In this article we will be looking at the concept of angular training for the purpose of “shaping” muscles.  What we will be exploring is the question of whether it’s possible or not to change the shape of a given muscle or change its level of development or to change a certain portion of a muscles development by changing the angle of execution of an exercise.

Many bodybuilding articles and books over the last four decades would indicate that this is not only possible, but that training should be designed around this concept as a rule of thumb to success in that particular endeavor.

Unfortunately for people who believe this the reality isn’t quite so bright.  The simple truth of the matter is that angle training will in no way positively affect the outcome of how a muscle looks or how it’s developed.

Why doesn’t angle training work for “spot” development a given muscle or a certain section of a given muscle?  Muscles will fully develop if they are worked through a full range of motion that is based on sound application of both functional and structural anatomy.  A muscle must be worked from the origin to the insertion through the fullest range of motion a joint structure or set of joint structures are safely capable of producing.  Anything less than this will set up an individual for potential injury somewhere down the road of their lifting careers.  Where a muscle inserts is the determining factor in its overall shape.  The number of muscle fibers one has available for development determines the “fullness” of that given muscle.  What I mean by that is if a certain muscle doesn’t have a large number of fibers for development then all the angle training in the world, in an attempt to “stress” those fibers into growth won’t make more fibers magically appear.  You can’t build what you don’t have.  These two factors are genetically determined and at this point in time have not been shown to be capable of being altered, though some theorize that certain hormones may change that from being the case, but that is material for a future article.  The final component in development of muscle mass is the application of properly applied training methodology to recruit the fullest number of fibers to the level of maximal development.  This is something that we as individuals do have full and complete control over.

So basically if one is trying to develop muscle mass, the use of different angles of training is basically just a waste of time.  The most efficient use of time is to find exercises that allow for full ranges of motion coupled with minimal distress on the connective tissue and skeletal structure.  By that I mean, biomechanical body positions are not being used that are not natural or are counter-productive to a normal state of being and that might otherwise encourage occurrence of injury because they are being entered into.

The Mind And Success 

I strongly encourage one and all to read and mediate on these quotes.  They speak far more volumes than I ever could about the role of your mind in successful achievement of your goals, whatever they might be.

More to come in future “articles”.

Heath

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.        
                                             Vince Lombardi

Hard work is the price we must pay for success.  I think you can accomplish anything if you’re willing to pay the price.                            
                                             Vince Lombardi

We would accomplish many more things if we did not think of them as impossible.    
                                              Vince Lombardi

Success demands singleness of purpose.  
                                              Vince Lombardi

Winning is a habit, unfortunately so is losing.  
                                              Vince Lombardi

Winners never quit and quitters never win.
                                              Vince Lombardi
                   

Determination, patience and courage are the only things needed to improve any situation.
                                              Author Unknown

Do not fear the winds of adversity.  Remember: A kite rises against the wind rather then with it.   
                                              Author Unknown
 

All that a man achieves or fails to achieve is the direct result of his thoughts.               
                                              James Allen

Nothing of worth or weight can be achieved with half a mind, with a faint heart, and with a lame endeavor.
                                             Isaac Barrow

When you're interested in something, you do it only when it’s convenient.  When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses, only results.
                                              Ken Blanchard

People who are unable to motivate themselves must be content with mediocrity, no matter how impressive their other talents.                          
                                             Andrew Carnegie

There is no victory at bargain basement prices.
                                              Dwight D. Eisenhower

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight, rather the size of the fight in the dog. 
                                             Dwight D. Eisenhower

No one can defeat us unless we first defeat ourselves.
                                             Dwight D. Eisenhower

Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.                        
                                             Ralph Waldo Emerson

Setbacks should be viewed as temporary.  They provide the basis for learning.  Failure only comes from quitting.                                 
                                                Anonymous

