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Working Hard or Hardly Working?

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There are many factors involved with weight training. Some of them are obvious and some not so obvious. What I have learned over time is that the single most important actual training factor is intensity. Are you working hard or are you hardly working?

We've all seen the people at the gym who are so consistent that they never miss a day. Years go by and they come to the gym over and over again. However, they are doing the same exercises with the same weight and their body looks exactly the same. This is because they are consistent, but they lack intensity in their training.

What is intensity? It is about going to failure on each exercise. It is about pushing beyond the discomfort. It involves giving everything you have to the workout. Leaving it all on the gym floor.

Intensity is about changing things up and pushing harder and harder each time you do. It is about setting personal records as often as humanly possible.

People who train with intensity work their butts off and the results they get show this to be the case. So ask yourself…am I working hard or am I hardly working?

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Monday Madness: Making Gains

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Are you making gains in the gym? Have you seen any positive results? Today I am going to be frank about results and the various ways to insure that you get some positive results from your training.

Planning

I believe in planning your workouts. I know there are many who will say it is stupid, but I think that if you fail to plan you are likely to miss some very important aspects of training that need to be addressed. For instance, periodization is essential to a good workout program. How do you know you have periodized properly if you have no plan?

log-book

I keep a log of my training.  That log is the key to my next workout. Have a look at the picture of my log book.  I use a simple system. On the left I write the target weight goal. On the right I write down the target repetition range.  I then log down the weight and repetitions of each set. If I meet both the weight and repetition target goals I put an up arrow. If I make some of the goal I put a dash. If I think that the weight was too much I will put a down arrow (have only had to do that a few times in all the time I have been training.

When I go to do my next workout I can look at how I did on the exercise the previous workout. I can then properly set the weight and repetitions according to the results of the previous workout. It is scientific rather than guess work.

I prefer this approach rather than the shotgun approach. It takes no time at all to write things down as I do it during the rest period for each set. Why wouldn't you want to have notes like this on your training?

As a side benefit, you can review these notes to see how your body really responded to the things you put it through. You can make informed decisions based upon your training.

I highly recommend using a training log like this one. I got mine from Amazon.com but I am sure you can find something similar anywhere or you can just use a notebook.

Consistency

So many people complain that they are not getting good results and when you question them they admit to missing workouts. This is not going to help you get to where you want to be. Only consistent training will get you to where you want to be. The best bodies are built over time. It doesn't happen overnight. Thus, being consistent is going to be your ticket to future success.

Find a way to be consistent. Get a training partner or accountability partner and report in on your progress. You will notice that your consistency improves tremendously. Without this type of thing most people only last a few weeks in the gym.

Intensity

Are you phoning in your workouts or are you giving it every shred of effort you have? If you aren't giving it every shred of effort then start doing that immediately. You won't get anywhere without some intensity. I believe you leave everything you came with on that gym floor. When you walk out of the gym it should be on the smallest amount of energy possible because you expended everything in the gym to get your workout done.

Changes

Be honest with yourself. As you read this article I am sure that things came to mind that could be changed to improve your results. Be honest and change them. Get busy with the things you know you need to do and start enjoying the rewards for your efforts.

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MAX Muscle: Phase 1

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max-muscleSome time ago I used a full body workout routine and loved it. My body responded quite well and it gave me flexibility to make some major adjustments if and when needed. When I heard that someone I have a lot of respect for was using The Max Muscle Plan by Brad Scheonfeld I got intrigued, so I looked it up.

Periodization

Periodization is the systematic planning of athletic or physical training. The aim is to reach the best possible performance in the most important competition of the year. It involves progressive cycling of various aspects of a training program during a specific period.

Dr. Schoenfeld has designed a periodized program that aims to keep your body guessing. He has carefully crafted the program into four different phases–Break-in Phase, Strength Phase, Metabolic Phase and Muscle Phase. I am currently in the Strength Phase. Now, because the details of this plan are the meat of Dr. Schoenfeld's book, I am not going to give you details, but I will give you the general idea of how this program has worked for me.

