It does not matter who you are what you do, there is always one area in life that you can make a change for the better. This article will focus on the health and fitness aspect of life but can be applied to all areas. The idea of "+1" was inspired by reading an article by Mike Robertson. He asked his followers to adhere and now I will be doing the same. The principle is simple: whatever you are doing right now, add one small thing to your program and reap the rewards!
The purpose of +1 is to get you doing something on a day you typically would not. So if your the person who has terrible conditioning, instead of taking a "rest" day, make your way to the gym and do some interval work or do some circuit training. Your body will thank you later! Or lets say you love banging the weights but put no effort into joint mobility or flexibility, sign yourself up for a yoga class. I recently started going to Bikram yoga in Bethlehem and it is 90 minutes of exercise that I would never do on my own. And for that, I appreciate the challenge (even though it whoops my butt). Or you are that endurance athlete who can't get enough of cardiovascular training. Instead of running, find yourself a gym and get in some strength training. Not only will it benefit your body composition and boost strength, but it will be less time intensive and a little more healthy on your joints! Lastly, lets say you workout 3-4 days per week and want to add another day, do something fun! Keep the intensity low and act like a child.
For most of us, doing "just enough" is commonplace. We do what we do as we are all creatures of habit. And because of that, we often complain about how we stopped making progress or are struggling to hit your goals. This is the purpose of the +1. Small changes in your fitness routine can make profound differences! If you are looking to spruce up your current routine, come check out one of my classes at WarriorFit Performance. They are uptempo, fun, and most importantly, something you would not do on your own!
Hope you are all having a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Chris Fluck, CSCS
Adult Group Training Schedule
Sunday 8 am: Mud Run Training
Monday 9 am: Kettlebell Training
Tuesday 7 pm: Kettlebell Training
Wednesday 9 am: Crank It Up Conditioning
Friday 9:00 am: Kettlebell Training
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Saturday, November 23, 2013
The Mysterious DOMS
Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common side effect of physical activity. DOMS does not discriminate. It can show up in individuals ranging from Olympic athletes to the weekend warrior. This soreness is the bodies response to unfamiliar or vigorous activity. Many consider DOMS to be a great indicator of training effectiveness and it is necessary for every training program. I am not one of those people!
So what causes DOMS? We do not know for sure what causes it. There is a common perception that DOMS has something to do with lactic acid. That is not the case. Lactic acid is a by-product of exercise (like your legs burning as you bicycle uphill) and not the cause of pain following exercise. DOMS appears to be a product of inflammation caused by microscopic tears in connective tissue. So when your muscles are hurting after a workout, it does not have anything to do with "lactic acid buildup", but rather your muscles are literally damaged.
A general rule for Delayed onset muscle soreness is that it becomes evident about 6-8 hours after an exercise session and peaks at approximately 48 hours post exercise. These times are highly variable and some pain may even last up to 72 hours post-exercise. Pain associated with DOMS has been shown to negatively effect training. A damaged muscle can be tender, stiff, swollen and up to 50% weaker until it is healed. This impairs your ability to train at a high level as your movement patterns are effected and researchers speculate that this could reduce your motivation to train. If your goal is to make improvements every time you begin a training session, exercise induced muscle damage is your worst enemy. If you are on a quest for DOMS, you are putting yourself in position for a lackluster workout.
There is a belief that DOMS follows an inverted U-shaped curve. The logic of the inverted-U curve is that the same strategies that work really well at first stop working past a certain point. So lets say on day one of your workout, you do 3 sets of 12 pushups. That strategy seemed to work for the most part so you decide to double the amount of sets for workout two. Instead of doing 3 sets you do 6 and the result of that will be sore pecs for days on end. Your strategy worked day one but it hit a certain point on day two and negatively effected your training program. This indicates a failure to plan. There is no logical progression and that is a dumb idea if you need to maximize your training potential. (This is why I am not a big believer in "shocking the body" regularly or "planned randomization"). The key to controlling DOMS can be found in general progression and training consistency. Now if you repeat that workout a few more times, the soreness will dissipate. This is known as the repeated bout effect. When you repeatedly do the same exercises, you "strengthen connective tissue, increase efficiency in the recruitment of motor units, greater motor unit synchronization, a more even distribution of the workload among fibers, and/or greater contribution of synergistic fibers". So if you do a workout and it gets you pretty sore, repeat that workout the next week and I can almost guarantee you that the soreness will not be as bad as the previous week.