Accommodating The Strength Curve To Build High Neural Output Levels

What is the strength curve and how does it relate to speed of execution, particularly as it results to weight training endeavors??  The strength curve is the body’s natural tendency to want to slow down a weight bearing movement as the positions of leverage become favorable towards the end of execution of a given exercise.  The body does this because it feels that if a high level of neural output is maintained, as leverage factors go from unfavorable in the bottom position of an exercise, to extremely favorable, which occurs towards the lockout portion of an exercise, the body may suffer injury in the form of tendon ruptures.  A high level of neural output is associated with a high level of bar speed potentially, though not always.  If the bar weight is light, then a high neural output will cause rapid bar acceleration, if the bar weight is heavy, then this won’t be the case.  Either way, the body will attempt to inhibit neural output as biomechanics move from unfavorable to favorable.  Why is this a problem??  If we are lifting a heavy weight for a single rep or perhaps a couple of reps, the last thing we want our bodies to do is stop sending strong neural input to our muscles as we are attempting to lock out our weight on a given exercise. 

How does the body inhibit us from lifting heavy weights fast??  Two separate entities in the body form a feedback loop with the peripheral and central nervous systems and basically tell these systems where the exercise is at any given moment in regards to mechanical leverage.  These two entities are muscle spindles, which are located in the muscle fibers themselves and the Golgi Tendon Apparatus, which are located within the tendons.  They are in essence highly sensitive pressure receptors that can tell at any given moment in time of execution of an exercise how leveraged or how unleveraged the body is.

So we know the body is going to try and shut us down as we move into the strongest portions of our lifts, no matter how heavy the weight is and no matter how slow we are moving that weight and no matter how little likelihood there is of our bodies suffering injury due to high levels of acceleration, brought about by high levels of neural input because frankly with the weights we are attempting to lift, there is almost no acceleration at all, we are just thankful to get the weight moving period.  Don’t matter though, the body is going to register all this and start cutting back the thing we need most desperately to make our lifts and that is a strong neural output from the central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system.  So what do we do??  Simple, we fake the body out and teach it that slowing neural input in our most leveraged portions of lifts is simply unacceptable. We do this by accommodating our resistance, which means that when our strength curve is at its strongest, the weight we are lifting is at its heaviest so that in essence the body never really registers that we are in a position of leverage at all.

There are two ways to easily accommodate resistance.  One is with the use of high tension rubber bands that are attached to the bar and the other is to attach chain to each end of the bar.  Each works in a similar way, that being when you are in the bottom portion of the lift very little accommodation is taking place, this is what you want because your leverage factors are already low to begin with.  As you start the bar moving towards lockout though, either the rubber bands get more and more taunt or more and more links from each of the chains leave the ground adding more and more weight to your barbell.  Thus as you get close to lockout there is a tremendous amount of accommodation to the barbell in terms of extra tension from the bands or extra weight from the links of the chains and even though you are very leveraged mechanically, the body isn’t registering it that way because the movement is now coming across as far tougher than it was when you were in the bottom and least leveraged position.  Because of this the central nervous system does what you wouldn’t normally expect it to do, it fires even harder than normal because it knows that if it doesn’t you might not lock the weight out and if you don’t do that you might hurt yourself.  If resistance is accommodated often enough eventually the body “learns” that it can never decelerate a movement, no matter how apparently leveraged it is and you will stay strong from start to finish of your exercises.

One must remember though to not use this type of training tool too often.  This is extremely tough on the nervous system of the body and can lead to overtraining very quickly if abused.  The use of bands or chains 2-3x per week is plenty.  Within the confines of a given workout, no more than a total of 10-15 reps should be performed in the accommodated manner.

Training Myths Exposed

With this article I’d like to address some training myths that somehow seem to always hang around and never die.  I get asked these questions on a very regular basis and I’d like to expose some of them here in this article.

Myth #1 – I can spot train an area with weights and lose fat.

