As a business owner, I can say without wavering that there are a lot of times when I admittedly get stressed out and wish there were more hours in the day to get everything I have on my plate done - and still have time left over to spend with my wife and family.
And, while I haven't managed to figure out how to add more than 24 hours to the day, I have started to find a few ways to better manage my time - and, more specifically, my strength training program.
You see, many people use exercise as a means of relieving stress - and I think that's absolutely awesome. Unfortunately, when you already work 10 hours a day on your feet in a gym, it's hard to see things that way even when all the equipment is right at your fingertips. To that end, the stressed-out strength training tips I note below will be applicable to folks in any occupation, not just the fitness industry.
Tip #1: Increase training frequency, but reduce training duration.
I find that when I'm busy, I can find 30 minutes here and there, but getting 60-75 minutes free at a convenient time is tougher. One thing I'll do is simply up my training frequency to 5-6 times per week instead of just four sessions. Rather than having sessions that include four pairings (7-8 strength exercises), I'll just have two pairings (3-4 exercises).
If you've read anything from Chad Waterbury or Joel Marion, you'll find that both of these guys are fans of strength training as frequently as possible, provided that you can recover from those sessions. Somewhat coincidentally, sometimes the best way to utilize this frequent strength training approach is when you're already stressed and recovery is compromised! I still get in all my "work" over the course of the week, but it's spread out a bit more so that it's convenient and less taxing.
Tip #2: Leave the gym feeling refreshed.
Also on the "less taxing" front, I think it's important to leave the gym feeling "refreshed," not exhausted. While it might feel good when your legs are trashed at the end of a training session, you really don't know how well you're going to recover from that challenge until the days that follow. Doing 15 sets of 9 reps might have sounded like a good stress buster at the time, but when you can't walk up the steps to work the following day and are falling asleep at your desk at 11am because you couldn't sleep with your legs cramping all night, hindsight definitely becomes 20/20.
Don't get me wrong; there's a time and a place for doing crazy stuff. Your most stressful days aren't that time, though.
Tip #3: Train early.
This is something that I've grown to love with the baseball off-season in full swing and my day starting earlier. Normally, I'd train alongside the rest of our staff at 10:30AM, but at that time of year, I may have athletes at 9:30AM MoTuThFr. So, I get in at 8:15AM to get my lifting session in. Why?
First, lifting early requires planning. You need to go to bed early and prepare your stuff for the next day. So, in the process, you make time instead of finding time. That's huge at a stressful time when you're inclined to miss a session altogether.
Second, most people I know (at least the adults out there) have better energy in the morning than after a long day of work. That said, many people take a few weeks to warm up to the idea (and feeling) of training early. If you're going to make the switch, give it a few weeks and be consistent with it; you'll find that you get more and more comfortable with morning training with each new session.
Third, I'm a firm believer in the adage that one hour of sleep before midnight is worth two hours of sleep after midnight. When you train in the morning, you've got to get to bed earlier or else it simply isn't going to happen.
Get better sleep quality and just about everything else in your life will improve.
Tip #4: Outsource things to keep training fun.
I'll admit that many times, after a long day in a strength and conditioning facility, the last thing I want to do is follow my own weight training program. I spend all day getting other people organized on that front, so a bit of chaos in my own strength training is sometimes welcomed relief.
About two months ago, believe it or not, I asked one of my pro baseball players (who was hanging out in the office at 7pm one night) to put a lower body program up on the dry erase board for me. It turned out to be one of the better training sessions I'd had in weeks. The same goes for any conditioning I may do; often, I'll just pull Robert Dos Remedios' book, Cardio Strength Training, off the shelf and give something a shot.
Variety may be the spice of life, but when it comes to training, that variety usually needs to come from someone else. It might be why so many fitness professionals have really enjoyed my Show and Go program; it not only demonstrates some of my programming approaches, but also gives them a change of pace in their own training, as a recent blog post showed.
Tip #5: Use less variety.
Normally, I am all about strength exercise variety within a training session. However, when you're pinched for time, sometimes you can just throw that out the window and it's the best decision.
Think about it: for every additional exercise in a day's session, I add a warm-up set as well as the need for equipment set-up. If I keep my training day to 2-3 strength exercises and just increase the volume on each, I can usually do just as much (if not more) work in less time. You get variety over the course of a training phase and career; you get a training effect within a single session.
