I originally posted this on 2-8-10 but don’t see it in the blog record. So here it is again (just in case):
TRAINING TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS:
Tried various training programs without seeing much improvement? I remember doing endless circuit style weight training sessions followed by 1 or 2 hours of cardio 5 and 6 days a week! After spinning an hour on my stationary cycle at home one night I turned around to check out the noise coming from the hamster’s wheel as he was keeping pace with me. That was a ‘big-Duh!-moment’ as it occurred to me that what I was doing wasn’t working. I didn’t look any different …except that instead of looking like a road warrior I looked like road kill…..I didn’t feel any better (as a matter of fact, I got sick a lot)…..and my goal wasn’t to look like my hamster (no further comment)! So, what’s going on here?
Conditioning goals rest on a tripod of 3 critical factors: Diet, Training Stimulus, and Recovery.
- Diet contributes 60% or more towards your success. Without a strategic approach here, your goals may continue to be elusive.
- Training – This accounts for about 20% of our conditioning goals. While that doesn’t sound like much, without this leg the whole thing falls down.
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- CARDIO – When we want to lose fat the first thing we tend to think of is doing cardio. Well, cardio doesn’t cut it. Sure, it burns calories and is a useful tool when applied strategically, but your progress will flatline if you rely only cardio for fat burning. Why?
- Our bodies are designed to adapt to any repetitive demand. It’s the PROCESS of adaptation that triggers the desired change in our body. Typical cardio is repetitive movement. You feel tired after, but further adaptation response requires further stimulus. That’s not happening when you’ve become the well-oiled cardio machine keeping pace with the music or your mental metronome. This adaptation happens fairly quickly, too. Isn’t doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results a metaphor for insanity?
Try mixing your cardio up with interval training. This simple method of ‘sprint-style’ (ie. fast then slow) is more suited to our biology and is more metabolically stimulating. Plus, you can burn more calories in a shorter time.
b. Stress Response: And the science saaays…. doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach burns more fat. So that’s what we do. Lo and behold, it worked! For a little while…and then, nothing.
Stress of any kind requires an adaptive response from the body. This can be good – as in stronger and bigger muscles. Or, it can be bad – as in chronic illness from “lifestyle diseases” and over-training injuries. This happens when stress gets to be too much for too long. We start breaking down from the unresolving face-off between our fight-flight responses. Excessive, long term stress causes sustained elevations in cortisol output. Cortisol is a heavy hitting hero in a quick “fight”. It reduces pain and calms the damaging inflammation caused by other stress-produced chemicals. But, when cortisol is left to fight our battles for too long, it starts beating up our bodies instead. We then succumb to deterioration in insulin sensitivity and carbohydrate metabolism, reduced metabolic output, all of which cause gains in body fat, breakdown of muscle mass, and impaired recovery. Not what we want!!!
The following supplements will help to offset the negative effects of stress when doing cardio first thing in the morning on an empty stomach:
N2BM Gear – Take at least 4 capsules before and after cardio. The BCAA’s (Branch Chain Aminos) in Gear help prevent breakdown of lean mass (muscle). This, in turn, helps support a higher metabolic rate.
N2BM Glutamine – Take 5 grams before and 5 grams after cardio. Glutamine is a conditionally essential amino acid that is rapidly depleted when we’re under stress. Supplementing with Glutamine boosts immunity and supports production of our body’s main antioxidant, glutathione.
Antioxidants – Helps offset OMD (oxidative muscle damage).
REMEMBER: WE GROW/PROGRESS DURING RECOVERY, NOT DURING EXERCISE.
Next I’ll go into resistance training (with emphasis on gimps like me).
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