yo) This study looked at thirteen obese women and five obese men. The women lost 22 kilograms and the men lost 32 kilograms, with a very low-caloric diet. Within three years, each participant had regained the weight they lost, and then they repeated the process. The researchers took exactly the same group of men and women, and studied them over a period of three years. That alone is one red flag of this study. Three years is a long time and who knows what other things are going to intervene with the data that could be collected. That is one of the downfalls of long term studies in comparison to short term studies. One finding was there was no difference in percent body fat. What do we say when people lose weight, gain weight, lose weight. . . . Often times, people come back to the same body weight, but body composition changes in favor of fat. However, this study does not support that theory. Instead this study supports that they lost a lot of weight, 22 kilograms or approximately 50 pounds. It was gained back with no change in percent body fat, and the other critical measure is there was no change in resting metabolic rate. Theoretically, if you lose lean mass, what should happen to RMR or BMR? Theoretically, it should go down; however, this study did not support that. The point is that it is important to keep a real open mind to people about what is or what is not going to happen. Talk about potentials or about what the volume of research shows in general, but do not make guarantees that, “Here is what is going to happen or what is not going to happen,” because this study does not support that. Keep it is a very small sample of subjects with a very long interval. If you were doing a follow up study to this one, it would be great to see one hundred men and one hundred women studied over six month intervals where they are losing and gaining weight. Do this so that one might not see the total regain for three years. In that three year period I would love to see the data for what their composition was doing during that time. The other factor that was not reported was activity levels of the subjects. No one knows what they were doing in that three year interval. Maybe they started weight training, walking, or curling. That certainly could have a very strong impact on the results.
This was an excellent study for those that work with people that have any kind of limitations such as the elderly, where their functional capabilities with daily activities are of concern. This study looked at women between the ages of sixty and seventy seven. It was a sixteen week study. The women began a program of doing twelve resistance exercises three times a week. Researchers did not identify the exercises. An activity of daily living task such as this one was measured: subjects were put on a treadmill, walked at two miles an hour, and then they held their elbows in a hundred degrees flexion a box that represented 40% of their one-rep max, isometrically, at a hundred degrees of flexion. What researchers were saying is, “Let’s try to get these ladies moving but have something that would represent groceries, laundry, or something that would reflect an activity of daily living.” What researchers found was that over the course of sixteen weeks, simply doing twelve resistance exercises three times a week showed no impact on VO2 max. This was not surprising as it is not an aerobic overload, so no substantial change was expected. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and the respiratory quotient were lower during the activity of daily living test on post tests. After subjects did the resistance program for sixteen weeks, all of them showed a significantly positive change in cardio-respiratory response in terms of stress overload. Subjects were able to carry the box at the same speed with a lower heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory quotient, suggesting more efficient aerobic metabolism. Strength training alone, without any cardiovascular component may show a positive effect in relation to the elderly being able to handle the cardio-respiratory stress of going up stairs and doing all of the associated tasks of daily living. This is certainly a powerful support for getting those that are over fifty years old involved in a strength training program.
The next is review about the effects of aging. The article took a retrospective look at a volume of research that has been done over the years in terms of the effects of aging on human skeletal muscle and the ability of the central nervous system to communicate electrical information to the motor units, which is the ultimate factor in doing any kind of activities. Researchers reported: the atrophy process starts to show a decrease in cross-sectional area of a muscle. If one takes a cross-section through a muscle belly, the cross-sectional area represents protein content, which extrapolates to strength capabilities. The atrophy process probably starts after twenty five to thirty years old. At the age of fifty, that process exponentially increases. This review encompassed studies that have looked at a broad spectrum of the population, including some subjects that exercise and others that did not. The general population focused on those with a sedentary lifestyle. Muscle fiber quantity also starts to decrease at approximately the age of fifty, which reduces the number of available fibers that are capable for complementing movements. At age sixty, there start to be a loss of motor neurons. If nerve tissue is lost in the central nervous system (CNS), it will never regenerate. There is also a decrease of motor units. The motor neuron originates in the CNS, travels to the peripheral nervous system, and then finally to the motor unit. If you lose motor neurons, available motor units disappear, and the body will degrade the amino acids in that muscle protein and use them elsewhere in the body. The authors suggest: we have made many assumptions and general statements to people we work with, saying to them, “Get involved in a strength program, because it might help you stay stronger over the course of your life.” The evidence shows resistance training may definitely attenuate atrophy. It may also have a very powerful impact on maintaining the content of protein in a cell. Researchers do not know yet what effect resistance training has on the number of motor neurons and units, or the number of available fibers. Preliminary data shows that if training is done to muscle failure, which incorporates type 2B motor units (fast twitch), that may be the way to sustain neuron activity. Sophisticated statistical methodologies are needed to estimate motor neuron numbers, as human volunteers are hard to come by. Statistical projection certainly has its limitations.