In other words, don't be shy about doing 5 sets of 3 on deadlifts, then 4 sets of 8 on dumbbell reverse lunges from a deficit - and then calling it a day for your lower body training - especially if you're trying out the frequency recommendations I noted earlier.
Tip #6: Use deloading periods.
At the end of the day, when it really comes down to it, stress is stress. Sometimes, when life is beating you down, adding training stress to that personal/professional stress is the worst that you can do. As a general rule of thumb, the more training experience you have, the more likely you are to need some down time from the gym when the rest of your life gets super hectic. If you're new to the iron game, though, chances are that some exercise will help you manage the stress much more effectively.
For more information on how to attack deloading periods, check out my e-book, The Art of the Deload.
These six strength training tips are obviously just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exercise and stress, but hopefully they'll be enough to get you headed in the right direction. Additionally, what strategies have those of you out there implemented for training during stressful times?
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As you probably know, when I come across high-quality products that I really enjoy that I think will be a good fit for my audience, I am thrilled to be able to write up thorough reviews for you. This way, it not only gives some love to these products’ deserving creators (and learn myself!), but also gives you more background to make sure that it’s a good fit for you if you opt to purchase it.
To that end, I wanted to use today's post to highlight the top seven products I reviewed in 2010. Considering that I receive literally dozens of products in the mail each year to review (I still have a stack left to cover), these represent not just the cream of the crop, but the ones where I actually had the time and inclination to write something up. Check them out by category:
For the Fitness Professionals:Muscle Imbalances Revealed - This set of six webinars can be viewed conveniently from the comforts of your own home. No travel or shipping charges to ruin your day! Check out my review Product Review: Muscle Imbalances Revealed.
The Single-Leg Solution - Mike Robertson is a great friend of mine - but that's not the only reason I liked this product. It was very thorough, well-researched and written, and offered some excellent coaching cues that any fitness professional would be wise to study up on. My review is The Single-leg Solution: Detailed Product Review.
Movement - I just realized that I never got around to writing up a review of this great book from Gray Cook, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't an excellent read. I HIGHLY recommend it.
For the Fat Loss Enthusiasts (then again, can you really be enthusiastic about having to lose fat?):
Body of Fire - This fat loss resource from Chad Waterbury was great for the masses - especially if you only have minimal equipment at your fingertips. I loved the focus on movement rather than just crazy high volume training. Check out my interview with him: Waterbury on Why Most Fat Loss Plans Fail Miserably - and a Better Approach.
That wraps it up for the best of 2010 product reviews; hopefully you can reward yourself with some late holiday shopping by picking up one or more of these items; you won't regret it. I'll be back tomorrow with the best videos of 2010.
Most of you already know by now that I'm not a fan of "traditional" cardio.
Step aerobics classes have ruined enough knees, Achilles tendons, and hips.
Ellipticals don't allow you enough hip flexion to avoid developing hips like a crowbar.
Most people don't need to sit on their fat a**es on bikes, either because most people, well, they sit on their fat a**es enough as it is.
In short, as I've noted in the past in my discussions of The Law of Repetitive Motion Part 1 and Part 2, take a small amplitude of motion and repeat it thousands of times and you're going to wind up with some issues sooner than later. And, to take it a step further, you're going to get efficient at this motion - and over the course of time, burn fewer calories (especially if you're doing steady-state cardio and not interval work).
It's not like I haven't made suggestions on other stuff to do, either. Try Sprinting for Health, Rethinking Interval Training, or When Things Get Boring, Turn to Cardio Strength Training. I also recently raved about the emphasis Chad Waterbury placed on movement on his great new fat loss program, Body of Fire.
And, if you need one more example, here was a little fun I had with an impromptu conditioning session on Sunday afternoon at Cressey Performance: Alternating Lateral Lunge Walk with Keg paired with Inchworms.
I'd already done some cable woodchops, t-push-ups, face pulls, slideboard, easy sprinting progressions, and medicine ball throws in a circuit format that day (pair up two exercises with low resistance and rotate back and forth without stopping for three minutes). It's not rocket science because we aren't building rockets; people just need to move more.
