Lean Bodies Consulting

So let me say right out of the gates that I am far from an expert on rehab, injuries, the shoulder, etc. Definitely a field outside of my area of expertise. However, being someone who has periodically run into shoulder issues, as recently as the last training month, I’ve been doing my fair share of reading, studying, etc., in order to help myself and others out. Now of course, in addition to that, I’ve been seeing my chiropractor regularly for some Active Release on various relevant areas.

Given that most trainees will at some point experience some kind of shoulder issue, I thought I’d summarize some of my findings on the topic and what I’ve done to eliminate my shoulder issues entirely.

In most cases, when we’re talking about shoulder pain, the injuries are progressive in nature. Progressive changes in posture, soft tissue quality, changes in the way we stabilize the shoulder girdle, etc., all function to develop specific patterns based on fatigue that alter the ideal function of the shoulder. So you basically develop stabilization ‘habits’ for lack of a better term based on your training. Now over time, the shoulder joint gets altered in terms of position, range of motion, etc., and this results in faulty recruitment patterns which can precede other chronic injuries. For example, shoulder impingement can develop, which if allowed to progress can also lead to even more problems. (rotator cuff tears, etc.) Impingement seems to be what I’ve been dealing with and let me tell you, it’s a bugger of an annoyance.

According to well known physiotherapist Bill Hartman, most people make the mistake of first looking at where the pain is coming from and focusing the attention and treatment on that specific area. For example, rotator cuff pain. The oft recommended approach is to focus on the muscles of the rotator cuff, but there are a lot of things that feed into this problem. For example, an improperly positioned scapula can alter rotator cuff strength by as much as 25%.

Bill recommends a progressive four-phase approach where one starts at the shoulder joint itself and from there you work your way outward. This is also the basis for his Upper Body Dynamic Warm Up program known as Inside Out.

Phase 1 - look at what is happening with the thoracic spine. Why? Because thoracic spine mobility determines the shape of the rib cage, which determines where the scapulae/shoulder blades sit. If you have a ‘forward posture’ (desk jobs anyone?) the result can be impingement. So a focus on restoring thoracic spine mobility (ability to extend, rotate, etc.) is of primary importance.

Phase 2 - look at the scapulae, and in particular, scapular mobility. Postural issues (short/stiff chest muscles for example) will result in the scapulae being pulled/tilted forward - the rest is potential impingement issues). So we have to have tissue extensibility in the front of the body and strength in the scapular muscles on back side of the body in order to have the ability to pull the scapulae back into a position to be stabilized.

Phase 3 - look at scapular stability. We’re looking for a balance between the upper and downward rotators of the scapulae. The upward rotators include the upper traps, lower traps and serratus anterior. The downward rotators include the rhomboids and the levator scapulae. So what is required is a recoordination of the relevant muscles, strengthening of upper rotators; potential soft tissue work on the downward rotators, etc.

Phase 4 - look at the rotator cuff strength and range of motion. The goal is to try to find balance internal and external rotation; a good rule of thumb is 180* of full combined internal and external rotation. For people that train a lot there is a tendency to lose external rotation. In addition Bill says the external rotators should be about 2/3 as strong as the internal rotators. The suggested goal for hard training people however, is to try to get it up to 3/4. Why is this important? Because the external rotators pull the upper arm bone into the shoulder joint which helps to avoid shoulder impingement.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back later with more including the general shoulder pre/rehab program that I used to eliminate the shoulder issues I was experiencing.

The following is a tough hamstrings triplex that JC Santana calls “The Triple Threat”. As a triplex implies, it’s a combination of three exercises with minimal rest. Given that each movement easily and smoothly transfers right into the next movement it’s a rather ‘user friendly’ set up.

The three exercises are

1. Two-leg Stability Ball Glute Bridges
2. SHELC (Supine Hip Extension into Leg Curl)
3. Two-leg Stability Ball Hip Lifts

Give it a shot either on your light hamstring day or as a hamstrings “finisher”. If you get it right, you’ll feel like your hams are about to rip right off your legs. Your glutes and calves will get hit hard as well. Try for 5 to 15 reps per exercise.

Once you get good at this, try doing it all with only one leg at a time ….

Gym ’sighting’ of the day. There’s this girl at the gym, I swear I’ve never seen her actually workout yet. Well, she’s been on the ellipticals, but I’ve never seen her lift weights yet, but she sits on the equipment and walks around the gym. I was watching her today and she literally just strolls around the gym, stops, leans on something, looks around for a while, strolls to another area, etc. Weirdest thing. I remember one time I was on the treadmill and there was a guy about three treadmills down running. This girl was just watching him. Staning on an ellliptical, completely motionless, watching him run. I figured she must know him and is just waiting for the guy to make eye contact. Next thing I know she’s on the treadmill beside him. No acknowledgment from him. She walks for 5 minutes and then goes back across the cardio area to the elliptical. I guess that strategy didn’t work.