The next review is on a number of studies involving rats. “The influence of age on skeletal muscle, glucose transport, and glycogen metabolism.” One theory is that as people age and lack any kind of cardiovascular overload, it is severely detrimental to carbohydrate metabolism. If you had fat or carbohydrate to choose from, if I lose aerobic capacity, which of the previous two do I lose the ability to metabolize? I lose the ability to metabolize fat. The muscle becomes more dependent on glycogenolysis or glycolysis in order to process energy and ATP. Glycogenolysis is the breakdown of glycogen to glucose, ultimately to produce energy. The study shows: there is a significant increase in glycogenolysis in aging rat populations. Exercise in both acute and chronic (many overloads over time) exposures, indicates an increase in muscles’ aerobic capacity. The process of stimulus to aerobic capacity happens very quickly, in which changes enzymatically occur within the mitochondria of cells likely happen in one session. One does not have to workout for six months before seeing changes. Every small amount of activity will add up. The rats showed a decrease dependence on glucose with an increased capacity for processing fatty acids with only one session of exercise!
The rest of the material is actual trials on particular methodologies. “Moderate diet restriction alters the substrate and hormone response to exercise.” This study was done on ten obese women. The small sample size is the first red flag. Five of the women ate a regular diet and exercised, and five of the women only ate 50% of their energy requirement. Researchers did a sporometry to measure the subjects’ energy requirement at rest, cut back 50% of what that requirement was, and then had the subjects exercise. It was a twelve week study with three measurements done. Both groups showed exactly the same respiratory quotient (RQ) during exercise. If both groups had the same RQ, then what would be the suspicion toward substrate metabolism? Both groups were using the same amount of fat and carbohydrate to produce the energy that they needed. What might we suspect for people going on a very restrictive diet? One could suspect those people do not have enough calories in their diet. The tendency would be to rely more on carbohydrate if they had less availability, because the aerobic process would be compromised. Both groups had the same RQ doing activity, but the group that ate 50% of their daily calories showed a post-exercise change in insulin levels, which may decrease post-exercise lipolysis. Insulin has one primary function, and that is to clear glucose out of the bloodstream. It also has a secondary effect of inhibiting the release of free fatty acids into the bloodstream. Lipolysis is the process of breaking down triglycerides from wherever they are stored and making those free fatty acids available to the mitochondria for energy production. If low-calorie dieting has an impact post-exercise, there may be some long-term influences on the ability to take advantage of the exercise during the post-period when oxygen consumption increases. If one exercises aggressively, there is a significantly higher caloric expenditure post-exercise, in some cases for a prolonged period. Not eating enough food can significantly compromise the ability to take advantage of the lipolytic process. One of the areas to keep an eye open for in research is what happens to pre-exercise overload. Researchers are just now getting into looking at a lot of post-exercise data. Nancy Rodriguez is starting to do a lot of work with declining metabolism post-exercise and its effect on protein metabolism. The post-exercise period may turn out to be far more important than has been previously suspected.
