Lean Bodies Consulting

I did a two-part interview for Craig Ballantyne’s Turbulence Training (http://turbulencetraining.com) member site recently. I’ll be running the full interview in a future issue of the LBC newsletter, but in the mean time (since I’m trying to post to this blog frequently) I thought, I’d post up one of the Q&As from the interview.

CB: Moving over to training, how and when do you use cardio and intervals for fat loss? What about when gaining muscle, do your clients still do cardio?

EL: For fat loss, it really depends on the person, their goals, how far away from their goals they currently are, the amount of time they have to invest, how I have their training set up, etc. Generally speaking however, I put the emphasis on interval training and use lower intensity cardio as more of an ‘adjunct therapy’. Perhaps to top off off energy expenditure. Actually, I tend to fall into the camp that says to do as little cardio/interval work as necessary to see results. I put the fat loss focus on nutrition and look to optimizing and fine tuning what a person is eating before I’ll suggest more cardio or interval work.

For an average client I might have them doing anywhere from 1-3 interval sessions per week with varying interval or work/rest ratios. Again, it depends on the training as well. If someone is using a full body program, I might go as high as three short weekly sessions. For someone doing an upper/lower split, I probably won’t go past two weekly sessions and I’ll put them on leg days so that the lower body gets more full rest days.

For lighter individuals, and this basically refers to lighter females, I find I generally have to have them do a little more cardio than their heavier counterparts. The lighter the person the more likely they’re going to have to do more cardio because they simply can’t create the necessary deficit from dietary restriction alone, without calories becoming painfully low.

For example, let’s take two individuals,

Person 1 - 230lbs
Approximate maintenance of 3450

Person 2 - 110 lbs
Approximate maintenance of 1650

So, a reasonable place to start is to create about a 20% deficit and then adjust from there based on results, or lack thereof.

So, continuing with the examples,

Person 1 - 2760 calories (690 calories deficit)
Person 2 - 1320 calories (330 calories deficit)

So, you can see, Person 1 has created a big enough deficit, all else being equal, to lose over a pound of fat a week. Person 2, however, with the same 20% deficit, has not. For her to match Person 1’s absolute deficit she’d have to eat only 960 calories. (again, lots of general assumptions in these numbers).

Hence the fact that lighter individuals typically have to add in some expenditure work to get the caloric deficit up high enough to get a reasonable rate of fat loss.

For muscle gains, I remove the interval training entirely and I just have a few optional low intensity steady state sessions in. I don’t really see much benefit to it during phases devoted to mass gains as those calories lost could be directed towards gains instead. As for those that cry ‘what about my heart’, I’m sure they’re getting enough cardiorespiratory benefits from their weight training. I had a client tell me they wanted to do some low intensity 15-minute bike riding for heart health. Now, I’ve got no problem with remaining active, but I objected to the reasons behind the 15-minute stationary bike ride, and asked this person to stop and take their heart rate the next time they’re training legs.

And there you have it.

I’ll try to post an update on how things go with Noel today. We’ve got a big 5-6 hour drive, then an athlete’s meeting and then the fun starts.

Erik

So it’s just about 10pm on Thursday night. I’m sitting here at the kitchen table in Noel’s house as she makes something called Brownie Butterscotch Squares. I’ve petiitioned her to use peanut butter instead of butterscotch.Yep, she’s been baking up all her goodies for the show.

Anyway, I arrived this afternoon, and shortly thereafter we headed off to the gym. Noel didn’t work out of course, but I got in a decent upper body workout. Then we headed back to her place where I had the opportunity to meet the rest of the family - Scott, and the three little terrors …. I mean, angels - MacKenzie, Riley, Jamison. I brought them the Canadian version of Smarties - you know, bribery and all.

Then we went through some posing - wow. She’s on. The suits turned out great as well. I did some fiddling with the T-stance pose to get the abs to pop a bit more. And what’s crazy is that one of the abs is actually cross striated. I think she’s got it down now. Still some fiddling to do with the front stance but we’ve got more time. It doesn’t need much work. Regardless of what the judges think, we can be satisfied that this is the best Noel to date. She’s in shape, great colour, great suits, polished posing. Our work is done.