Is DOMS necessary? Who really knows. I have had success training with it and without it. One thing I know for sure is that you cannot use it as an indicator for progress. DOMS does not mean a thing if you are not getting stronger or adding additional lean muscle mass to your body. Progress comes from the adaptations from training (this is the period between workouts), not during the training session itself. A workout should always give you more than what it takes out of you!
Hope you enjoyed,
Chris Fluck
So what causes DOMS? We do not know for sure what causes it. There is a common perception that DOMS has something to do with lactic acid. That is not the case. Lactic acid is a by-product of exercise (like your legs burning as you bicycle uphill) and not the cause of pain following exercise. DOMS appears to be a product of inflammation caused by microscopic tears in connective tissue. So when your muscles are hurting after a workout, it does not have anything to do with "lactic acid buildup", but rather your muscles are literally damaged.
A general rule for Delayed onset muscle soreness is that it becomes evident about 6-8 hours after an exercise session and peaks at approximately 48 hours post exercise. These times are highly variable and some pain may even last up to 72 hours post-exercise. Pain associated with DOMS has been shown to negatively effect training. A damaged muscle can be tender, stiff, swollen and up to 50% weaker until it is healed. This impairs your ability to train at a high level as your movement patterns are effected and researchers speculate that this could reduce your motivation to train. If your goal is to make improvements every time you begin a training session, exercise induced muscle damage is your worst enemy. If you are on a quest for DOMS, you are putting yourself in position for a lackluster workout.
There is a belief that DOMS follows an inverted U-shaped curve. The logic of the inverted-U curve is that the same strategies that work really well at first stop working past a certain point. So lets say on day one of your workout, you do 3 sets of 12 pushups. That strategy seemed to work for the most part so you decide to double the amount of sets for workout two. Instead of doing 3 sets you do 6 and the result of that will be sore pecs for days on end. Your strategy worked day one but it hit a certain point on day two and negatively effected your training program. This indicates a failure to plan. There is no logical progression and that is a dumb idea if you need to maximize your training potential. (This is why I am not a big believer in "shocking the body" regularly or "planned randomization"). The key to controlling DOMS can be found in general progression and training consistency. Now if you repeat that workout a few more times, the soreness will dissipate. This is known as the repeated bout effect. When you repeatedly do the same exercises, you "strengthen connective tissue, increase efficiency in the recruitment of motor units, greater motor unit synchronization, a more even distribution of the workload among fibers, and/or greater contribution of synergistic fibers". So if you do a workout and it gets you pretty sore, repeat that workout the next week and I can almost guarantee you that the soreness will not be as bad as the previous week.
Is DOMS necessary? Who really knows. I have had success training with it and without it. One thing I know for sure is that you cannot use it as an indicator for progress. DOMS does not mean a thing if you are not getting stronger or adding additional lean muscle mass to your body. Progress comes from the adaptations from training (this is the period between workouts), not during the training session itself. A workout should always give you more than what it takes out of you!
Hope you enjoyed,
Chris Fluck
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Obesity: A Terror Within
The statistics are well-known: a full two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese. In the past 30 years, childhood obesity has tripled. As a result, today's children may be the first generation to have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. The need of achieving good health is sky high yet very little is being done to combat obesity. How is this so? Maybe it is time to take matters into our own hands!
Obesity is the result of inappropriate lifestyle choices. We have an activity problem in this country. To put it simply, "the soul of the nation is sapped by sitting in a cubicle". When you are sitting, your muscles are as silent as a library. You need to get up and get moving. Little things like taking the stairs, jogging to the water cooler, bustling through your chores and fidgeting at work make a difference. The American Cancer Society conducted a study and the results were frightening. Men who spent six hours or more per day had an overall death rate 20% higher than men who sat for 3 hours. For women it was 40%! If that is not reason enough to get you up and moving, than that is a YOU problem!
When you combine inactivity with improper nutrition, you have yourself a perfect storm. Conventional diets and health recommendations are off the mark and are attributable to our flawed diets. The old adage that "a calorie is a calorie" is false and could be the cause of your lack of health. YOU ultimately control the calories that you eat. 1,000 calories of cake and 1,000 calories of broccoli have the same arbitrary caloric value but the metabolic effect will be entirely different. One can lead to diabetes and the other can lead you to a six-pack. The calorie is not what makes you fat. You get fat because YOU eat the wrong kind of calories. Below I give some general recommendations on diet and tips to follow everyday. These tips may not be for everyone!