The next two studies are studies on athletes that typically weight cycle. There are many collegiate rowers that approach their season much like wrestlers do, where they attempt to lose substantial amounts of weight to cut back on the amount of weight in the boat. Less weight in the boat allows it to become more buoyant and float higher and move faster. These tactics are subtle manipulation, but at the world-class level, it could be important. They studied a small sample of seven collegiate women who were weight-cyclers, meaning that during the season they tried to significantly reduce their bodyweight. Researchers compared subjects with seven controls who were also female rowers but did not lose weight during the season. The control subjects kept their weight on. Researchers measured at three periods of time: pre-season, peak season, which is theoretically when the athletes would be at their peak condition and probably at the end of the season toward championship time, and also at post-season. Researchers did not identify how long these periods were in terms of numbers of weeks, which is a limitation. The length of the post season would have been useful information, but that was left out. In both groups there was a decrease in resting metabolic weight and the measure of a thyroid hormone T3, which certainly has a significant effect on metabolic rate at peak season. Each group, whether they were maintaining bodyweight or showing a decrease in bodyweight, showed decreases in resting metabolic rate. The cyclers lost 4.2 kilograms during the course of the season, and then post-season they regained, statistically, all of it back. Cyclers would regain the four kilograms. In terms of measurements of resting metabolic rate, fat free mass, total bodyweight, and the T3 hormone, there were no changes and no significant differences either between groups or over time. That meant that the cyclers lost a lot of weight: 4.2 kilograms or almost ten pounds during the period of the study, but they regained it as exactly the same composition. The theory that if you lose weight fairly rapidly, you regain it, but you defer toward fatty tissue storage, is not supported by this study. The decrease in weight during the season by the athletes was accomplished by cutting back on fat calories. Keep in mind that you cannot extrapolate this study to the general public, because most people in the general public are not going to be exercising at the caloric expenditure equivalent of what a competitive rower is expending every day. Up until recently, I was very concerned about those athletes that would lose a lot of weight during the season, because my suspicion was that they were setting themselves up for all kinds of negative metabolic processes. For people competing in collegiate sports, neither of these studies supported those contingents, that at those levels of activity and perhaps caloric intake, even in the presence of weight loss, the potential for negative physiologic consequences is the same as in the general public. These studies suggest that there may also be some significant differences in the way that performance athletes and the general public respond to exactly the same stresses and overloads like weight cycling.
This was a more comprehensive study on weight cycling than the one of the rowers: “Two seasons of weight cycling does not lower the resting metabolic rate in collegiate wrestlers.” This study took six wrestlers with a three-year history of weight cycling. Researchers screened participants and limited the study only to those wrestlers that had done weight cycling consecutively for the past three years. Subjects were matched with a group of six controls that were not wrestlers who did not do any weight cycling. In the second year of the study, researchers took six non-cycling wrestlers to get a second group of comparison. No group showed any decreases in resting metabolic rate. One would not expect that in the controls of non-wrestlers, nor would it be expected in the non-cycling wrestlers. This was a five-year study. Measurements were taken of people who did weight cycling for three years, then for two more years, and in that period of time there were no decreases in resting metabolic rate. One of the things that I suspect is that the weight loss typically accomplished in a wrestler is very short and periodic, with most of it in the form of water. The impact on body composition structures would probably be much less likely in an athlete that attempts weight loss in that kind of a fashion. Trainers have made statements to people who do things like sauna belts and lose a lot of water weight and gain it back. The statement might be, “Don’t do that, you are going to increase your body fat.” That statement might not be true. A sauna belt might not increase their body fat, but it is certainly not going to be very effective in long-term weight management.
The sixth of the study reviews: “The effects of active and passive recovery in terms of power performance.” This study did not have a lot of direct application for the general public. Six male power athletes at a high level of competitive skill were studied with the following workout out program eight, six-second power tests. The power test was measured on a Monarch cycle orgometer. The athletes would sprint pedal until they were exhausted, which generally took about a minute to a minute and a half. The researchers intervened with thirty seconds of rest. Athletes would sprint pedal under high resistance, and either sat there and did nothing or pedaled slowly for thirty seconds. The subjects would do that eight times. One would have to have a pretty high level of fitness to even accomplish the study. These were some pretty well-trained individuals. Researchers measured the peak power, fatigue rate, and total work output – total number of kilograms that were generated by the athletes. The scientists discovered active recovery allowed for more work than the passive recovery, and it did it in all three of the parameters. Not only did the athletes have more peak power, but their fatigue rate was positively influenced. Fatigue did not happen as quickly during the subsequent power tests, and the total work output during the eight sessions were much greater in the groups that did active recovery than in the groups that did passive recovery. When working with power athletes, in between sets the athletes should get up and move the limbs slowly. There is flushing of blood flow through the muscles, which washes out the lactic acid, takes away some heat, and gets rid of the hydrogen ions. There is a multitude of fatigue factors that build up, and if someone is allowing the muscle to be static during recovery, muscle does not re-metabolize or wash out nearly as quickly as with passive activity. Many athletes are disinclined to move during recovery, because they think it is very important just to sit there in order to accomplish something so they do not get tired. The truth is the exact opposite.