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Today, we're fortunate to have an interview with Chad Waterbury.EC: Chad, thanks for agreeing to this interview for the site. It's hard to believe that EricCressey.com has been "live" since 2006, and this is the first time we've gotten you on-board for a feature. Most of my readers are probably familiar with you already, but what have you been up to lately?
CW: First off, I want to say that it's a pleasure to be here. You offer top-notch information to a wide variety of clients and that's why I'm happy to do this interview. This is one of the few websites that I read on a regular basis.
Over the last few years, since moving to Los Angeles, I've gotten back to training more people one-on-one. In this town, it's all about fat loss. People want to get lean and ripped, like, yesterday. In LA, immediate gratification isn't fast enough. So I've spent time really honing my training and nutrition parameters to help people burn fat in record time.
I've also been working with a lot of professional fighters. There's no greater challenge than developing a fighter because he needs to build elite levels of strength, endurance, and mobility at the same time. The cool part is that my work with fighters - and the parameters I use for burning fat - actually coalesce. Why? It's simple: the quickest way to get a leaner, stronger body is to train more like an athlete - especially a fighter. So my challenge was to create a system to get non-athletes to experience the same results that my athletes, such as Ralek Gracie, get when training with me personally.
EC: Gracie's rocking your "Body of FIRE" logo on his banner at the beginning of this clip; let's talk about that. You've got a new fat loss e-book out (Body of F.I.R.E.). Besides the obvious fact that a lot of people are...well...fat, what inspired you to write it?
CW: Honestly, I was getting tired of hearing outrageous claims from trainers who've never transformed anyone. This industry is replete with self-proclaimed experts. Now, I'm certainly not against the idea of making money off your information, but when the sales pitch is exaggerated to the point of hysteria it becomes a little too much to stomach. It's funny because people often associate me with methods that are solely intended to build size and strength. In reality, I have more experience with training people for fat loss than anything else.
So I took it upon myself to create a system that will transform people faster than they ever thought possible. That's why I created my new Body of F.I.R.E. program. In my experience, nothing transforms a person quicker than an effectively designed Full-body, Intense, Resistance Exercise program - hence the acronym.
However, I didn't want to make a program that was only for advanced athletes, so I took a lot of time tweaking the parameters so anyone can get incredible results on the program.
EC: Along those same lines, where are most people falling short on the fat loss front? Why isn't the status quo getting the job done?
CW: This is easy to answer. The first reason why people don't lose fat, and keep it off, is because they don't know how to eat to stimulate their metabolism. Most diets shut down fat burning and make people feel miserable.
The second reason is due to their training program. It's imperative to stimulate as many muscle fibers as possible with full-body workouts while keeping the rest periods to a minimum in order to generate a large cardiovascular response.
The third component is with their progression plan, or lack thereof. The only way to make your body lose fat week after week is to make it to do work without burning out your nervous system. Building athleticism is a key to making this work.
Finally, tissue health is probably the most underrated and unappreciated aspect of body transformation. There are simple steps you can take to keep your joints healthy, and this is essential to sticking with a program. There are a lot of crazy programs out there that quickly impose an insane amount of stress on the joints. If you get injured, your fat loss endeavor immediately comes to a screeching halt.
EC: Let's talk about the program itself. What's unique about it that sets it apart from other fat loss methods that may fall short?
CW: Quickly transforming your body starts with the right diet. You'll never lose fat unless your nutrition program focuses on foods that are high in nutrients but low in calories. It's all about food quality. You can eat an entire bag of potato chips because they contain no real nutrients. Therefore, your brain never gets the memo that your body is satisfied. However, you'd never be able to finish the same amount of calories from, say, blueberries or broccoli because your brain quickly gets the signal that your body is getting the nutrients it needs to support your metabolism. Bottom line: the only way to see your abs is to get your diet in order first.
The second component is with your training program. As I mentioned, it's essential to train in a way that induces the largest metabolic cost that exercise can create. Tabata's research taught us that we need to think less about the metabolic changes that are occurring during a workout and focus more on what's happening after you leave the gym. An hour jog only burns calories while you're doing it, plus it's very hard on your hips, knees, and ankles. High intensity cardio, on the other hand, will stimulate your metabolism to keep burning calories long after you stop training - if you know how to do it right. Instead of running on a treadmill, focus on full-body circuits such as split jacks, jumping jacks, and burpees that are performed for multiple rounds with minimal rest.
