Featured Blog Content:

Let's talk about training effectively.


My clients follow different versions of the same movement based program. There are certain movements that we want to cover, but the choice of exercise can vary depending on what equipment is available, or the client's confidence & ability level.

The way I've designed the program and the way I have set it up to be so versatile and customisable is a bit unique. But at the same time, it is just one example of how a competent and knowledgeable training might design an effective program.

There are probably unlimited options for designing an effective resistance training program, but for the most part they'll all have certain movements in common. Specifically we're talking about heavy ass compound lifts, and a suitable balance to recruit and exhaust all of the major muscle groups.

In addition to those, I like to include what I describe as "precision" movements that might target a more specific, smaller muscle, or which might be like an extra coat of polish after we've done the more utilitarian type stuff like grunting neanderthals.

Sometimes there are other movements that we might incorporate for very specific reason, for example to recruit and activate a very specific supporting muscle that doesn't seem to be doing it's job effectively while performing those major compound movements. These exercises aren't really going to make much of a difference to your body composition, but a trainer with a good eye and a good understanding of movement and anatomy will utilise them for the purpose of better preparing you for safe & effective execution of the important stuff that really does make a difference.

Now... click through pinterest for a while and have a look at some of these "cellulite banishing butt and thigh workouts" posted up, for example. What you'll find is a lot of very elegant and dignified looking calisthenic type exercises, precise movements that may target a specific muscle. You'll feel a burn while performing them, possibly some Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness the next day... but does this mean it is an effective training program consisting of suitable exercises to delivered the desired result? 

Nope.

You'll feel a burn because you're recruiting a small muscle in isolation, in a way that it is not used to being activated. This is something that a good trainer might proscribe to address an imbalance they perceive in your movement patterns, for example. Addressing that imbalance will allow you to perform the compound movements that will really change the shape of your body more safely and more effectively... but only performing these exercises while omitting the "big" stuff that really makes a difference will be mostly inconsequential.

If you want to change the shape of your body, you need to target the muscles that make up the greater part of it. Not just the smaller ones that are actually hidden deep within your anatomy.
Share:

Two new weight loss articles published

A couple of articles you may have missed, posted on medium.

The first one is Dispelling The Weight Loss Myths, and it's just like the name suggests. There are no "fat burning" foods, there are no "foods you must never eat", you don't have to eat the way we might imagine primitive humanoid species might have at the dawn of time, or any of that nonsense.

That sort of talk sure does sell a lot of diet books, and gets you a lot of likes on facebook... but it's a lot like the saying goes, "the bigger the lie, the more people will believe it".

The truth is... you need to eat an amount that's appropriate. There are different diets you can try, but if they work it still comes down to having gained weight due to eating an excessive amount, and now losing weight by eating a less or non excessive amount. For continued results though, you really need to be consuming "the appropriate" amount, most of the time.

As far as I'm concerned, there's no point in hoping to fluke this by limiting your choices of foods, and especially if that means forcing yourself to eat stuff you don't particularly care for.

The new article posted this evening is called Why You Get Fat And What You Should Do About It. There's a book of a similar name, which is actually a load of garbage based on a flawed and misrepresented understanding of the science. What it really comes down to is appropriate intake, versus inappropriate intake.

As I describe in the article, if you are of a particular inactive lifestyle... you're almost certain to be eating in excess of your requirements. If you're in the habit of snacking on high calorie treats without really thinking about what you're doing, you're likely to be massively in excess. A more active person will have greater calorific requirements, and more room in the plan for some indulgence.


Share:

Rant du jour

I posted a rant on facebook earlier, due to being suitably offended after a text from some random offering to "mentor me to success" in my business.

Now, I happen to be around some of the best people in the business in real life as you know, not to mention networking (as a peer, I might add... not some hanger on) with some of the world's most highly regarded experts via social media. So, I have mentors both official and unofficial, and I'm still trying to learn a thing or two where I can and apply it to what I do. Both for my own financial wellbeing and for the good of mankind.

So, I was curious as just what this "business opportunity" might be and who had had the audacity to feel they could waltz into my life uninvited and start telling me how to do things. Perhaps not terribly surprisingly, it turned out to be a herbalife rep. My understanding of the business model is "start doing group fitness for free, and make your money selling meal replacement shakes" and so on.

Does that really sound like something I would do? Come on.

Anyway I was asked why I had such a problem with MLM and this was my reply. Stuff disappears into the void before long on facebook and I thought this was too good to waste.

I have a problem with about 95% of any aspect of this business. The public come to us because we're supposedly trained, educated experts on the subject... but for the most part all we do is latch on to what ever urban myths are circulating in an attempt to "give the people what they want". Detoxs, elimination diets, low carb, no sugar... all sorts of stuff that is based on misinterpretation of science at best, and deliberate deception at worst. And people in the business only further spread this misinformation rather than address and correct it as per their education and in accordance with their scope of practice.

That's bad enough but then you get the herbalife and other reps who with no formal qualification are told they're now a "wellness coach" and can give people nutrition, exercise and general health advice. It is SO irresponsible to enable such activity in non qualfied,non educated, non experienced people who've only recently taken an interest in the subject and now believe they are experts.

So you have people with no real understanding, recklessly giving nutritional advice that borders on the pro-orthorexic,while also selling shakes that are about 50% added sugar. How does that make sense when you're pushing a "no junk food challenge" for example as I see in the herbalife tags on facebook right now? It doesn't.

Bad nutrition and weight loss advice FUCKS people up, and while I've managed to carve out a career cleaning up the mess made by people who have no justification to be advising anyone on anything, I'd much prefer not to have to in the first place.

Plus, it's a pyramid scheme and as described in the article I linked below, they're exploiting their own people with these promises of huge amounts of money falling into their lap with no effort required, when the reality is more like the opposite.
Share:

Sponsor & Support My Blog

Labels

Popular Posts