Continuing on with the idea that there needs to be heavy component (ie. low reps) to your training ... Training with heavy weights improves something called myogenic tone through growth of the contractile proteins – the aforementioned myofibrillar hypertrophy. Myogenic tone is basically a measure of a muscle’s density. When your body is nice and lean, muscle density and hardness go a long way to enhancing the look of your body. In addition, the greater the loads used, the greater the recruitment of the fast twitch motor units – those with the greatest potential for size and strength. The problem is that most people don’t spend enough time lifting in the low-rep ranges because they think this kind of training is just... read more 2 comments

My next few posts are going to be all about what I think covers the basics of 'effective training'. It's amazing how paying a little attention to some basic principles (actually applying some basic principles) can dramatically change the effectiveness of your time in the gym. How many of us have spent a lot of time in the gym, training, putting in lots of effort, thinking we were doing what was necessary to achieve results, and yet, dissatisfied with the outcome? I think we've all been there at one point. And then we start training 'smarter' and just like that - more muscle, more strength, better muscle retention while dieting for fat loss, even recomposition. So, the... read more 1 comments

How do most people warm up? They might jump on the bike or the treadmill for five or ten minutes for a general warm up, then they might do a few light static stretches and then they'll move onto some light weight, high rep work before moving onto their first exercise. Then they settle in and they start warming up for their work sets. The problem here is how these warm up sets are conducted.

What's the purpose of a warm up? Specifically, a warm up serves as a neuromuscular rehearsal of the upcoming lift as well as an opportunity to get your body used to progressively heavier loads.

So how do most people warm up? Let’s use... read more 4 comments

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... read more 5 comments

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