With regard to weight training, it's important to do three things. First, for every other workout, lift loads that are heavy enough to recruit all of your muscle fibers. Most people lose size and strength on a fat loss plan because they focus on light, high-rep weight training exercises that are performed to failure. This is a travesty because it's not optimal for maximum muscle fiber recruitment. Focus on weights that are between a 6-12 repetition maximum, and accelerate all of your lifts. This ensures that you're recruiting all of your muscle fibers with every rep. As the saying goes: if you don't use it, you lose it. A full-body circuit comprised of an upper body push, an upper body pull, a lower body exercise, and a core exercise is outstanding for creating a huge metabolic cost when the rest periods are kept to a minimum.
From there, I have my clients perform "cardio strength" exercises. These are exercises that don't require as much load as a strength circuit, but they can still recruit all of your muscle fibers when performed correctly. For example, I like to pair up the kettlebell swing with a push-up for descending reps. You'll start with, say, 13 reps of the swing and then you'll drop to the floor and knock out 13 push-ups. Then you'll jump back to your feet and do 12 swings followed by 12 push-ups. Next it's 11 swings followed by 11 push-ups. You'll continue with this sequence until you reach one rep for each exercise. When you perform each exercise at top speed, and when you keep rest to a minimum, it's awesome for burning fat while boosting athleticism.
The third essential component of body transformation comes from an effective progression plan. Many people stop getting results on a fat loss program after a few weeks because their parameters are stagnant. You must force your body to do more work over time. You don't need to keep adding weight to your lifts. Instead, focus on adding a rep or set, or increase your work interval, or shorten your rest periods by five seconds with each workout. This ensures that your metabolism is constantly being challenged. In my new program, I use a combination of these progression methods in each phase.
EC: The thing I noticed right away is the dedicated focus to staying healthy with good soft tissue work and a focus on mobility and athletic movement. It seems like a lot of fat loss programs out there are all about just making people move a ton to tire them out and burn calories - but there is rarely (if ever) a focus on the quality of movement. Inevitably, exercise technique goes down the crapper and many folks wind up injured (in addition to being raging a**holes from caloric deprivation). Can you speak a bit to how you attacked this aspect of the program?
CW: You're right, Eric, getting the most out of your workouts comes from quality of movement. And getting the most out of your movements comes from having healthy joints that are in balance. Just like high quality foods are essential to boosting your metabolism, so are the exercises. I spent a lot of time developing the exercise guide in this resource by including big, high-resolution pictures along with many tips and technique guidelines to ensure that everyone is doing each exercise perfectly.
Furthermore, each workout starts with a few mobility exercises. Most people are stiffest in their ankles, hips, T-spine, and shoulders so it's important to mobilize those areas before you start training. The good news is that it doesn't take long - just a few minutes when you know what to do. And each workout ends with a few, key stretches for the same areas. This is great insurance to keep you on track. A program is only as good as the corrective exercises it contains to keep you from throwing your joints out of whack.
EC: Let's talk nutrition. What can readers expect on that front in Body of Fire?
CW: The nutrition program is as effective as it is user-friendly. The first step, as I mentioned, comes from replacing low-quality foods in your current eating plan with nutrient-dense, low-calories foods. The second step is to control insulin and add in certain, key nutrients that research has shown to have the greatest impact on increasing your metabolism. You must eat frequently, every 3-4 hours, and most people know that. But what might surprise people is that front loading your calories, where breakfast is your highest calorie meal and dinner is the lowest, is a simple way to supercharge your metabolism and burn fat. The third component comes from your workout nutrition. If you take branched-chain amino acids in the right amounts, before and after training, along with a specific post-workout feeding you'll accelerate fat burning, recovery, and performance.
The nutrition plan, when paired with the workouts I outline in the program, produce incredible results. My client, Jon, lost over 40 pounds of fat on the program. Since he's an athlete, he couldn't afford to lose any size and strength. As you can see from the before and after pictures, he created what many guys might consider to be the ultimate body. I'll concede that he shaved, tanned, and lost his shoes, but I think the rest speaks for itself.
EC: Not too shabby at all! Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer my questions, Chad. Where can readers find out more about the new product?
CW: Just head over to BodyofFire.com and check it out while the introductory price is still in effect. This program is unlike anything I've written about in any of my books or articles. I've never spent as much time on a project as I have on the this system. No stone has been left unturned.