Reality – You cannot spot train your butt, back of your thighs or abs with some sort of weight bearing or for that matter a non-weight bearing exercise and lose bodyfat.  The loss of bodyfat, pure and simple, comes from an individual consuming less calories the majority of the time on a day to day basis than what they use functioning on a day to day basis.  It’s that simple.  Fat loss takes time if it’s going to be done right and in a way that is healthy on the body.  There is no magic bullet for fat loss, no pill, no exercise, no machine, gizmo, or gadget that is going to drop bodyfat from your body.  It’s going to take time and discipline and intelligence with both the diet and the training one decides to pursue.  Weight training can alter the bodies metabolic rate over time as the body gains lean muscle tissue, this is true, and because of this fat loss may be easier and may come quicker than dieting alone, but from the standpoint of spot reducing an area or pocket of fat, this is simply not a physiological possibility.

Myth #2 – As a woman, if I lift weights I’m going to get huge, bulky muscles.

Reality – The number of factors under the control of an individual trying to add bulk to their bodies are impressively large and all need to be addressed for such a scenario to come to fruition.  If these factors are not all being addressed and manipulated for the benefit of gaining bulk, then it simply won’t happen.  The idea that simply by walking into a weight room and picking up a 20lb dumbbell and lifting a few times is going to make one huge and bulky overnight or within a very short period of time is absolutely ludicrous.  Another factor and one that needs to be realized and is not under direct control of an individual is the actual amount of muscle fiber that there is to potentially develop.  Women, on average, have 30% less muscle fiber to develop than a man does, which means her ability to get bulky, even if she wanted to, is much, much more hindered than that of a man.  Another thing a woman needs to realize is that any training effect can be reversed and “detrained” if that is something that is so desired.  No training effect is permanent, it needs to be regularly stimulated if it is to be retained or improved upon.

Lastly, a woman who sees a picture of another woman with a large amount of muscle mass, needs to understand that a minimum of 10 years of daily training and dieting went into that physique and unless that woman thinks she is going to make that same type of commitment to herself she has absolutely nothing to worry about in regards to looking like that.

Myth #3 – If I squat or deadlift it will spread my hips and make them wider.

Reality – Here’s the reality of this one.  When a woman is pregnant and about to give birth, the body for a very brief period of time allows the pelvis of a woman to open up or “spread” slightly to allow the passage of the baby down the birth canal.  After this event is done the hips close back up and return to normal proportions.  This is the only time anyone’s hips can spread.  Period.  No exercise will invoke this response in the body.  It simply isn’t physiologically possible for this to happen.  One needs to understand that a normal skeleton has the ability to withstand 1500lbs of compressive pressure before the bones will fracture and break.  I need to stress this is the skeleton I’m speaking of .  1500lbs of compressive force will not cause the ligaments deep in the hip structure to do anything, not to expand, not to tear, nothing.  If these ligaments can’t be induced to do anything with 1500lbs bearing down on them then how does one think that by having 65lbs or 165lbs on a bar and squatting with that weight is going to do anything??  For hips to “spread” from exercise the ligaments would have to be vulnerable to expansion from stress.  The mere fact that we are able to walk, run, jump and do all these type of endeavors should lead one to understand that the ligaments in the hip complex aren’t vulnerable to expansion from stress.  One could also look at a cadaver if the opportunity every arose and see just how thick these ligaments are in the hip complex, some close to 2” in width and 1/2” thick.  A few pounds on a bar for squatting isn’t going to expand those bad boys.

Overtraining 

What exactly is overtraining??  The term is used quite often by many types of people involved in all levels of athletics, but do we really know what this term means??  My personal experience with the topic is that most people who use it don’t really know what it is, how it’s caused, how to prevent it or frankly if they have it, what type do they have.  With this article we will try to clear some of that up for everyone.

Overtraining is basically a situation that occurs and tends to cause a prolonged stagnation of an athlete’s fitness levels resulting from an overstressing of the body.  Overtraining will reveal itself in all the functions of the body and will most prominently be seen affecting the central nervous system, autonomic nervous system and endocrine system. 

