So if I’m not talking about resolutions what do I mean “out with old in with
the new?”
I’m talking methods here.

Very rarely does something new come along in the world of fitness or the
iron game.. The last new idea I can think of was cutting out holes in the
plates so you can hold them easier (props to that guy for making my life a
little bit easier). But now, with advances in technology we’re able to get
our hands on some pretty freakin cool and useful pieces of equipment. One of
these nifty little gadgets is called the omegawave which rates recovery of
athlete’s nervous systems via heart rate variability (HRV). I think it will
be awhile before we start using the Omegawave at Underground Athlete since
it’s about $35,000, however, there once was a pretty bright guy by the name
of Steve Jobs. Before Steve left us he invented this amazing little gadget
called the iPhone. If you have one of these iPhones you know you can
download apps with it and now one of these apps has figured out how to
measure HRV. So if you were considering buying the omegawave, go to the app
store and download the ithlete app and thank me for saving you about
$34,950. In all seriousness the omegawave is an extraordinary piece of
equipment and if you’re an athlete it’s a priceless piece of technology, but
for weekend warriors, fitnessenthusiasts, and gadget whores the ithlete
would make a cool stocking stuffer this Christmas.

The second gadget that’s changing the way we do things in the fitness field
has to do with your body composition. Until now most trainers, strength
coaches, and even doctors have relied on BMI, height and weight
circumferences, skin fold, anthropometric methods, and bioelectrical
impedence. These all give very rough estimates with results being
irreproducible. For a long time hydrostatic weighing was considered the gold
standard, but you could only have it done at a high tech facility or
college. Now with advances in technology we have 3 new and ridiculously
accurate ways to measure body fat (DEXA, BodPod, and UltraSound). Dual
energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) was recognized as the most accurate.
Recent studies have been done
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2657029/ comparing DEXA to
portable ultrasound technology. If you didn’t feel like taking the time to
read that long @$$ study, it found no significant difference between DEXA
and ultrasound methods. Which was enough for me to go out and buy the $2,000
little ultrasound scanner so UA members can get the accurate measurements they
deserve. I went with the intelimedix brand because it allows me to keep
profiles of everyone scanned and it gives a detailed report along with each
assessment. So if you’ve been dying to get an accurate report on how much of
your body is fat I’ll be doing scans for $25 or $150 to get scanned once a
month for a year.

If you’re one of those people that would rather not now,
there’s nothing wrong with that either. Keep training hard we see that you’re clothes are looking bigger and bigger on you

Today’s note is to let you know it’s not a 6 in one hand, half dozen in the other scenario and I’ll explain why. I’ll also give you some methods to use to take your aerobic conditioning to a whole new level, make it comprehensive, and spare your muscle mass, strength, and power.

First let’s talk about this disconnect regarding cardio? I think the confusion all starts with the term cardio. When most people think of cardio they are thinking purely in terms of the heart and the cardiovascular system, however, it’s the muscles that are the end users of ATP and where it is produced in the first place, so the muscular system plays a very important role in “cardio” as well.

You’re probably wondering what the F ATP is so let me break it down Barney style.  ATP, short for adenosine triphosphate is basically the source of energy that keeps everything working in your body. Think of it like the molecular currency that enables energy transfer. It allows muscular contraction. The harder the muscles work the more ATP has to be replaced. By conditioning the systems in the body designed to do that (anaerobic glycolysis / lactic acid system and the aerobic system) we improve our bodies ability to do continued work via cellular respiration and improve our ability to synthesize ATP at a high rate.

It’s not hard to find “experts” bashing long bouts of cardio and others criticizing intervals. The truth is unless you are an athlete at either end of the spectrum ie. marathon runner or shot putter you should be doing both plus some to ensure complete aerobic system development.

To have a comprehensive aerobic training program you basically need six things to happen. 1) Increase the overall size of the left ventricle (eccentric cardiac hypertrophy). 2) Increase the power of the contractions that your heart is capable of. 3) Increase the size of slow twitch muscle fibers. 4) increase the endurance capability of fast twitch muscle fibers. 5) Improve anaerobic threshold. 6) Improve the ability of fast twitch fibers to recover. Ok, we know what we need to do now let’s learn how to do it.

Method 1- Cardiac Output
Studies have been done, misinterpreted, and now we’re to the point where if you do steady state cardio you’re looked at like a bisexual unicorn. We need to look at the big picture when it comes to steady state cardio. I’ll be the first to admit I hate jogging and I don’t think you should do it either, but keeping your heart rate elevated to 130-150 bpm for 30-90 minutes is necessary for specific and important cardiac adaptations. Keeping your heart rate elevated for a long period of time causes that hypertrophic effect of the left ventricle that we talked about earlier. Hypertrophy of the left ventricle will increase stroke volume and lower resting heart rate. Increasing cardiac capacity is important to do early in the program to set the stage for improved recovery during strength and power work later. So get out there and get your heart rate elevated to 130-150bpm for some period of time longer than 40 minutes. If you’re over 40 stay closer to 130 if you’re under 40 stay closer to 150. Do it 1-2 times a week. Be creative. This isn’t a hall pass for pavement pounders.