Here’s one of my light hamstrings exercises that I’ve been doing for a while and really liking - the Anterior Reach (demonstrated by Laura). It’s an ‘integration’ movement that works the hamstrings and glutes with a balance component. People use the Anterior Reach for different reasons, but one of the great things about it is that it really engages the muscles of the calves, hamstrings and glutes together. The together part is the key here. In addition to that, it helps to develop functional balance and strength in both the core and the lower extremities. (JC Santana)

But, it looks easier than it is. It’s not a ‘hard’ exercise as in say a widowmaker set of 20-rep squats, of course. It’s a different kind of hard. Tbe slower you go, the more proprioceptive demand and the more demand placed on the muscles. So, the goal is to do these S-L-O-W-L-Y. (slower than Laura is demonstrating, or at least progress to very slow)

Some general guidelines:

- The knees line up with the feet.
- Limiting knee flexion places more emphasis on the muscles of the posterior chain (this is how I do them).
- Increasing knee flexion adds emphasis to the quads.
- Can be done contralaterally or ipsilaterally.
- Bench over and reach forward, and then stand straight up at the top.
- You can progress the movement with multi-planar reaching (so you’re not always just reaching straight forward)
- Try to keep the back foot off the ground for the duration of the set; touch down to stabilize if needed however.

Give a few sets of 12-15 reps per side a shot before your next hamstring workout; or even to finish off for that matter. Remember, the slower you go (both eccentrically and concentrically, the better). If you’re getting it right, your glutes and hamstrings will let you know.

So I’m at the gym last night, done chest and hitting the tail end of my higher rep leg work, when what do I see as I come up to the next piece of equipment that I need? A guy drinking a PEPSI! A PEPSI during his workout. I had to do a double take on that one.

Figured I’d give a sample of last night’s chest work.

Incline DB Press - 4×6 w/ 95s
Flat DB Flies - 3×6 w/ 60s
Incline Bench Press - 3×8,6,6 w/ 205lbs
Flat DB Press - 3×8,7,6 w/ 75s

And I’m spent!

After this workout I headed home where I had a massage appointment (a friend of ours is an RMT and she just brings her table over). The goal was to have her work on my shoulders and she said they were just mangled. Unhealthy tissues in there so she did a number on them as she broke up a lot of scar tissue. My traps however, are very healthy. And then some pec work, which she said are very tight and I need to do more stretching for them.

It’s important to keep soft tissue quality in mind. You can have the best workout design, the best effort, etc., but if the soft tissue quality (adhesions and scar tissue) is such that it is impairing optimal functioning of the contracting muscles, your results are going to be compromised. Getting some ART (Active Release Technqiues) or seeing an RMT every now and then is a good idea. Stretching is good of course for working on tissue length, but tissue quality is also very important. In lieu of an RMT, doing some self myofascial release with a foam roller or the more user friendly STICK is a smart idea.

And to close off, I thought I’d post a few pictures of a figure client of mine, Hollie Higdon, who is just under two weeks out from the NPC Junior USAs. Looking lean eh?

Back Double Biceps

Biceps

Some Lower Ab Vascularity

So as previously mentioned, yesterday was my heavy shoulder/light arm workout. This is probably one of the ‘easier’ workouts of the week (the other shoulder/arm day being a bit easier). Easier in the sense that shoulders and arms generally isn’t ever as hard as hitting back or legs hard.

When you think of shoulder exercises, the first thoughts you have are probably different sorts of presses (dumbbell, barbell, seated, standing, push press, etc) and probably some kind of lateral raise exercise.

Everyone (or rather, most) does laterals but it’s one of those movements that unfortunately no one will ever be strong on. Of course, that assumes one is doing the movement correctly to begin with. It’s just such an isolated movement and the biomechanics of a strict lateral raise are just not favourable to heavy loads or even much in the way of progressive resistance. After a years of training, I’m not using much more weight now than I was before - but of course my pressing strength has gone way up.

So, instead, I’m now doing a different version of this exercise called the One-Arm Lateral Throw. Now this is a fun one, you’ll see. You can heave around some good weight with this exercise.

Why am I doing these?

I’ve been using these instead of the standard lateral raise for a few reasons.

1. I can use more weight.

2. I get way more out of the whole body. I’m wiped after these. Serious oxygen debt.

3. I can get more more action in the extreme range of this movement (see how high I can get the dumbbell) and subject my shoulders to lots more tension due to the load and accelerative forces.