There are two types of overtraining; basedowic and addisonic.  Basedowic overtraining is also called sympathetic overtraining involves the sympathetic part of the autonomous nervous system, which when overstimulated displays increased activity at rest.  Addisonic overtraining, also called parasympathetic overtraining involves increased activity of the parasympathetic portion of the autonomic nervous system during both rest and exercise.  In the central nervous system, processes of excitation dominate in basedowic overtraining and processes of inhibition dominate in addisonic overtraining.

Ideally we want the sympathetic nervous system, which mobilizes catabolic reactions for energy production to be dominate during exercising efforts and the parasympathetic nervous system, which mobilizes anabolic reactions for rebuilding the energy stores and body structures, to be dominate during our periods of rest.  When we are overtrained, as indicated by the above paragraph, this is not the case and the roles of the respective nervous systems are reversed.

Basedowic overtraining occurs mostly among individuals in speed-strength sports and can be caused by too great of a training intensity and also from large mental concentration.  According to Urhausen, Gabriel and Kindermann (1995), exercises exceeding an individual’s anaerobic threshold raise levels of catecholamines (adrenal medulla hormones) far in disproportion to the actual increased level of effort.  Addisonic overtraining is normally caused by excessively high volumes of aerobic training.  To prevent overtraining, the training loads should be increased gradually.

Something that needs to be stressed in regards to overtraining is this simple fact: One of the main causes of illnesses in individuals training towards a goal is poorly advised organization and erroneous methods of training that lead to excessive overloading, which in turn exceed the recuperative abilities of that given individual.

Overtraining can be caused by any of the following:

--Poorly conceived training methods

--Continuous use of highly intensive workouts combined with insufficient rest and little or no restorative therapy

--The combination of intensive training with highly stressful out of gym variables such as work, family, ect.

--A monotony of exercises

--The poor sequencing of efforts

Overtraining doesn’t need a drastic increase of the training load to occur but happen simply with an increase of stress.  That being said, individuals can certainly add the proverbial insult to injury in regards to overtraining by adding some very common self inflicted stresses such as constant ignoring of sound principles of nutrition, regular loss of weight, the disruption of normal sleep patterns, the abuse of stimulants and other drugs such as alcohol and physical overstrain.

According to Ludwig Prokop (1963), optimal training loads are approximately 2/3 of an individual’s maximal possible training load as long as the athlete is not subjected to additional large stresses.  The 2/3’rds rule is understood to be a combination of intensity and volume.  If either the volume or the intensity exceeds 2/3’rds of its maximal value too often, the individual is likely to become overtrained.  Overtraining, based on poorly conceived training protocols, can take place in four weeks or less.

In regards to the last bullet point on causes of overtraining I briefly want to list the proper sequence order of exercise efforts that should be performed to help avoid overtraining.  After an adequate warm-up, new techniques should be performed before any speed work and both new technique work and speed work should be done before strength work or any endurance work.  Speed or strength exercises should be done before speed-endurance or endurance exercises.  Deviating from this sequence will be counterproductive for technique, or speed, or strength and will extend recovery time.

References:

Kurz, Thomas 2001. Science Of Sports Training

Prokop, L. 1963.  Adrenals and Sport.  The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness vol. 3, no. 2-3, pp.115-21

Urhausen, A., H Gariel, and W. Kindermann, 1995. Blood hormones as markers of training stress and overtraining.  Sports Medicine vol. 20, no. 4 (Oct), pp.251-76

Types Of Exercises

In this article we are going to take a look at the different types of exercises that can be performed to improve athletic training.  On the surface this would appear to be more applicable to the “higher end athlete”, however upon further reflection we see that this information is relevant to the highest level of internationally competitive athlete as well as the individual starting out with some sort of a training program for the first time in their lives.