1. It's going to be a quick one this week, as I'm doing some last minute preparations for this weekend's Perform Better Summit in Providence, RI. To all the poor abandoned souls who count on my blog for companionship each Friday, I apologize for not giving our relationship the tender romance it deserves this week.
2. Congratulations to Cressey Performance athlete and Auburn High pitcher Tyler Beede, who threw a no-hitter on Wednesday. Tyler struck out 15 in his complete game performance.
3. I contributed on the fourth installment of Mythbusters at T-Nation this week. It also includes contributions from Chad Waterbury, Tony Gentilcore, and Christian Thibaudeau. Noticeably absent from this esteemed crew of contributors is Mr. Celery - so I thought I'd give him some love.
4. For the foam rolling aficionados in the crowd, here's a great variation to use for those hard-to-reach grundle adductor region. Thanks to Tony Gentilcore for the video:
This is a really important one for those of you in the crowd with a history of groin strains and sports hernias. Hockey players, soccer players, and powerlifters should commit this one to memory.
5. It's official: Mike Robertson, Bill Hartman, and I are filming a new DVD on June 7th. Lots to prepare before then!
"In Maximum Strength Eric Cressey outlines a system of scientific and user-friendly principles that will build a body that's strong, muscular, mobile and healthy. That's a tough combination to pull off, but this book does it. Whether you're an athlete or weekend warrior, you need this book."
-Chad Waterbury
The other day, while doing some online reading, I accidentally happened upon an article with the following introduction:
“Forget avocado, evening primrose oil or other exotic ingredients, the latest facial to hit New York is a mask made with bird excrement. The Geisha Facial, available at Shizuka New York for $180, about $100 more than the shop's other facials, contains nightingale excrement.”
The message is that you can sell people on any kind of crap (pun intended) that you want.
Research on the repeated exposures effect in marketing shows that the more people see something (to a point of limited returns), the more they accept it as not only as fact, but as convenience – or even gospel – as well. It’s the reason so many people “Xerox” rather than photocopy – or grab a Kleenex rather than a tissue. While making some photocopies, blowing your nose, or even rubbing bird crap on your face is a far cry from lifting heavy stuff, you’d be surprised at the messages you can glean from this introduction.
If I told you in a Monday T-Nation article that my nightingale excrement protocol would add 50 pounds to your squat in two weeks, would you buy it? Probably not. But, if Christian Thibaudeau chimed in on Tuesday and said that he’d added one inch to his biceps over the course of a month by simply massaging bird poo onto his upper arms, you’d probably raise an eyebrow and read on.
Then, Mike Robertson chimes in on Wednesday to tell you that, “as demonstrated by an independent laboratory study” (which, incidentally, was funded by the American Society for the Advancement of Bird S**t), nightingale dung reduces knee pain in arthritis patients. Thursday, Chad Waterbury tells you that ten sets of three minutes of bird s**t on your face works better than three sets of ten minutes. Friday, TC admits he sniffs nightingale doo-doo to gain inspiration for each Atomic Dog column.
You’re sold.
There are no peer-reviewed studies displaying quantifiable results, or even a good amount of anecdotal, subjective evidence to support the aforementioned notions.
The point is that no matter how informed a consumer you think you are, you’re also (likely) outside your realm of expertise when it comes to exercise physiology if you haven’t made a career out of it. It’s why I go to an accountant to get my taxes done or a lawyer to have a contract drawn-up – and it’s why there are a lot of people out there obliviously getting suckered into false information that often separates them from their money.
A few years ago, I wrote a series called “Debunking Exercise Myths.” In hindsight, I probably should have called it “Stupid Stuff You Shouldn’t Believe” – especially since I’m a few years older and a bit more cynical now. These were two of my more popular articles to-date, so I thought I’d throw it out there to get some reader input: would you like to see more?
And, if so, feel free to drop us an email with your suggestions on topics to cover. You can send an email to ec@ericcressey.com with the subject line “Debunking Exercise Myths Suggestion.” I’ll either cover it in future newsletters and/or blogs, or make a new article out of it altogether.
In an effort to take things a step back, [TC] asked 8 Testosterone coaches the following question:
"What do you believe to be true, even though you can't prove it?"
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