So, regarding the prep week. I have a handful of different strategies to choose from with people. What I decide to do depends on what the person looks like. Sometimes it’s a carb up, sometimes it’s a fat load, sometimes it’s a carb up transitioning into a fat load. And how long each lasts is also a variable to consider/manipulate. It all depends on the person.

Last time, we did a two-day carb up and then a small fat load. This time I’ve decided to skip the carb up entirely. We’re going to do a heavy fat load. No cutting of sodium whatsoever and and we will not be cutting water either. I’ve run a couple ‘experiments’ with Noel recently that have lead me to be confident in my decision. As it stands right now, this week is going perfectly and she’s right where she needs to be less than two days out.

Tomorrow we’re off to South Carolina.

I will try to bribe her for some photos …

So, I’m off to Charleston, SC this weekend for the Junior USAs. By now the cat is out of the bag so people know that Noel is stepping up for her first national show. It’s been known that she was doing the Junior Nationals in Chicago, but we’ve kept this one quiet until this week. We’re doing this one as a warm up, as I’m looking to fine tune the last few days of the prep. Last year I felt we hit the timing perfectly, but she’s significantly leaner this time around, so I am playing with a few changes.

Final week prep is really interesting and the effect tends to be magnified the leaner you get. Noel is very lean right now, so I’m expecting good things.

It’s interesting though. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen competitors (male and female) look awesome a week out or even a few days out, only to show up flat and without much of any vascularity. Then come Sunday? They look great again. It’s the cookie cutter final week prep approach. If there’s one thing that’s for sure, the same prep week doesn’t necessarily work for everyone. Experience plays a big role at this point. Oh, and if someone tells you to cut salt three days out? Find someone else to help you.

I love doing the prep week. It’s a lot of fun to see how it all comes together, especially for someone that’s lean enough and hasn’t gone through it yet. Often I’ll make some small changes to the timing of something in subsequent prep weeks if I feel it’s necessary. Sometimes I change nothing. For example, I did Jen’s prep week for five shows last year, and I believe we adjusted it 3 or 4 times. We were happy with the outcome each time but thought we could get it even better, and we did. Now take Ali. She competed in October and I felt we hit it perfectly right off the bat. No adjustments needed. One difference between those two just for the sake of an example? With Jennie, I cut her water. With Ali I didn’t cut her water at all.

With Noel, well, we’re in the midst of it and she’s looking incredible, albeit flat right now (which is to be expected). I’m playing with two different ideas right now, but I have to make a decision today.

Everything has gone according to schedule this year - bigger back, smaller legs, better conditioning. She’s ready.

See for yourself. These were shots taken this morning. And just because I know some people have wondered (given the drug usage in the sport, competititive side or not), you’re looking at a natural competitor. Completely. Great genetics no doubt, and throw in some hardcore discipline and commitment, and solid training and nutrition of course, and this is the result.

Abs anyone?

Back relaxed

Front relaxed

And a comparison to a front relaxed taken the same time for the last show - same day in the final week as well.

Keep your fingers crossed for her.

Erik

Often times some of the issues people face are related to certain 
emotional triggers that lead to eating. These slip ups can really
put a damper on a person's motivation. There's just so much self-
torture and guilt that comes with the slip up. A few things I 
want to say about this:

First, it's not that big a deal. Seriously, get over it. The last 
thing you should be doing is trying to compensate for a mistake 
by either cutting out meals or doing more exercise. Don't do it. 
All you're doing is reinforcing bad habits. Simply pick yourself 
back up, get back on the horse, and don't look back. Even once. 
Move on. 

Secondly, caving in and having a cookie isn't the end of the 
world. Sure, it wasn't on your plan, but you slipped up. It's 
one cookie. What happens with some people is that they then say
'Well, I messed up. I might as well go hog wild and make it 
really count'. Next thing you know that one cookie turned into a 
whole bag of cookies. Now you've got a problem. The one cookie? 
No big deal. The whole bag? Yes, that's a big deal. 