The main thing we need to remember about exercises is this: exercises have two ways of interacting with an individual.  One way is with the changes they bring about in the structures of the body, these structures being the bones, connective tissue and muscle.  The second way is through functional changes in the nervous system.

The types of exercises used in training are as follows:

a.       exercises that directly apply to a given sports competition/endeavor;

b.      exercises that are not in direct applicability to the given competition/athletic endeavor, but still prepares the individual for such efforts by improving things such as technical or coordinative abilities; and

c.       exercises that either prevent injuries and/or overtraining or help to speed up physical and mental recovery from workouts.

What I say next may sound harsh, but none-the-less holds much truth and that is this; exercises that do not fulfill any of the above criteria are useless and should  not be considered for inclusion in training programs.

Over time repeated use of any given exercise will cause an individual to adapt to it, which in turn means the exercise gradually loses its effectiveness at exerting change in the body and thus the exercise then progresses from being a means for developing results to being a means merely of maintaining them.  As training time progresses the number of exercises effective for developing athletic results becomes smaller and smaller, but it’s possible to retain or if needed reboot the effectiveness of a given exercise by changing some elements of its execution, intensity, duration or sequencing in the course of training.

General exercises are those that develop general fitness non-specific to a particular athletic endeavor.  The idea behind these exercises is to completely and fully develop the whole body so it can withstand greater levels of specialization/intensification of training.  These exercises must be diverse enough to ensure an all-around development of the body and its physical abilities while at the same time adding some level of specificity so that  the particular sport, competition or future endeavor that is being pursued can receive a positive transfer of training effect from the exercises.

General exercises should be used in all periods of a macrocycle.  In the first phase of the macrocycle, the general/prepatory period, these exercises are the main means of training.  In the next stage of the macrocycle, that being of sport-specific preparation their purpose is to stabilize the form.  In the final stage of the macrocycle, the competition period, they are used as a means of active rest.  General exercises will reinforce the training effect of sport-specific exercises because of the variability of stimuli.

Directed exercises will combine certain traits of both the general and sport-specific exercises.  They will involve the muscles that are most essential in the given sport or endeavor and very importantly will use the same energy source as the actual endeavor uses.  Their dynamic characteristics are very similar to the sport-specific exercises but the exact form and execution of movement is different.  Because of this fact these exercises are more removed in nature from competitive exercises which in turn allows an individual to do more work, in a more controlled fashion than they could do with sport-specific exercises, without any negative influence on technique, particularly from the standpoint of learning incorrect neural patterns at the competitive level.

Sport-specific exercises are the exercises that directly contribute to an improvement of an individual’s athletic/endeavor specific performance.  Most sport-specific exercises consist of characteristics of the competitive or specific endeavor the individual is partaking in and actions performed with these movements are nearly identical in form and character to the actual specific endeavor actions or techniques or both.

Competitive exercises are the actual competitive actions and/or techniques for a given endeavor.  It’s very important to distinguish between the formal competitive exercises and their training forms.  Competitive exercises, both formal and training, are the only way of fully recreating the requirements of a given athletic endeavor and it turn the only way to stimulate the development of competitive/sporting form.  Due to this fact, these exercises must not be removed from the training regimen but, because of the demands they cause both physically and mentally from their intensity when executed, their portion in the total selection of exercises in training will be very small.

        DIETING FOR SUCCESS

This is an extremely important physiological concept that must be obeyed if success is to be achieved with a diet.  One needs to understand that the body works on feedback loops.  If any one thing that is done to the body is taken to extremes the body will interpret that as being “out of whack” or not in homeostatic balance. The body will then do the opposite of what you are trying to do to it to bring things “back into balance”.  In regards to dieting, when people try to lose weight, lose weight and lose weight, eventually the body stops that from happening and worse, no matter how little you eat, eventually the body will start putting weight back on, adding insult to injury it will be in the form of fat. Now why does this happen??  It’s really quite simple.  The body interprets a long term hypo-caloric state of being as starvation.  Now you and I know that isn’t happening, we are simply trying to lose a few pounds and look better, however, internally the only thing the body understands is that it isn’t getting enough food to survive.  If that doesn’t change the body will slow it’s metabolism and will start activating enzymes in the body that will start converting all food sources consumed to body fat and this will happen regardless of the type of foods consumed.

