The Power of Rest.
My clients are always amazed when they find out that most of their muscle growth occurs while they are sleeping, and not during their workouts. Recuperation is a subject that receives too little attention and is often misunderstood. We are conditioned to think in order to succeed we must work hard and little value is placed on rest.
During intense resistance training there is cellular damage that takes place in the millions of myofibrils, that make up our muscle structure. As we recuperate from our workout, the hypertrophic or rebuilding response starts to occur. The rebuilding phase, has several stages and requires on average of 72-96 hours to complete. The phases include an inflammation stage, a clean out stage where damaged cell debris is removed and a growth stage. So it takes three or four days before the muscle enters into an environment where growth can occur. Each muscle group should not be worked more than once per week. If a muscle group is trained more frequently, it may not leave enough time for recuperation, and not time for growth.
It is important to receive eight to ten hours of sleep each night, when the body is sleeping important functions for growth and recovery take place. During sleep growth hormones are secreted from the pituitary gland, which aides in the body’s ability to synthesize protein to rebuild muscle tissue. Many of the nutrients ingested during our waking hours are assimilated while we sleep.
Over training occurs when a muscle group is worked too long, or too frequent. Training a muscle before it has fully recuperated will cause further damage to the muscle fibers. The body will enter into a catabolic state (breaking down) and will result in loss of muscle tissue. The body in its inability to adapt to this stress will show signs of over training.
The following symptoms are good indications you are over training. They are lack of energy, trouble sleeping, muscle and joint soreness, no muscle growth, loss of strength and no desire to exercise. If these symptoms occur, the best course of action is rest, a week with no training. During this time off re-evaluate your nutritional program and training routine. After further analysis you will find you either under ate, or over trained.
We all differ when it comes to our recuperative abilities. Learn to listen to the messages, that your body sends. When you experience increases in strength, energy and muscular growth, it should reinforce that your routine is working. On the flip side, decreases in strength, energy and growth should alert you your routine needs to change. Exercise goes against our human nature. Less work will usually mean more results. Learn to relax and enjoy the time away from your workouts. If you train with proper form, with intensity you deserve all the rest you can get.
When it comes to increasing exercise performance and improving body compositiuon, there nothing more powerful than rest. http://www.thefatlosscoach.com
Monday, November 7, 2011
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Four Stages of Successful Weight Loss
Over the last two decades when I first meet a potential new client, the most common question posed to me is, “can you help me to lose weight”? My response puts the ball back in their court… I can help you to solve your weight problem, if you are willing to complete four stages of behavior change…
They are surprised to learn the first two stages will take place in our first thirty-minute session together…
Stage One – Unconsciously incompetent… I meet all new clients in stage one of the weight problem… They are well aware they have a problem, but unaware what the origin of the problem rarely is… Most think if they could only be taught good new eating habits, their weight issues will disappear… They don’t realize they have an inner identity or character, which has formed to support their poor lifestyle of improper nutrition… Their poor eating behavior goes beyond bad habits, deep rooted, unconsciously in place each day… They have become unconsciously good at being overweight…
Stage Two- Consciously incompetent… You enter stage two when you consciously become aware of why our bodies store fat and lose muscle based on hormonal responses to quantity and quality of foods consumed… This is an understanding, which goes beyond our common sense ability to understand… Common sense would lead you to believe eating less often and lesser amounts, would keep the fat from being stored… This could not be further from the truth… Unfortunately nine out of ten overweight clients I meet are under eaters, not over eaters… They are taught by eating four or more meals, about four hours apart, consuming high fiber, low glycemic foods, portioned 30% protein, 50% carbohydrate and 20% fat, which will cause a slow rise and slow drop in blood sugar… This will bring a homeostasis or balance to the pancreas production of hormones, insulin and glucagons, which feeds the muscle and reduce the fat…
Stage Three-Consciously competent… Stage three is the daily practice of consciously eating the right foods, at proper times, in customized or fitted amounts to each individual… The daily routine of thinking the right thought, speaking it into action, and allowing the repetitive acts to form habits are essential to be in place each day… I believe it takes at least 21 days for these routines to form into a physical habit… The danger is these habits are still not deep rooted into the sub-conscience… If not consciously put into practice each day, they are very vulnerable to old behavior reoccurring… This is most likely during some test or trial, which appears to overwhelm the new behavior… Think of your subconscious as a forest, and every tree in the forest represent a belief or character trait concerning all the aspects of your life… For example, one tree represents your moral beliefs, another your work ethic and so on… These trees are deep rooted and take little conscious effort to keep them in place… As a young boy I was taught stealing is very wrong behavior… So when I visit the mall, I don’t have to sit in my car and go through a check list of make sure you don’t take what’s not yours, even if no one looking… It sounds funny to even say it, because this belief is so deep rooted in me… Well new nutrition routines are a tree, with no roots and must be watered each day… The water is thinking it, and speaking it into action each day… The daily conscious effort allows the roots to go deep into the sub-conscience and become like the other trees in your forest…
Stage Four-Unconsciously competent… This is the goal of each client I work with… To take this new knowledge of nutrition and deeper understanding of their hormonal responses, and develop into a lifestyle… Many times a new client questions me, “how do you think I’m doing”? Sometimes they are surprised at my response, especially if there has been dramatic fat loss… You see I go more by how they sound, than how much the scale is moving… I spend a considerable amount of time on the behavior modification part of my teaching, which I call the “Laws of the Lean”… I know for it to become their lifestyle, and enjoy long life and good health, they must become unconsciously successful in managing it… So what could keep it from happening? I think the most common mistake is the deception of thinking your in stage four, when still in stage three… You see, it takes daily work of self-talk, positive thoughts, goal driven choices to water the tree in stage three… So what causes the deception? Thinking it’s unrealistic to put in all this conscious effort each day, especially when I don’t have to do it in other areas of my life, I manage successfully… The truth is you won’t… You only have to do it until the tree has been watered enough, and the roots go just as deep, as the other trees in your forest… The treasure found in stage four, is it takes the same amount of conscious effort to manage your weight, as it did in stage one of not managing your weight…
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