Method 2- Cardiac Power Intervals
Now that we know how to increase the size now we need to increase the strength and contractile abilities of the heart. With the cardiac power intervals you should take your heart rate to the max for 60-120 seconds. Rest 2-5 minutes or until your heart rate lowers to 120-130bpm. Repeat for 4-12 rounds depending on your level of conditioning. Use cardiac power intervals 1-2 times per week.

Method 3- Tempo Method
This method is designed to improve oxygen utilization by the slow twitch fibers and not actually oxygen supply. Many athletes stay away from training slow twitch fibers because they believe that it will result in a loss of power, however increasing the cross sectional area (the size) of the slow twitch fibers will actually help improve an athlete’s ability to perform explosive movements over a longer period of time. To do this type of training properly you should use compound ie multi joint exercises like bench press, squat, deadlift, bent over rows etc. Do not rest at the top or bottom. Each rep should take 2 seconds concentric/eccentric (lift / lower) for 8-10 reps and 3-5 sets. Do this type of training just once per week.

Method 4- High Intensity Continuous Training
Made popular by Russian strength coach Val Nsedkin and used by some of the top MMA strength coaches like Joel Jamison who I got a lot of these ideas from, the high intensity continuous training method is both high intensity and high volume. By using this method once a week you will increase the endurance of your fast twitch muscle fibers. The easiest way to do it is with a spin bike that you can just crank up the resistance on. Push against the high resistance for about 20-30rpm for a total of 10-20 minutes.

Method 5- Threshold Training
Threshold training takes a little work on your part. To make this easier you should have a heart rate monitor. Now run, bike, versaclimb or do your sport at a fast pace for 4 minutes. Take a 60 second rest in between rounds. Do 3 rounds. Now calculate your average heart rate for all 3 rounds not including rest periods. To do threshold training you should do an activity for 3-10 minutes at a heart rate 5bpm +/- your average as calculated from earlier. Do 2-5 rounds of this 1x per week.

Method 6- Explosive Repeat
This method was created by famous sports scientist Yuri Verkhoshansky. It is designed again to work the endurance of fast twitch fibers, but also to improve the slow twitch fibers rate of lactate oxidation. To do it correctly use explosive exercises like kettlebell or barbell squat jumps and plyometric push ups. Use 1-3 exercises and do the work for 6-12 seconds per exercise. Do 6-10 sets (a set being all 3 exercises) with a 30-60 rest period between sets. Do 1-2 rounds with an active rest in between.

There now you have some fun new ways to work on your aerobic conditioning. So we can stop wasting energy debating over intervals and steady state and start working in the above methods asap.

Have fun with these and I’ll have some methods for improving the lactic energy system and the anaerobic alactic system in the near future.
Train with intelligence.
Train with intensity.
Train with consistency.

Question 3. What muscle am I working?

Why it’s so hard to answer… As my my high school chemistry teacher used to say “Richard Cabeza, if you ask a stupid question you get a stupid answer.” Can you believe my teacher used to call me Richard Cabeza? Sad to say I didn’t realize what it meant until halfway through college. Anyway, I digress.. What I’m getting at is, I do understand what you’re asking. You most likely want to know what muscle you should be concentrating on or what part of your body will be sore the next day. Depending on the day I might give one of three answers. Answer 1, I might humor you with an answer like “your ______,” this could be back, chest, biceps etc. Answer 2, I’ll realize you have no real interest and you’re really just trying to stall between set so I’ll say “all of them” and keep you moving. Answer 3 this is the one I don’t normally give because we don’t have enough time and most people don’t really care, but since you’re here I’ll break it down for you.

As I continue to learn my methods continue to evolve and change, but I guarantee my philosophy will not. One of the things that makes training at Underground Athlete different, and I’m not shy to say better, than most gyms is that we train functional movements, not isolated muscles. In other words we want show and go, not all show no go. When you use machines that put you in a fixed position all the time you are isolating prime movers which causes synergists to become weak. Sure your weight might increase on that machine simply because of SAID (specific adaptation to imposed demands) principle but you are definitely not training for optimal strength gains that way. Let’s use a common exercise as an example, the leg press. You know, that machine at the gym usually taken by the guy with the ripped tank top and knee wraps. He’s got every weight plate in the gym loaded on the machine. He lifts it one time, pops a couple blood vessels, probably poops his pants a little, and screams just loud enough to make everyone look over and witness the spectacle. He thinks he’s impressing people but his actions show his ignorance. Most people that can press 1000lbs on that machine can’t do a real squat with 135lbs. Why? Because, as physical therapist Dr. Charlie Weingroff says “any supported environment delegates control of the body(overall stability,balance, coordination) to the apparatus.” He said a lot more but it’s way to technical for this article. Basically by creating an artificial environment where the body is supported and the core does not have to work as a force transducer we are building artificial strength and asking for injury. In this exercise in particular the hips remain flexed as the knees are extend (which is why most people pushing heavy weight are wearing knee wraps). The legs are folded into the body like and accordion forcing the lower back into flexion and just waiting for a herniated disk.