What a person needs to do with their diet to ensure that this doesn’t happen is once a week one day must be devoted to eating more calories than maintenance levels would require, your hyper-caloric day or as we like to call it your cheat day.  There are many ways to handle your cheat day, though we recommend eating whatever it is you’d like and to eat a lot of it. 

People often worry if they eat anything they want or if they really “pig-out” on their cheat day they will undo all the good they’ve done dieting for the previous six days. Though understandable, however one needs to think beyond this to understand the physiological truth of the matter.  The first thing that needs to be understood is you won’t consume anywhere near as much food as what you think you’ll consume.  The reason for this is that by restricting your calories during the week, eating small meals often, your stomach shrinks.  Your stomach is like any other muscle, if it’s not worked (by overeating or eating large meals often) it will shrink.  Though you think you’ll “eat a horse” on your cheat day you may be very surprised to find out how little you really can eat.  Thus the whole idea of “blowing” your diet becomes non-relevant from the massive caloric intake standpoint.

The next thing one needs to understand is the body will not convert any excess food stuffs to body fat until at least one of two things happen.  If you are one of our training clients then two things have to happen before any extra calories above and beyond maintenance can be converted to body fat.  Both things are extremely energy (calorie) intensive, which means it takes a lot of calories to make them happen.  The first thing is the body’s metabolic rate, the internal thermostat which regulates energy expenditure, needs to be “reset” or “rebooted”.  As you continue to diet (restrict energy intake) throughout the week, the body’s metabolism starts to slow.  You are internally starting to slow down, you are not using energy as efficiently and you are not using your body fat to compensate for that lack of caloric energy as efficiently.  You need to reset your internal thermostat so that you can run as efficiently as possible. This takes quite a bit of energy to do even after dieting for only six days!!  The next thing the body has to do is repair all the muscle tissue damage from the one, two or three weight training workouts you’ve done that week. Your diet provided all the micro and macro nutrients you needed to repair that tissue damage (a good thing we want to have happen) from your training, but it was lacking one key element for success – Enough energy to make it happen.  The amount of caloric energy one needs to repair extensive tissue damage, the kind our clients incur from our workouts, is substantial.  In fact it’s so substantial that the likelihood that you could consume enough calories in just one day to repair a weeks’ worth of damage is virtually impossible, especially after factoring in the number of calories needed to “reboot” the metabolism.

Now does that mean that if we can’t get all those calories in we aren’t going to experience success for our efforts??  Hardly. What that does mean though is one needs to take the “cheat” day very seriously and do everything in their power to eat as much food as they can.  Normally this is most easily achieved by eating our pet “junk” foods, you know, the ones that really don’t have much nutritional value but taste oh so good to us.  A bonus to these foods, besides their high caloric contents is the fact that we enjoy them, they are foods we know we aren’t suppose to eat, but want to anyways. Well this is the day of the week that we get to have our cake and eat it too.  A successful diet is really a lifestyle change that promotes better food choices the majority of the time, better timing of meals, and the proper balance of restriction and addition of calories within pre-defined time periods.

The point of this article was to focus on the diet and the need for “cheat” days.  One needs to understand that a diet alone, no matter how good, will be less effective by itself than if physical exercise were included in the game plan of weight loss/fat loss, overall improvement in one’s health and physique.  I also need to stress that the most productive way to meet the goals one has set for themselves is to focus on the diet and weight resistance training. Aerobic conditioning is a great thing and shouldn’t be discarded from a training regimen; however, the weight training should be the focus of one’s training, not cardio, not if long-term beneficial results and improvements in health are the things sought.