What is the first thing most people think of when they decide to get ‘lean & healthy’? Usually it’s running. It’s the one form of exercise that everyone thinks is good for them, and everyone believes will get them in tip top shape. Nothing could be further from the truth. Whilst running will burn calories, increase aerobic fitness & probably shed a few kilos, the associated issues that come from it far exceed the benefits – in the general population, that is.
For me, if I look at having a client run, then I know that client will burn somewhere in the region of 100 calories per 1.5kms. Now, given that it will take that client anywhere up to 1,500 reps (steps) to reach that distance, we can ascertain that their feet will come in contact with the ground around 1,500 times. When jogging, the impact of each ground contact involves around 2-4 times your bodyweight worth of force, multiply this figure over the 1,500 ground contacts, and this adds up to A LOT of trauma moving through your joints – most notably through the ankles, knees & hips.
It’s obvious, then, that jogging seems like a less than optimal way of burning those calories, especially when you add the costs of the impact over years of training – it’s no wonder runners are notorious for having joint pain of the lower extremities.
‘At least I’m burning calories’, I hear you say?
Well, yes and no. While running will burn calories, how much of an impact it will have is debateable. Initially you will find great gains with it (as is the same with any form of exercise – it will have an dramatic impact on a beginner’s body), but over time, you will see those results diminish quickly, and there will eventually be no further benefits in terms of fat loss, yet the pain will remain.
Why is this so? It all boils down to the simple fact that you become more efficient at the task. Think about it. Running is an endurance sport i.e. your body adapts and becomes more efficient at it, allowing you to do more work in a lesser or equal amount of time. This efficiency, however, is it’s down fall when it comes to burning body fat, as it becomes more efficient in energy use. So the better you become at running, you less calories you burn every time you hit the pavement, but you still have the trauma of 2-4 times your bodyweight with every ground contact.
I could really go on all day about the other drawbacks of running long distances (including immunity issues, loss of muscle mass and so forth), but that is outside the scope of this article and better left for a longer article.
So think about whether running is right for you and your goals. As the saying goes, ‘you have to get fit to run, not run to get fit’.
If some people eat one food not on their plan, their failure to be perfect sets in motion a psychological chain of events that leads to frustration and the inability to get right back on the plan. The all-or-nothing mentality sets in and BAM, they’re back to nothing. But it doesn’t have to be this way. 100% nutritional discipline is never required for optimal progress. The difference, in results, between 90% adherence to your nutrition program and 100% adherence is negligible. So allow yourself the extra 10% wiggle room. This will allow you the freedom to eat a few extra things not on your menu without the guilt and subsequent crash.
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This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.
Hamstring injuries are the most commonly occurring injury I see – and they keep on occurring! It seems as if there are many foes to the hamstrings, yet very few friends. Today I’m going to run through a few variables which need to be considered when dealing with a hamstring injury, so that you can limit the damage and hasten the recovery of the problem.
As I’ve written before, in a previous post, there high correlation between weak gluteus muscles and hamstring injuries. This is due to the compensatory patterns that develop when there is a dysfunctional synergistic muscle. In short, if the gluteus muscles shut down, you can get the hamstrings or the adductor magnus taking up the majority of the slack. Lower back tightness could potentially develop as well, due the inevitable increase of lumbar hyper extension, occurring from the lack of ability to produce hip extension- in any case it’s important to note that the shutting down of the gluteus muscles is definitely not something you want, and is often the cause of injuries in the synergistic muscles.
Fixing gluteus function, therefore, will go a long way to fixing the issue as a whole. This takes time, however, as restoring proper function to a body that hasn’t been functioning properly for years doesn’t happen overnight! It’s important to note, then, that there are a couple of other factors which will affect both the recurrence, and also the extent of the injury.
Time - the time spent doing activities that aggravate the injury is of particular importance. The longer you expose an injured muscle to activity that could potential make things worse, the more chance you have of that happening! So next time you feel as if you need to ‘man up’ and play that extra 10 minutes of sport, think of the ramifications if you injure it further.
Type - the type of exercise/activity you are doing also affects things. Generally speaking, activities that require a large eccentric component are going to be the worst things for you, followed by things that require high levels of power output by the muscle. Specifically to hamstrings, exercises such as Romanian Deadlifts, sprints, depth drops and broad jumps all will likely result in further injury, whereas exercises such as sled dragging (concentric-only exercise) will aid in recovery.
Fatigue - this one almost goes hand in hand with time, but it can also mean fatigue from day to day. As soon as fatigue sets into the body, muscles cease to function properly. When this happens technique breaks down, body parts get lazy and either other muscles pick up the slack, or things break down. When you feel the fatigue set in, it may be time to have a rest, or stop the activity altogether – that is, if the health of your body is the top priority.
So there you have it, a few more considerations when dealing with injuries. While this post was geared towards hamstrings, the principles really do apply to all other muscles.
Forget the RDA food pyramid, which is notoriously high in grains and other highly processed carbohydrates, and take a look at the new and improved food pyramid below -
Notice how the majority of the food sources come from naturally occuring foods such as fruits, vegetables and lean meats?
