5 things that don't work for your fitness plan Part 3

It's time for Part 3 in our 5 Things that don't work for your fitness program series . Up this month is " I just want to tone so I'll use light weights because I don't want to get too bulky". This really applies to the ladies, but sometimes to the less than manly men.

When I hear people say they want to tone, it says to me that they don't have a clear cut goal and without a goal you can't get results. You are walking around aimlessly.

What is "tone"? Well, it's basically a state of involuntarily electrical activity in your muscles. Muscle tone is loosely defined as minute muscular contractions that constantly exist in skeletal muscles. So if your goal is to tone up, you just don't have a goal. Get one. A real goal is more like losing 10 pounds of body fat or gaining the ability to run a 6 minute mile. Those are goals. Get one. They are free.

When most people say they just want to tone up, they usually mean that they want to look better. They want firmer muscles, but not added bulk. The majority of people who lift weights do not want to look like a bodybuilder. That's fine. Not having a clear goal isn't and not training properly has no excuse.

Here's the thing, weight training is called progressive resistance by many and this is a pretty good definition. Progressive resistance means that you need to progress constantly. Progression can come in many ways, more weight, more reps, more sets, less reps with more weight and a thousand more. If you don't progress, you are maintaining at best, at worst you are backsliding. You must always strive to be better today than you were yesterday at everything you do. All the time.

When we hear people say they will use light weights because they don't want to get too bulky (especially girls) and it is more frustrating than you can imagine. Using light weights doesn't do much. It's better than nothing so I guess that's something, but who wants to be better than nothing? I can't tell you how many girls I train that lift a lot of weight that are not bulky at all, they look like lean, healthy athletic girls.

The myth of "light weight for tone" stems from old school gym nonsense and the mainstream media. A lot of "advice" has been passed down in gyms for many years and much of it is bad information. The media is guilty of giving out whatever story sells magazines or gets viewers to watch. They should be in the business of journalism, but that's a whole other article.

Light weights to increase tone is also frequently given out as advice by doctors. Sure they are smart, but do they know much about strength training? Most do not. Doctors don't get any fancy book learning on fitness in med school. They learn how to fix you when you are broken. My job is to keep you from getting broken by teaching how to be healthy. How's this, I'll give out fitness advice and I won't try to practice medicine if doctors stop giving out advice like "lift 5 pounds for 20 reps". Just a pipe dream.

I've written time and time again that there are different types of strength. The most important type of strength for ALL goals is limit strength. This is loosely defined as how much you can lift for one all out repetition. Limit strength is a key component of fitness. You must lift something heavy. Raising limit strength is crucial to making gains everywhere else. This does not mean that you have to squat 1000 pounds. It does mean that you need to challenge yourself with weights that are near your limit (with excellent form for whatever reps scheme you are doing) in order to progress. The more you can lift for one rep, the more you can lift for multiple reps. The more you lift for multiple reps, the more calories you burn during and AFTER your workout. This is called EPOC. EPOC is simply how many calories you burn after exercise.

More on limit strength: let's say that you can squat 75 pounds once, and you can squat 55 pounds 5 times. If you get your squat up to 100 pounds once, you will squat more weight for 5 reps. Doing this requires more energy (calories) thusly allowing you to burn more fat all day as long as your diet is in order.

Lifting light weights for tone does not challenge you unless you are a raw beginner. The challenge does not last long because your body will adapt to the stress you put on it. This is called the SAID principle. SAID is Specific Adaptations to Imposed Demands and it means that as you do anything with your body, it gets better at doing it. This applies exactly to the subject of our article. It is a scientific LAW. I didn't make this stuff up. It is simple, basic legit science. It has been proven, it cannot be disputed. Another thing with raw beginners is they get very strong fast. This is due to the SAID principle and the body learning how recruit more available muscle fiber and using the nervous system more efficiently during exercise.

Think back to when you first started lifting weights or if you've ever seen a beginner do a dumbbell bench press with a very light weight. They flail around with their arms wiggling and can't control the weight. As the workout goes on, they get better form one set to the next. Did they just get super strong after the second set? No. Their body learned how to do what was being asked of it. This is the SAID principle at work. If you stick with the light weights, you will not make any progress. No, I am not saying that you should all try and work up to 150 pound dumbbells for reps. I am saying that you must constantly try and improve your performance. This is easily done by increasing the weight in small amounts, or doing a few more reps, or an extra set. You can't stay on the 10 pound dumbbells forever. Start light, start right and add weight when you can.

I hope I have busted this myth for you. Stay tuned to the TPS site for the next 2 article in the series.