MY CFT FOOD RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Nuts, avocados: 1-2 servings.
2. Fats, oils: 2-4 servings.
3. Dairy: 2-4 servings.
4. Fruit: 2-4 servings.
5. Starchy foods: 2-4 servings.
6. Low-starch vegetables: 3 or more servings.
7. High-protein foods: 4-8 servings.
Here are few quick tips I have learned along the way:
1. Eat three main meals and two or three snacks per day. Consume protein at every meal
2. This is one of the greatest tips I can give you: Eat like an adult! That means no lucky charms for breakfast, skittles aren’t a safe alternative to eating fruit and leave the cotton candy for the six year olds!
3. If you want to lose more weight and are struggling, replace grains with greens. Make a fist. That is your serving size. Eat 1-2 fists full of vegetables at each meal and watch the weight drop! If replacing grains with greens doesn’t get you the results you want, save the fruit consumption until after you exercise. Fruit contains fructose which can make it more difficult to lose body fat.
4. Hydration is important but remember we are not camels. We cannot store water for extended periods of time. If you are thirsty, drink. Any excess will leave the body through urination. Keep alcohol consumption to a minimum!
5. Do not avoid fats. They are essential. Eat the right kind of fats, including nuts (such as almonds, cashews, and walnuts), avocado, olive oil and nut butters
6. Before and after your workouts, combine carbohydrates and protein for optimal recovery. Post-exercise nutrition should have a 3:1-4:1 carbohydrate to protein ratio. If you are struggling with this aspect, break recovery into these stages: immediately before exercise; during exercise; 30 minutes immediately following exercise; a period equal to the duration of the preceding exercise session; long-term (this is post-exercise recovery proceeding the next stage 1). Make small improvements in each of these areas and over time, you will find what works best for you!
7. Be happy with your success and remember that that is always the objective. Be proud but always keep your eye on the ultimate goal: improved overall health. You don’t have to celebrate every success with pizza, cheesesteaks, brownies and booze.
NOW is always a perfect time to take action. If you need someone to nudge you along the way, My CFT Plan will make the difference and get you moving in the right direction!
Hope you enjoyed!
Chris Fluck, CSCS
Monday, November 4, 2013
The Perfect Compliment
To anyone who has read my posts or heard me speak on fitness, you all know that there is a bit of a strength bias at C. Fluck Training. Strength is the glass and the bigger the glass, the more you can fill that glass with other skills. Because of that, I place an emphasis on old fashioned strength training. A few months ago I began searching for something new to compliment my training program. The more I read, there was one implement that kept coming up over and over. That tool was the kettlebell.The kettlebell was developed by Russian strongmen in the 1700's. It hasn't been a huge part in American training until recently, where now the kettlebell is one of the trendiest things in fitness since the protein shake. Why is the kettlebell so great? How much time do you have? For one, the KB amplifies your power endurance. This is your ability to produce power movements over an extended period of time. With proper weight, these fast muscular contractions will make your heart feel like it wants to jump out of your chest. Because of the time component performing the exercise, your grip and forearm strength will be challenged. Add in the odd design of the bell and your body has to contend with a constantly changing center of gravity. When you mix all this up in a pot, you are able to reduce your overall training time, improves cardio-respiratory fitness, and bridge the gap between strength training and conditioning. (One study revealed that a 20 minute workout performing kettlebell swings will burn 20.2 calories per minute. That is equal to running a 6 minute mile pace!)
That is all fine and dandy but how are you supposed to know how to use these odd bells? Technique is number one if you intend on maximizing your training and saving your body from injury. Search the internet and you can find terrible technique by "fitness experts" explaining the benefits of the KB. So if you plan on doing it on your own, be careful. Get quality advice whenever you have a chance. If you want to perform these moves under the guidance of a professional, I run classes every week. Feel free to join anytime. Bottom line is this: kettlebells provide one helluva workout. If your goal is to burn fat, increase power endurance, and get strong, then the kettlebell is for you!
Chris Fluck, CSCS
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