And finally, if you're one of these people, there's a pattern 
here that needs to be broken. The whole 'get stressed, get 
angry, get sad, eat' equation needs to be adjusted. This is a 
habit. So you need to recognize what habits you have, and start 
to try to find new, and more beneficial behavioral responses 
to these emotional triggers. 

How do you get rid of a habit? Replace it with another one. Tough 
at first, but eventually this new habit will replace the old one.

Change the habit and the associated habits MUST change too. Read
that again. 

Here's to a week of great progress.
Erik 

Here’s a Q&A I recently did for a website called www.ptonthenet.com

It was about Female Fitness Competitions

Question:

I am looking for information on training programs and requirements on fitness competitions for women. I would like to know how to prepare routines for maximum results to be achieved along with some diet tips for caloric intake to maximize the “shredded” yet toned physique.

Answer:

While the judging criteria for fitness and figure competitions continues to evolve, a few of the common denominators that all judges look for are symmetry, proportion and a certain degree of muscularity and conditioning. It’s in these latter two areas that the criteria seems to be constantly changing, which sometimes makes it hard to know exactly what “package” to present. The move has been towards women who carry slightly less overall muscle yet are still muscular and who are lean but not as lean as their bodybuilding counterparts. From a development standpoint, the key areas for this class of competitor are the shoulders, lats, glutes and legs. Of course, everything should be developed appropriately, but these are the key muscle groups that optimize that “illusion” the judges seek.

Much of what goes into successful training programming for a competitive fitness or figure competitor is similar to what goes into effective programming for dieting and training for a physique competition in general. Assuming the individual already has the development she needs, the goals of resistance training while dieting are to preserve muscle mass and strength while allowing the nutritional strategy and cardio programming to drop body fat. To that end, there needs to be a strength focus in training.

When training for fat loss, it’s a good idea to stick to upper/lower splits or full body programs. Even for the competitor, there is no great reason to use a bodybuilding split when you stop and think about the goals for resistance training while dieting for fat loss – namely, to keep the muscle and strength you’ve built.

You’ll also want to avoid a lot of high rep, low load training while dieting. Your body already has a limited capacity to recover due to a lack of fuel when on reduced calories. Light weights while in caloric deficit will likely run the risk of more muscle loss, especially the leaner you get. What builds muscle is what keeps muscle, and if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it. A person trying to lose fat needs to give her body a reason to hold onto the muscle, and this requires her to be training above a minimum intensity threshold.

To sum up training a competitor for a physique competition, the basic points to be cognizant of are:

• Focus on maintaining (or building) strength in the big, compound exercises. This will go a long way to preserving muscle mass in a caloric deficit.
• Keep a strength focus to your training. Make sure there is work being done in the four to six rep range (again, with compound exercises). Even just a few sets (two to three) in this range will go a long way.
• As recovery is impaired on reduced calories, resist the urge to do more when you should be doing less. Avoid a lot of the high rep, low rest, isolation/fluff type exercises. Contrary to popular media, this is not a good strategy, and dieting and trying to maintain muscle mass is not the time for this type of training. It tends to result in muscle loss. Let the nutrition plan and the cardio plan take care of fat loss.

Keep the following points in mind with cardio programming:

• Cardio is an adjunct therapy. Much of the fat loss should come from nutrition. Don’t overdo it. Look to optimize nutrition before adding more cardio.
• Do not over use low intensity steady state cardio. It is a good way of topping off the energy expenditure, but don’t fall into the trap of endless steady state sessions.
• Utilize sprint intervals. They’re great for reshaping the lower body and are both a superior and more efficient means of achieving fat loss than steady state cardio.

Nutritional points to be aware of include:

• The most important thing is caloric intake. There has to be a caloric deficit to lose fat. This deficit can come from exercise, nutrition or a combination of both. So, the first thing is to set calories appropriately. A good place to start generally is 12 times total bodyweight. Monitor the person for two weeks, and if she is progressing at a satisfactory rate, stay the course. If fat loss is not occurring, reduce calories by about 10 percent and reassess two weeks later.
• Set protein anywhere from one to one and a half grams of protein per pound of bodyweight.
• Ensure adequate omega-3 fat intake (six grams of fish oils a day is adequate).
• The rest of the calories (beyond getting protein and your EFAs) are variable. But generally speaking, lifting days get more carbs and rest or cardio days get less carbs.
• Use nutrient timing strategies. Time carbohydrate intake to the periods when they’re best utilized (i.e., in the early hours of the day and the exercise and post-exercise period). At other times, keep carbohydrates low (as they’re not needed) and focus more on protein, vegetables and healthy fats.
• Continue adjusting calories as the individual gets more lean. Reducing carbohydrate intake can be one effective strategy in the latter parts of a contest diet.
• Don’t cut calories too much or too soon.