The squat is a very important movement to train. It is the second primal movement pattern we experience after crawling, but trying to isolate the legs or any muscle is usually a big mistake for healthy individuals. Alas the takeaway; If your workouts consist of lots of machines and chest day, back and legs, shoulders and arms, or anything resembling that I suggest you change your approach. Get a workout makeover by stepping away from the nautilus equipment of the 80s and start functional training. This by no means start doing circus tricks on bosu balls. It means making sure you develop and load the 7 primal movement patterns ie squat, bend, lunge, push, pull, twist, and gait. How you program those patterns would depend on your training level, your functional movement score, and your goals. At the very least stop thinking muscles and start thinking movements.

P.S. Like I said, this ends the trilogy, but if you have other questions you’d like answered in future articles I’d be happy to field them. Just send them to undergroundathlete.com

Gary’s shared folder is filled with charts and graphs from every workout. He is making fitness his number 1 priority and refuses to let anything get in his way. He blogs about his training and the obstacles he faces check it out here. It’s actually entertaining and very well written. I’m not saying you have to take it to this level to see results, but if you’re not seeing the results you want you might want to ask yourself, “am I doing even half of what Gary does?” I have no doubt Gary will meet and probably exceed his goal weight of 200lbs. Seeing his dedication and focus makes me want to help him reach his goals even faster, funny how that works.

Here’s Gary 35lbs lighter after just a few weeks. Keep up the good work. You motivate me.

You can’t stop spending money tomorrow and have a million dollars at midnight, but, you could cut a couple unnecessary items out every day and in time have that million.

Think about it. Elephants don’t bite, but mosquitoes will tear you up! In other words, it’s not the big things that hurt us it’s the little things we do each and every day that prevent us from getting what we want and from being who we want to be. Hardy was referring to business decisions, but the message applies to fitness as much as anything. At one point in the book he suggests if you’re having a hard time with your finances you need to start keeping a notebook with you to track every single dollar you spend, because if you’re not measuring you’re guessing. You can see where this is going now right? If you want to lose weight you need to know what you’re putting in your mouth. It’s so easy to do, write down what you eat when you eat it. Unfortunately, if it’s easy to do it’s also easy not to do. Here’s a story of three friends that should drive this point home.

Three friends Scott, Larry, and Brad grew up together. They live in the same neighborhood, with very similar sensibilities. Each earns around $50,000 a year. They’re all married and have average health and body weight, plus a little bit of that dreaded “marriage flab.”

Larry plods along doing as he’s always done. He’s happy, or so he thinks, but complains occasionally that nothing ever changes.

Scott starts making some small, seemingly inconsequential, positive changes. He begins reading in the evening and listening to 30 minutes of something instructional or inspirational on his commute to work. He recently read an interview with Dr. Mehmet Oz and chose one idea from the article to implement in his life: He’s going to cut 125 calories from his diet every day. No big deal. He’s also started walking a couple of thousand extra steps per day (less than a mile). No grand acts of bravery or effort. Stuff anyone could do. But Scott is determined to stick with these choices, knowing that even though they’re simple, he could also easily be tempted to abandon them.

Brad makes a few poor choices. He recently bought a new big-screen TV so he can watch more of his favorite programs. He’s been trying out the recipes he’s seen on the Food Channel—the cheesy casseroles and desserts are his favorites. Oh, and he installed a bar in his family room and added one alcoholic drink per week to his diet. Nothing crazy. Brad just wants to have a little more fun.

At the end of five months, no perceivable differences exist among Larry, Scott or Brad. Even though each man has his own pattern of behavior, five months isn’t long enough to see any real decline or improvement in their situations. In fact, if you charted the three men’s weights, you’d see a rounding error of zero. They’d look exactly equal.

At the end of 15 months, we still can’t see noticeable changes in any of their lives. At about month 25, we start seeing really measurable, visible differences. At month 27, we see an expansive difference. And, by month 31, the change is startling. Brad is now fat while Scott is trim. By simply cutting 125 calories a day, in 31 months, Scott has lost 33 pounds!

31 months = 940 days
940 days x 125 calories / day = 117,500 calories divided by
3500 calories per pound = 33.5 pounds!

Brad ate only 125 more calories more a day in that same time frame, and gained 33.5 pounds. Now he weighs 67 pounds more than Scott! But the differences are more significant than weight. Scott’s invested almost 1,000 hours reading good books and listening to self-improvement audios; by putting his newly gained knowledge into practice, he’s earned a promotion and a raise. Best of all, his marriage is thriving. Brad? He’s unhappy at work, and his marriage is on the rocks. And Larry? Larry is pretty much exactly where he was two and half years ago, except now he’s a little more bitter about it.

The compound effect can work in your favor or against you. Want to make a change? Make small, smart choices, consistently over time.

Remember at the root of every result is a choice.