Give this one a shot and I bet you like it as much as I do.

And by doing it a little differently, I am referring to the fact that I am taking a different approach to my own fat loss and dieting strategy than I have in past years. Perhaps a bit of an experiment of sorts.

One thing that we often hear talked and written about is how recovery is obviously going to be at least somewhat compromised on a caloric deficit when compared to eating in a caloric surplus. I’ve written about this a number of times myself and I still believe this is true. You simply don’t have the same recuperative resources when your calories are lower.

However, I think what’s happened as a consequence is that there has become a wide sweeping fear of volume when dieting. That’s not to say that a lower volume approach isn’t going to work - since it does and will continue to do its job if it’s set up properly. However, you have people that say anything more than 2-3 sets of 5 (as just an example) is too much and you’ll run yourself into the ground. I don’t believe this is true. Sure, I think perhaps for SOME people it MIGHT be … but I guess that’s part of my point; individual assessment. Everyone is different and some people can handle more than others.

And this also isn’t to say that a higher volume across the board is better either - individual assessment. Adding volume just for the sake of volume isn’t the point. I’ve read that referred to as ‘junk volume’.

And it’s not really the volume that we necessarily should be avoiding while dieting; it’s the need to avoid running ourselves into the ground with too much work - whether that be too much heavy lifting, too much metabolic work, too much interval training, too much steady state cardio, etc. Everyone needs to listen to their body and pay attention to their biofeedback.

Which brings me back around to my point of doing it a little differently. I typically follow an upper/lower split when dieting, with reduced volume (although not as low as some go), with a concentration of lower reps and compound movements, with some 10-12 rep stuff thrown in as well. Throw in a couple interval training workouts - on the days I do legs, but in a separate training session - and maybe a couple low intensity steady state sessions and I’m good to go.

This time however, I’m not doing that. Here’s a synopsis of what I’m currently doing:

- no traditional cardio; that means no intervals and no SS cardio
- training six days per week - yes, SIX
- body part split

A little different eh?

I am basically hitting everything twice per week. So for example, one day is shoulders and arms, which is heavy shoulder work and lighter arm work. Later in the week I have arms and shoulders with heavy arm work and lighter shoulder work. The same goes for the rest of my groupings.

I’m also doing 3-4 exercises PER bodypart and 3-4 sets EACH exercise, so I’m very far removed from the lower volume training while dieting approach. Heavy work is in the 5-8 rep range with full recovery and my lighter work is in the 12-15 rep range with incomplete recovery. I might also add this is NOT ‘metabolic work’. My lighter work is isolation-type work; not anything near those nasty metabolic workouts.

For example on my heavy quad day I did the following
Full Squats
Hack Squats
Leg Press
Bulgarian Squats
And then one set of Alternating Lunges

My light quad work looks like this (on another day, and more in the 15-20 rep range)
Leg Extensions
Single-leg Leg Press
Horizontal Leg Press
Walking Lunges

And you know what? I have no recovery issues whatsoever. None. In fact, I’m in week 3 now and my weights or reps have increased each workout and I’m still getting leaner … with no cardio. (I hate cardio)

I guess my point is to not always get locked into the rigidity of the ‘rules’. Pay attention to your body. I have had this problem myself in the past, but with exercise and training, it’s such an exhaustive field. There’s always more to learn and we’ll never know it all; at least I certainly won’t. I don’t see this as my ‘changing my tune’ so to speak, but rather adding to the knowledge base and evolving in my own learning.

There’s so many approaches and ways to be successful in your training. Read critically, but be open minded.

Putting It All Together

The take home message here is not that there is no place for steady state cardio, or that you should only be doing interval training. The best course of action is to use both forms of cardio. An overemphasis on either will result in less than optimal results. If you’re just starting out, I’d caution you from jumping right into an intense interval training workout. Rather, you should spend some time building up a baseline of cardiovascular fitness with steady state cardio. From that point you can start to do some lower intensity intervals. For example, you might walk on the treadmill at 3.0mph for your active recovery and power walk at 4.0mph for your sprints. With time and as your conditioning improves you can gradually up the intensity of your sprints.

As for intermediate and advanced trainees, the only real difference is in their level of cardiovascular conditioning. Intervals are all about perceived effort and as such what is intense to one may not be intense to another. Start out with 30-60″ on time at an RPE of about 7-8; not full out but much higher intensity than steady state.