5 things that don't work for your fitness plan Part 2

This is the second installment of our five-part series on stuff that doesn't work in your fitness plan. I said "stuff" because it's just that, stuff. It's not organized, it's not based in science, it's just stuff. Stuff doesn't work. You need a plan, and you need to stick to it.

With that said, our second article is on the ever-popular "Skipping meals to lose weight" method of stuff. Skipping meals to lose weight is just a bad idea all around. It doesn't do any good for your body in the long term. Sure, skipping meals to lose weight does work initially, but it loses its effect and has disastrous consequences down the road.

When you skip a meal, there is a net caloric reduction. Weight loss is based on calories in versus calories out. Less calories equals less weight, right? Wrong.

To lose weight effectively, we need to consider a few things that you might not be aware of:

-your body is basically a machine

-machines need fuel to run

-machines need the best fuel to run optimally

-losing weight on the scale isn't always best

-too little calories can actually slow your metabolism

-we want to lose fat

-we want to, at the minimum, preserve muscle mass; we do not want to lose it

-skipping meals slows down the metabolism

I know, I know, that's a lot to think about, so I'll explain it in simple English, the language of America. Most people don't know the difference between good weight loss and bad weight loss. Have you ever seen someone who is pretty big go on a diet and lose a bunch of weight? They usually go from looking like a big fat person to a small fat person. Sure they lost weight, but was it healthy?

For the most part, they have lost a bunch of muscle and slowed their metabolism to a crawl. Muscle is metabolically active, meaning it burns calories. Fat is not metabolically active. It does nothing, it's just fat. When you lose muscle, you slow down the metabolism and you burn less calories all day. Dieting and skipping meals generally slows your metabolism down drastically. In the early stages, you will lose weight, some of it is water and some might be fat or it might be muscle. It is most likely muscle.

The reason that your metabolism slows down is because when you don't eat frequently your body tries to store calories because it goes into "starvation" mode. When this happens, it stores calories as fat. As I said, in the beginning you will see a weight loss and it could be fat, but as you keep on doing it, the body shifts its focus to fat storage and muscle burning. This is a survival trick the body still has in it from ancient times when it didn't know when the next meal was coming. It is easy for the body to store fat to use as fuel in times of emergency. It is also easy for the body to burn muscle as fuel, especially when meals are skipped. Your body thinks it needs to go into "starvation" mode and store fat to preserve itself later.

You can now see that when you skip meals you will lose weight because the body is losing muscle at a faster rate than it is storing fat. When you lose muscle and gain fat your metabolism slowly dies. If you keep skipping meals to "lose weight" you will become a skinny fat person. Unless you are a professional "heroin chic" model, I doubt this is the look you are going for.

So what should you do? You need to feed your body every three to four hours with a small meal that contains all of the macronutrients: protein, fat, and carbohydrate. Exactly what you should eat is beyond the scope of this article, but I have written extensively about it and there are many articles on the TPS website on the "Nutrition Corner" page.

Take-home messages from this gem of junk science debunking article:

-skipping meals to lose weight doesn't work

-skipping meals to lose weight slows your metabolism and makes you FATTER

-skipping meals to lose weight makes your metabolism die

-eating frequent, small meals jacks your metabolism into overdrive, making you a fat burning furnace

-your body is a machine that needs premium fuel to run optimally-oatmeal, lean protein, olive oil, fresh fruit and vegetables, and water are all great examples of premium fuel

-the scale is not your friend

-the mirror is your friend

-read all of the articles on the "Nutrition Corner" page for more great ideas of what and when to eat

Stay tuned over the next three months for the rest of the series.

Menino is at it again

Mayor Menino is at it again with his nanny state tactics. So often our government gets health and fitness wrong. This time they are really going at the obesity problem with their heads up their asses.

Obesity is a huge problem, no pun intended but the City of Boston is all wrong here, they are now banning soda, sports drinks and all sweetened beverages form sale or use in city buildings and events. 

The idea is that if the government doesn't let you buy sweetened drinks you will lose weight. Right, it's the governments job to limit what you can purchase in a free market economy. It's their job to protect you from yourself.

Here is a clue, obesity is not just from sweetened drinks, it's from poor nutrition in general. inactivity and as some research is suggesting, poverty.

What if the government spent more money on adding gym classes back into schools, restoring sports programs, initiating programs to encourage people to get off their asses and exercise?

Ridiculous ideas. Let's just ban what products people can buy.

I am not advocating that you should drink soda by the way. I am suggesting that someone in Boston should get a clue.
Why aren't they banning diet drinks too? There is emerging research suggesting that artificial sweeteners are incredibly bad for you.
Hell, let's just ban everything and let the government supply all of our food like they do to the schools. Oh wait, they found out that was a problem too.