Strength Phase

After completing the Break-in Phase I jumped straight into the Strength Phase. It is very well programmed. I have been able to make continual progress on the amount of weight I am using. My body is responding positively to the program. My strength is going up and that necessarily means my muscles are growing. I am pushing as hard as I can. When I did full body workouts previously I was using the HIT style and while MAX Muscle is not HIT, it comes close to that.

Cardio

Dr. Schoenfeld definitely recommends doing cardio on the off days. This is the one place I have adjusted just a little. I do the cardio on the off days, but I also insert a little trick I learned when doing contest preparation. After each weight training session I insert a 10 minute HIIT session. I use a 30 second high intensity interval followed by a 30 second low intensity interval.  I found that this approach burns the maximum amount of fat, hence the adjustment to the plan here.

Why Adjust the Plan?

I am a big believer that there is no cookie cutter approach to work for everyone. I believe that Dr. Schoenfeld has come up with an ingenious plan and it will work exactly as laid out, but as an individual you need to exercise the Experiment of One. You have to find out what works for your body and then adjust things to meet  your own body's needs. It is that simple. Do this very cautiously. Make sure that your adjustment doesn't derail the plan. In my case I added a small HIIT session after each weight training session. That will not drastically change the overall program so I felt safe making that adjustment.

My Recommendation

The MAX Muscle Plan by Dr. Brad Schoenfeld is available in a paperback version or a Kindle version from Amazon.com. I believe that you should add this weapon to your arsenal. It works quite well and is a complete program that lasts many months. By grabbing a copy of this book you will be given workouts for the next 6 months that will continually make your body guess at what is coming next.

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Saturday Sharing: How to Have the Time to Train

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Time…it is the one excuse I don't like hearing from people. We make time for what is important to us, so if training is important you will make the time. So how do I have time to train? I put training first. What do I mean? Allow me to explain!

Get It Done!

To me there are so many things that can get in the way of training. Even though it may not be the most optimal time to train, I train early in the morning so that I can't make excuses later in the day. This literally makes it so nothing gets in the way! This is why I am able to get it done!

Be Consistent

Treat training like an appointment with someone very important. This will develop a consistency that others will respect. People will know that you train at a certain time each day and will not expect anything from you at that time. It is very important to eliminate distractions and being consistent with when you train will help with that.

Be Persistent

Don't quit no matter how tempted you might be. Keep at it because the longer you do something the more of a habit it becomes. Stick to it and it will stick to you!

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Optimum Nutrition’s Amino Energy Reviewed

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I am a huge believer in using BCAAs during a workout. I started doing this with Scivation Xtend and the results I got were simply amazing. However, the cost of Xtend quickly became prohibitive for me when my business fell on some tough times. I decided to give Optimum Nutrition's Amino Energy a try because it claims to give you energy during your workout and it has BCAAs loaded in it.

Taste

I tried the grape flavor. The taste is good. It isn't great. On a scale of 1 to 5 I would give it a 3. It has a bit of an aftertaste, but that didn't bother me at all. It definitely tasted like grape and that's something not every other product can claim–accurate flavor.

Effectiveness

When i was using Xtend I found that my muscles were not as sore. With this Amino Energy product I saw similar, though not quite as effective, results. I enjoyed less muscle soreness after an intense training session, but I could still feel it. With Xtend it was nothing at all…no discomfort. As for energy during a workout, I didn't really notice anything. Perhaps it could just be because I always get pumped for my training sessions?

Value

I would say that the price to effectiveness ratio makes this a product you are going to want to try. As I said at the start, I think BCAAs should be consumed during training sessions to get better results. This product serves that need and it does it quite well.

Recommendation

I would recommend using this product. It tastes good and performs as advertised. I saw nothing negative at all about it.

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