Beginners
Traditional steady state cardio gradually moving into low intensity interval training

Intermediate
20s on / 60s off x 8-10 repeats
30s on / 90s off x 6-8 repeats
60s on / 180s off x 3-4 repeats

Advanced
30s on / 60s off x 8-10 repeats
60s on / 120s off x 5-6 repeats
60s on / 60s off x 6-8 repeats
90s on / 90s off x 4-5 repeats

SideBar – Intervals and Contest Prep

Interval training is well established as a time-efficient and very effective means of fat loss and this is also true for competitive bodybuilders and figure competitors. Steady state cardio, and lots of it, has been the Holy Grail of contest prep for years. However, there really is no good reason to have to resort to 10-14 hours or more of cardio per week to get in shape. So, can competitors use interval training in their contest prep? Yes, most definitely. However, they should do so while keeping certain things in mind.

One, a competitor of any significant size (ie. big male bodybuilders) should probably not be running, or running much. They should opt for non-impact cardio modalities like the stationary bike. Two, they need to keep in mind that interval training, similar to intense weight training, is a very CNS (Central Nervous System) intensive form of exercise. Short sprint intervals (~ 20s) are more CNS intensive than longer sprint intervals and as such you want to be mindful of how you balance that out with your lower body training. A few key points to consider:

1.Think of interval training as a lower-body workout and as such, be sure to be mindful of just how much lower-body training (volume) you’re doing. Too many interval workouts and too many lower-body workouts is a recipe for muscle and strength loss.

2.Put your interval-training workouts on your heavy lower body days. Why? So that your legs have more complete rest days per week. Doing them on your ‘Off’ or ‘Upper Body’ days gives your legs less recovery time and you run the risk of localized overtraining of your legs.

3.As your bodyfat approaches very lean levels recovery is at a premium. Consider less intensive forms of cardio – longer duration intervals (which by nature are less intense and therefore not as hard on the CNS), more steady state cardio, etc.

Efficiency sure sounds good, but when we’re trying to lose fat, we want to be inefficient fat burners. Look at a lot of physique competitors – they start off with 30 minutes of cardio three to four times a week and by the time they’re done dieting, they’re up to 60 minutes twice a day and even more in some cases. Did the 30 minutes four times per week stop producing results? Did they become more efficient?

But what about the often heralded fat-burning zone? I’m afraid to say that the fat-burning zone is completely overrated. Did you know that as you sit here reading this article, you are in the fat-burning zone? Do you think you’re burning lots of fat and getting ripped? The whole idea behind the fat-burning zone is that you use a greater proportion of fat as a fuel source with lower intensity work. As exercise intensity climbs, there’s a decreasing reliance on fat and an increasing reliance on stored carbohydrate in the form of glycogen to fuel activity. However, research supports the fact that the predominant fuel source used during exercise is not what is important for fat loss. Total daily energy expenditure is more important for fat loss than the major fuel used during exercise. So whether you burn fat or carbohydrate during your exercise session is not what determines your results; it’s how many calories you burned. So basically the strikes against slow cardio would be that it’s mind-numbingly boring, it’s time consuming, for a given quantity it produces less results over time, and the fat-burning zone, which is the major ’support’ for steady state cardio, is overrated and irrelevant.

Intervals and other forms of anaerobically-intense training (weight lifting) tax the metabolic structures of the body in a way that increases overall calorie usage as well as specific use of fat for fuel over time. There have been a number of studies that have demonstrated the superiority of interval training for fat loss, despite burning fewer calories during the actual activity. In one of the landmark interval training studies, two groups were compared to one another. In this study subjects engaged in either an endurance program (4-5 times per week for 30-45 minutes) for 20 weeks or an interval training program for 15 weeks. Neither group was placed on a diet. The estimated calories burned in the endurance group was more than double that of the interval training group. However, after statistical analysis it was shown that the interval training group experienced nine times the fat loss of the endurance group. How is this possible?

While one may burn less overall calories and less fat during an interval training workout, compared to steady state cardio, when the post-exercise recovery period is factored in, interval training leads to significantly greater energy expenditure and fat loss. This is due to the effects interval training has on your metabolism. Metabolic rate is not only elevated the workout, but also for hours after the workout, and this is the magic of interval training – the fat burned in the post-workout recovery period. There are numerous other studies that support the obvious efficacy of interval training seen in the previously mentioned study. And in contrast, there are multiple studies that show that with no change in diet, the inclusion of multiple hours of slow cardio resulted in no weight loss. Think of it this way, you could drag out your trip to the gym by taking the scenic route and turning a 10-minute drive into a 45-minute drive if you really wanted to. Sure, the end result would be the same since you arrived at the gym. But you could have gotten there faster by taking a more efficient route.

I thought I’d post an article that i recently wrote for a print magazine on intervals and fat loss. I’ll just post the first third of the article today and then will update with the other two thirds in subsequent blog posts.