The next study was done on “the effects of caffeine on the metabolic and catecholamine response to exercise in cold and hot environments. Sometimes athletes are told that if they take caffeine prior to an endurance event, it is going to allow them to use more fatty acids and spare glycogen so they can go longer at race pace This has been a long-held notion in the area of herbal mystery. The study does not support that. The study is of eight college men who were modestly trained, but not elite athletes by any means, who were also very low consumers of caffeine. The men cycled at 50% of VO2 max in a 5 degrees Centigrade environment with approximately 50% humidity. Subjects also cycled in a 28 degrees Centigrade environment where the humidity was maybe 20-30%. Participants were given a 250 milligram dose of caffeine, which is equivalent to about one strong cup of coffee. Researchers discovered there was no change in the respiratory exchange ratio in a warm environment. All that happened in the warm environment was an increase in the hormone epinephrine (catecholamine). There was no change in the percentage contribution of fat or carbohydrate in the warm environment, but in the cold environment there was a decrease in the respiratory exchange ratio (RER). Physiologically the RER decreased, causing the percentage from the fat to increase. In the cold environment, caffeine demonstrated a glycogen sparing effect. Catecholamine and epinephrine levels were increased in both the warm and cold environment. It is unknown if the study was continued over a longer period of time, or if the simple increase in the sympathetic hormone epinephrine could also stimulate increased lipolysis. My application is this: if you work with Nordic ski racers or athletes who workout in cold environments, have them take caffeine. If you work with people that run marathons in warm environments, they do not need the caffeine.
Another study was done on collegiate hockey players to compare the caloric cost of rollerblading with the caloric cost of ice skating at three different speeds that a collegiate hockey skater would typically skate at during a competition. Researchers discovered that the greater friction generated with rollerblades created a higher VO2. Rollerblades are great for exercising. Neurologically, they stimulate balance, coordination, and stability. Recommend rollerblading to your clients, just tell them not to fall down.
Within these seventeen abstracts there is some contradictory information to what many people may have heard and even said to their clients over the years. I would recommend that trainers be more cautious with saying absolutely, “t a loss of weight through dieting alone implies a reduction in lean body mass.” That idea was not supported in the study where people cut back by 500 calories a day. That group lost exactly the same percentage of body composition as people that cut back on calories and exercised. Weight cycling, which has been suggested in the past as absolutely being negative with regard to body composition and metabolic weight changes, may not be true in all cases. Negative physiologic consequences may not necessarily occur if working with a highly-trained athlete that is turning over a lot of energy, working really hard in terms of muscular effort, dropping bodyweight fairly quickly, and then regaining it. All the statements that have been made about the gymnasts and athletes that lose a lot of weight, that they are setting themselves up for a lot of physiologic problems, may not be borne out in terms of the studies. This idea cannot be extrapolated to the general public. I’m still convinced that in the typical person who is not active, repeated bouts of weight loss are supported in the literature as suggesting changes in metabolic processes. These changes would include decreases in lean mass and subsequent increases in adipose tissue.
I encourage each and every one of you as a professional Fit-Pro Academy trainer to continue to do your own research. Be very careful with your wording with your clients. If a client asks you a question and you do not know the answer, let them know you will get back to them. Remember to keep an open mind when reading literature and realize it is okay to have your beliefs change. Bottom line is you are here to help your clients and give them what they pay for. I also recommend you continue to read the Addendum about being a FitPro. I would encourage each and every one of you to become a FitPro and realize, the course will challenge your thinking. Challenge is a perfect example of growth. In reading this book, the intent was to provide you with more information, from different perspectives, and help you grow as a trainer. I would also like to take the time to invite you to be my affiliate and business partner with FitPros Academy Students. We are offering a 25% partnership with our company with no investment but your time. If you are interested contact us at Daveparise13@gmail.com Subject- Fit-Pro-Partner
Dave Parise
Director of EDU
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