Good luck!

Erik

Leg Curls ….

Do them? Don’t do them?

There’s a lot of villfying of leg curls going on by various people these days. Now, I’m not going to argue their logic, because well, in the context of their arguement, they’re right. One of the criticisms is that leg curls aren’t ‘functional’ (popular word these days), and the hamstrings don’t function in isolation of the glutes in the ‘real world’ - hence the alternatively recommended SHELC (supine hip extension w/ leg curl) exercise. With this execise both the glutes and hamstrings are working together.

So, much of the criticism stems from an ‘athlete’ or functional versus non-functional standpoint.

Beyond saying that more people would be better off paying more attention to the hip extension function (think deadlifts variations, pull throughs, single-leg RDLs, etc.) of the hamstrings instead of so much attention to the knee flexion function of the hamstrings (leg curl variations), I’m going to leave that issue alone. Do them or don’t do them; it’s up to you.

But from a developmental standpoint (ie. more muscle), any exercise that places tension on a muscle and allows you to increase that tension (ie. add more weight) over time, can create a hypertrophic response.

Progressive overload + sufficient nutrients = muscle growth.

Anyway, what I wanted to quickly address was a question I often get in response to my suggestion to point the toes when doing leg curls.

I invariabley get a follow up email where I’m told how much a person’s calves were cramping up. So here’s the deal …

The calves are what are known as a biarticular muscle, meaning they cross two joints - both the knee joint and the ankle joint. This means they serve multiple functions. One, they obviously plantar flex the ankle. However, they also assist in knee flexion (ie. leg curls). Most people will do lying leg curls with their ankles dorsi flexed - toes pulled towards the shins (opposite of a calf raise). In this position, the calves, since they are not working to plantar flex the ankle, can assist in the flexing of the knee. So what happens here is that you can use more weight, since BOTH your hamstrings and calves are functioning to bend the knee.

However, if you flex the calf, they can no longer assist in knee flexion, since they’re already busy working at the other joint. So, in this position, your hamstrings are forced to do all the work as the calf assistance is inhibited. End result? Harder working hamstrings.

Now, since most people (meaning 99 out of 100) do them the first way - since (1) it seems more natural and (2) you can lift more weight (obviously since both hams and calves are working), when you try them the other way, your calves are going to cramp up. Why? Because the neural pathways for this exercise have been established and your body is used to recruiting the calves to help. BUT, youve ‘disabled’ them. So your body will try to get them to help - hence the cramping - but wont be able to. This decreases over time as you reestablish new recruitment pathways.

You could ease into this by doing the concentric with your ankles dorsi flexed (hams + calves) and doing the eccentric with your ankles plantar flexed (hams). Then over time you could move to doing both the concentric and eccentric with your ankles plantar flexed.

So, it’s 7:40pm and I’m sitting at JFK airport in New York, eating some beef jerky and almonds and waiting to head back home. It took 90 minutes to get to the airport and I just found out my flight is delayed 50 minutes.

So, to recap my short trip to New York ….

I arrived yesterday evening and was picked up at the airport by a nice stretch limousine. From there I was taken to the W ($500/night), a nice hotel in Union Square. As I walked in, I was greeted by lots of noise. I looked to my right to see what looked like the hotel bar. It was only 8pm, on a Thursday night and it was packed – with ’suits’. I guess it was happy hour or something. It was just like TV land. Interesting.