What’s the first thing most people think of when they think of fat loss? Cardio. Yep, hour upon hour of boring, mind-numbing cardio. Why? Because that is what has been ingrained in our heads. You want to lose fat? Time for lots of cardio. Here’s the problem – there’s a reason you have to do so much of it; traditional cardio, or rather, aerobic exercise, doesn’t burn many calories to begin with. But the elliptical says you burned 1000 calories in 10 minutes? Sorry, not true. All of these machines overestimate caloric expenditure. There are numerous shortcomings that come with focusing your fat-loss efforts on session after session of steady state cardio, but we’ll come back to that. First, we’re going to look at a far more effective, time-efficient, albeit more intense, approach to fat-loss cardio.

Most people have at least heard of interval training by now. If you haven’t it simply refers to a form of ‘cardio’ where you repeatedly alternate periods of high-intensity effort with periods of lower-intensity effort. Interval training is normally defined by a work-to-rest ratio in which the ‘work’ component represents the high intensity/sprint component and the ‘rest’ component represents the low intensity/active recovery component. For example, repeatedly alternating a 30-second sprint with a 90-second brisk walk would be an example of interval training with a 1:3 work-to-rest ratio (the rest is 3x times longer than the work). Generally speaking, the specific details of how you set up an interval program are not that important. As long as you work hard, then rest, the specifics are not critical to your success. That said however, to give some more concrete guidelines for fat loss, a 30-90 second high intensity segment and anywhere from a 1:1 or 1:3 work-to-rest-ratio (so 30 seconds on/60 seconds off up to 90 seconds on/90 seconds off) is probably going to be your best bet more often than not. Of course there are times when you can do shorter and longer intervals as well.

Ok so we now know what interval training is, but the big question is, is it really superior to traditional steady state cardio when it comes to fat loss? What about the fact that everyone in the gym seems to do steady state cardio? Well, look around. How many people do you see slaving on the elliptical for an hour every time you’re in the gym … and yet they never look any different. Pretty common observation isn’t it? Here’s the problem with an over reliance on steady state cardio for fat loss. Besides the fact that it’s boring and time consuming, one of the biggest problems is that the more you do, the more you have to do. As you become more aerobically fit, you’ll become a more efficient fat burner. Sounds good doesn’t it? How much fuel does a fuel-efficient car burn? Not much. It gets a lot of output (mileage) for little input (fuel). Same with us. The more efficient we become, whether aerobically or biomechanically, the less energy our bodies have to expend for a given amount of activity.

More tomorrow …

I was going to write a blog post today about post-holiday cardio and how this kind of compensatory behaviour is simply a waste of time. But rather than write out my thoughts about why you shouldn’t waste even a minute doing this as well as why it reinforces bad habits, I’m going to post a blog post from my friend Craig Ballantyne that summarizes my thoughts on this very well. It’s called the Cardio Confessional.

The Cardio Confessional
Only minutes ago I stepped off a plane from Palm Beach to Toronto, back from the best fitness seminar I’ve ever attended. And as we left the plane, the stewardess from US Airways wished me a Happy Thanksgiving.

Of course, as a Canadian, I celebrated our Thanksgiving over 6 weeks ago.

However, for our American readers, the big day for giving thanks is this Thursday. Followed of course, by Black Friday - the day many men and women spend on the Cardio Confessional.

That’s my term for people who think that an hour of cardio will make up for the previous day’s dietary indiscretions. But nothing can be further from the truth.

For the next two months, millions of bloated men and women will be stepping on stairmasters, mounting elliptical machines, and parking their butts on bikes for hours while repenting their sinful pumpkin pie indulgences and other holiday feast transgressions.

Unfortunately, they will do all this with little return for the investment of their time.

Just take a look at the two most shocking research studies in the last year.

First, from Australia, came the study showing us that cardio did nothing for female fat loss, while interval training helped burn belly fat.

And second, an American study showed that even doing 300 hours of cardio in a year led to less than 6 pounds of fat loss in men and women.

So to sum up the big findings of this year…

- The cardio confessional is a waste of time.

- A mindset that involves “exercise as punishment for overeating” is unhealthy and ineffective.

- Resistance training is the only way to build muscle and burn fat at the same time.

- Short burst Turbulence Training workouts are the best way to lose your belly fat and sculpt your body.

- The interval training workouts you’ll find on pages 36-39 of the Turbulence Training for Fat Loss manual will help you burn belly fat in only 20 minutes per session.

Click HERE to start Turbulence Training

Get with the program,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

PS - Turbulence Training Beats Cardio for Fat Burning Effectiveness.