That’s because that is how we were designed to eat. Our genetic coding is still set for ‘caveman’, and hasn’t had time to adapt to the artificial foods of today. So give your body what it wants (right down to the DNA) – that is, naturally occuring whole foods, with a good balance between our protein/fat sources and carbohydrate sources.
This is definitely the best use of a stability ball that I’m yet to come across. Forget the rollouts, just crack out your video camera and start throwing them at people!
Everyone knows that exercise will help you achieve the body of your dreams, yet few people actually train SMART. Smart training involves an individualised program, focusing on your needs as well as your goals, with correct technique being of the utmost importance.
There isn’t much point in simply pounding your body to failure session after session, all the while contributing to postural defects and injuring yourself. There is reason, however, to fully understand where you’re beginning from(through a comprehensive assessment), where you want to be, and planning your journey from there. Simply going into a gym and training willy nilly just doesn’t cut it!
The whole ‘cardio for fat loss, resistance training for muscle’ mentality is grossly outdated and has to stop. NOW!
Just because you feel as though you’re working hard, it doesn’t always mean that progress is guaranteed. Sometimes it’s necessary to stop, take a step back, look at things objectively and say ‘While this is my goal, I have significant issues here that need to be sorted out, so they must take priority’.
This is where the use of an intelligent coach comes in (such as a Centraility Health Consultant). You take the emotional element out of the equation and get QUALITY programming that will take you to where you want to go, and fix a whole heap of other issues along the way.
Sometimes, if your goal is fat loss, this means spending some extra time dedicated to corrective exercise, myofascial release and mobility drills. Not because the coach doesn’t want you to succeed, but because YOU NEED IT! Really, how much body fat do you think you will lose if you’re out injured? My guess is that you’ll put on body fat. Likewise, how much more effective do you think your fat loss training will be if you become stronger and are able to do harder exercises, for a longer duration of time? Again, my guess is much more effective.
So sometimes the only way to take some steps forwards is to take some steps back and sort out a few issues first.
I know that’s what I personally have to do now. I’ve been plagued with hip & ankle problems that I’ve tried to fix for a while now with a small amount of time dedicated to them during each session – to no avail! I now have to make these priority in order to continue forward with my development as an athlete. That means making them both my number 1 concern, above all other performance/physique goals I have!
Stay tuned for the updates on my progress, and maybe it’s time you had a look at your own body and decided what needs to be fixed before forward progress can be made!
On that note, we are still conducting FREE Health Assessments over at the facility. So if you’re in the area, definitely come and drop by, we’ll be more than happy to have a look over you and help you achieve your goals!
There is something that I hear often, and quite frankly, it drives me nuts – that your approach to both training and nutrition should be balanced. A balanced approach is hailed as the be all and end all of training approaches, something that can’t be beaten. Now while this isn’t always bad advice, it’s certainly not always good, either. The idea of a balanced approach to training really only works in instances when the person in question is already balanced.
Think about it. If you have someone whose posterior chain is remarkedly weaker than their quads, why would you take a balanced approach to training? You wouldn’t. You would create a program that is heavy on the posterior chain work, with only a maintenance amount of quad-focused volume. Likewise, if you take a young athlete who is as fast as lightning, but has poor conditioning, you wouldn’t design a balanced routine for them that focuses on both speed and conditioning evenly – he has loads of one and next to none of the other!
It’s the same with your diet. If you have a person who is 10 kilo’s overweight and insulin insensative, then why on Earth would you give them a balanced diet, specifically an even amount of carbs compared to protein/fats? Once again, you wouldn’t. You would reduce carbs, drop some weight and develop some insulin sensativity before you even think about balancing the diet.
You then can imagine my annoyance when we are all spoon-fed the need for a balanced approach to health by these ‘media personal trainers’ who seem to focus more on their celebrity status than updating their training philosophy.
So the take-home lesson is consider your current state of health/physical ability and design a program that will best take you to where you want to be. Don’t just follow a cookie-cutter ‘balanced’ program because that’s what you’ve been told to do.
It’s not rocket it science, but it still requires a bit of care and logical thinking.
I recommend more calories than most do. That’s because there’s no such thing as a stagnant metabolic set-point. Instead, metabolism chases intake. So, if you want a bigger metabolism, you need a bigger food intake. And if you’re worried about fat gain with this approach, just use outcome-based decision making and adjust energy (calorie) intake every two weeks based on your results. Not much ‘damage’ can take place in only two weeks. So if you end up boosting your metabolism, you’ll be thanking me eternally. And if it turns out you’re consuming too much, you can just adjust down.
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This tip is sponsored by Precision Nutrition – our pick for the best nutrition and supplement resource currently available. Containing system manuals, gourmet cookbook, digital audio/video library, online membership, and more, Precision Nutrition will teach you everything you need to know to get the body you want — guaranteed.
Eric Cressey is a strength coach who has had huge influence on my training philosophy. I was lucky enough to be able to visit him this past January at his facility in Boston, and learnt a great deal in my time there. As such I wanted to share with you some fantastic content that he has put out in relation to long distance running. While the newsletter is aimed more towards baseball pitchers, the underlying principles still apply to everyone.