Checked into my room, and headed back downstairs in search of something to eat. I had planned to eat something in the hotel restaurant, but all those suits made me feel like I should head back upstairs to put on a tie or something. Anyway, it was too busy so I decided to take a stroll around New York. Found a place to eat, settled my appetite and headed back. New York is really something else; sirens, honking horns, traffic, and people everywhere, at all hours of the night. I meet up with a friend of mine a little while later and we just walked around the city.

Next morning I ordered room service. I had vowed to stick to my diet while away. So I ordered something simple – 2 whole eggs, 6 egg whites with some various vegetables thrown in plus a green tea. You know what that cost? $65! For eggs!

I was then picked up by another limousine and taken to the studio for the Bridezilla shoot. I was a little apprehensive after getting a quick glimpse of the script. That four-letter word set off alarm bells in my head, but I took care of that within the first five minutes; ‘tone’ became ‘tighten’. Much better.

So first up, was makeup – yep, makeup. Don’t ask me what they put on me because I don’t know; compact or something, plus whatever else they put on you. So I had basically four ‘lines’ to say plus some other non-audio work to do. It was kind of weird having all that focus on me. There were over 10 people there – lights, make up, wardrobe, camera, audio, director, network people, etc., etc. I always had people coming up to give me water, put more make up on my face, fix my shirt, fix my pants, get me food, etc. I could get used to this.

Anyway, I’m not a natural in front of the camera so it took some work to get more ‘energized’. The director was hilarious and made things really easy. So, here’s my lines. I figured many of you who know me would get a kick out of this. Keep in mind that I was there on behalf of NV, a weight loss product (with other ingredients to support good skin, hair, and nails) who is a sponsor of the Bridezilla program (and also was a title sponsor for last year’s Mrs. America pageant, hence my involvement. I do some consulting work with the parent company.)

“Have you vowed to stay sane during wedding prep? Then try these tips from WE TV and NV, the weight loss beauty pil.”

“Snack on foods that will add energy instead of inches. Carry veggies to combat those pre-marriage munchies.” (I’d never say this)

“Try a kickboxing class. It’ll tighten you up and satisfy that Bridezilla urge to hit something.” (I put my fists up for this one … hahaha)

“Try a weight-loss program like NV to keep you fit, make your skin, hair and nails shine and have you feeling your best, when you say ‘I do’.” (Me? Talking about skin, hair and nails?)

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking. How do you think I felt? Especially when they wanted more ‘energy’ out of me. Fortunately they got what they wanted and were happy with the finished product. Oh, and while I remember, I was told that the two episodes of Bridezilla that I was filmed for are in editing stages. They’ll be on later this year. I’m not sure if I’m going to tell any of you though. I was hoping they’d edit me out of the “Princess Fabio” one. I did find out though that Bridezilla #1 lost 18 lbs and Bridezilla #2 lost 9 lbs.

Then I had to do some kitchen stuff – no talking, just video. I was …. cutting vegetables; carrots to be specific. Finally, they had me don the kickboxing gloves and do some ’shadow boxing’ with the camera. Now this … I just felt silly.

Anyway, that about covered the day. Then I got picked up by yet another limo and here I am sitting at the airport …

I have to say, it was actually a lot of fun.

How do you stay motivated? What does it mean to be motivated?

Stop and think about it. What motivates you? Why are you doing 
this? The tightly controlled eating, the 'saying no' to those
off plan meals, the tough workouts (anyone want any more 
Bulgarian Squats?), the always challenging interval workouts?

Obviously you're doing this for a reason right? That reason being
that you want to get in better shape, look better, feel better, 
and so on. 

That goal certainly doesn't change I'm sure so why does motivation
sometimes start to dwindle? Is it lack of progress? In some cases
sure. But stop and look back to when you started on this endeavor. 
I'm sure you look and feel quite different. Chances are you're 
also stronger. So, it can't really be a lack of progress can it?

To be honest, motivation is really a pretty simple thing to 
maintain. All you have to do is hold onto WHY you're doing what 
you're doing. And when I says 'hold onto' I mean keep it at the 
front of your thinking. It should be driving you. Remind yourself. 
Constantly. The more often, the better. 

I recently read a neat quote on motivation that said, “your level 
of motivation is basically the habit of positivity and that habit, 
like all others is created by repetition, in this case, repetition 
of thought.”

So, you have to think about what you're trying to achieve. You have 
to think about what you used to look like, what you look like, what 
you want to look like, and how you'll feel when you achieve the
look you're after. 

And as that quote says, do it often. 

So tomorrow I’m off to New York to do some more work for WE’s Bridezilla ‘reality’ show.

This is my third gig with them. The first two times I had to design the training and nutrition programs for two brides-to-be. During their programs, I was flown to their respective cities to be filmed training them in the gym. (I’m still not sure when these two episodes are going to air). To say that was an ‘interesting’ experience is an understatement. I talked about this twilight-zone experience in a past issue of the LBC newsletter in case you missed it.

This time I’m just going to be filming some ‘fitness/nutrition’ tip vignettes and then back home I go.

They’re putting me up in the W - a fancy hotel in New York that has a hefty tag of $479/night. What hotel is worth that? And I get driven around by limo. That’s another $100+/ one-way trip. Pricey stuff.

I only have a few lines to say, but I saw the script and needless to say … I cringed. The four-letter word we all hate is in there! Yes, TONE. They want me to mention taking a kickboxing class to get toned. Umm, no. I don’t think so.

“Second, try a kickboxing workout. It’ll tone you up and satisfy that Bridezilla urge to hit something.”

Can you imagine?

They better not put makeup on me.

Stay tuned …

This is a copy of an email I recently sent out to my clients.

So, I've been doing some thinking about free meals lately. As 
you likely all know, I'm quite the stickler when it comes to 
dietary adherence. The compliance charts you fill out are 
typically anywhere from 35-42 meals per week depending on the 
individual.

So, the number you'll often here me throwing around is 90%; 
meaning that 90% is generally the lowest acceptable level of 
dietary adherence that doesn't lead to much in the way of 
compromised results. The more you fall below this 90% figure, 
the greater the liklihood that your progress will stall or simply be non-existent. 

So on a 42 meals-per-week plan, that basically means 38 of the 
42 meals have to be perfect. On a 35 meals-per-week plan, it's
about 32 meals. That seems easy enough doesn't it?

Now that's not to say you're smart to have 3 or 4 free/cheat
meals per week of course. 

However, what about the size of these 'off plan' meals? What if
your free meals are on the order of say 1500 calories? It's 
really not that hard to do. And let's say you have two of them a 
week. Well, I think it's pretty easy to see that causing a 
problem even though technically on a 42 meals-per-week plan, 
that'd still be 95% adherence to your plan. 

Do you see where I'm going with this yet?

Instead of looking at this from a 'meals position', let's look 
at it from a 'calories position'. Let's say your total weekly 
calories consumed is 11200 (1600 calories x 7 days). 
Technically, a 10% deviation (resulting in 90% adherence in terms
of caloric intake - which is really what matters for progress), is 
only 1120 calories. 

So, you'd basically have a maximum of 1120 calories to 'screw up' 
with, and still remain at 90% adherence. That's it. That might
be two meals that add up to 1120 or perhaps just one bigger meal. 
And the lower your calories (sorry to those of you who are 
smaller/lighter) the smaller the free meals need to be. 

I'm still fleshing out this idea, but I feel that this is definitely more important 

when we're looking at dietary adherence. 

If this person who has 11200 calories per week to consume, has two
1300 calorie free meals (very easy to do), that's 2600 calories of 
off-plan eating. That equates to only 76.8% adherence and that is 
unfortunately much too low. 

In the past my guidelines for free meals, if you choose to take 
them, has been a rather general and vague 'be mindful of portions'.
I think for many, this really doesn't mean much and provides 
little to no guidelines for what is and is not acceptable. 

So, now we have something a little more concrete. When we know our
weekly caloric intake, we can see what 10% deviation equates to 
and set that as a top limit. Again, that's not to say that one
has to take all those calories, as 95% is better than 90% and 100%
is better than 95%. 

Don't see this as something set in stone - all it does it provide some kind of 

frame work or 'limit' to cheat meals. 

Does it take a little fun out of the free meals? Maybe. But they
were never meant to be free-for-alls anyway. 

Food for thought ... 

Happy dieting,
Erik