Formosa Fitness

A while back, Time Magazine published one of the worst articles I've ever read in a mainstream publication: Why Exercise Won't Make you Thin. Time is in every doctor and dentist's office in America ironically so we'll have to deal with this nonsense for years to come. Way to go, guys.

Basically the author talks about how he exercises all the time and doesn't lose weight. Reading the article, I had a lot of geewhiz-I-wonder-why moments. Look at these quotes:

...perfectly salted, golden-brown French fries after a hard trip to the gym.

....It turns out one group of friends was stopping at Starbucks for muffins afterward....

....After we exercise, we often crave sugary calories like those in muffins or in "sports" drinks like Gatorade. A standard 20-oz. bottle of Gatorade contains 130 calories....

...self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it. If you force yourself to jog for an hour, your self-regulatory capacity is proportionately enfeebled. Rather than lunching on a salad, you'll be more likely to opt for pizza. ...Because exercise depletes not just the body's muscles but the brain's self-control "muscle" as well, many of us will feel greater entitlement to eat a bag of chips during that lazy time after we get back from the gym.

Good grief. Where to begin?

The author obviously lacks any sense of will power whatsoever. He's like a 2-year old that needs his hand slapped out of the cookie jar every other minute. If he sees something, then he just has to have it. That's obviously a recipe for disaster if you're trying to lose weight.

Especially note the "self-control is like a muscle: it weakens each day after you use it" part. I have no idea where he got this idea and it certainly does NOT apply to weight lifting and muscle development. How someone's will weakens after you use it beyond me.

Second, let's kill once and for all the idea that someone "earned" a trip to Starbucks or a large pizza because they went to the gym. That seems to be the main sickness the author suffers from. And I've actually heard this from people, unfortunately. No one who is trying to lose weight earns more junk food by going to the gym. I hope that's obvious. We're desperately trying to lose what we thought we already "earned," remember?

Let's make this clear: if you're burning 200-300 calories at the gym and then eating/drinking 500 calories of junk food after working out, then you're setting yourself up for failure. (Note to other trainers: yes, I know that total calorie intake and expenditure over the day may still balance this out, but I'm making a general statement.)

As a trainer, it's my job to help busy people sort through information so they can make healthy choices. And frankly irresponsible articles like this one just angers me. Normal people that are struggling with their weight will read this and get 100% wrong information. It could set back their health for years. 

Exercise and having the courage to control what you eat are absolutely crucial if you want to lose weight. Don't let Time Magazine tell you otherwise.

Steroid use is more rampant than most people realize, especially in places that bill themselves as being hardcore. So let's say you're interested in weightlifting and you go to a forum or website and pick up a program that looks good or you approach the hardest core guy in your gym.

Let me ask you this: if someone is telling you that a certain volume of weightlifting is doable based on their experience, then wouldn't you want to know if that person is or has been on drugs?

It's stupidly obvious, isn't it? And yet we often don't think about this when we look around for fitness advice.

You need to be very, very careful about where you get your information. More people than you know are juicing and then telling the world how big or whatever you can get on their program. If they do steroids and you don't or won't, then you're setting yourself up for failure. Why take advice from the drug guy if you're planning on staying drug free?

It just doesn't make sense.

Be smart about where you pick your programs and info and you'll stay safe.

I consider myself a functional fitness guy and since I'm doing kettlebells a lot, I guess that's a given. But the functional fitness community really likes to throw stuff under the train sometimes. Take this dumb idea that ab flexion isn't functional, for example.

First of all, one of the primary functions of the rectus abdominus is flexion, right or wrong? Let's just keep it simple with no hemming and hawing. The answer is right, so please explain to me how then ab flexion is somehow non-functional? How can a natural function of a muscle be non-functional?

Second, it's non-functional for who? Do you get out of bed every morning? How do you do it? I flex my abs, how about you? Pretty functional, huh? Do you play with your kids on the floor and need to get up? If so, how are you going to do that without ab flexion?

The rise of MMA and BJJ should also have made it abundantly clear by now that getting up off the floor from a lying position is a real need for those guys. They functionally need ab flexion.

One of the main arguments against ab flexion is that people hurt their backs and this is one of my pet peeves -- if something is hurting your back, then fix your back! Yes, a whole plethora (I love that word) of moves are bad for you if you have a bad back. The solution isn't to avoid them, but fix the problem -- your back.

When I started fixing my back problems, all sorts of exercise pains went away. And kettlebells are one of the best tools for fixing backs. Then ab flexion exercises all become accessable.

Honestly, ALL my favorite ab exercises are flexion-based. That doesn't mean I ignore anti-rotation or rotation (the latest functional under-the-train fatality), but I place an emphasis these days on flexion.

BTW, the old Health for Life Legendary Abs course is still one of the best you can get and it's all ab flexion. Get the outline here. Supplement it with some back training and some other core work, and you're good to go.

Which workout program to choose? Which path to follow? We can talk about science this and that or quote famous authors on what we are supposed to do. But when it comes right down to it, I pick a path because I like how it makes me feel.

How you feel after a workout or how you feel the next day is an often over-looked and certainly under-rated measure of a workout. Now I'm not talking training athletes here nor am I myself an athlete. And yes, we need to train things that make us uncomfortable and work on our weaknesses. All of that is granted.

But even taking those into consideration, there tends to be multiple paths up the mountain and I pick the one that makes me feel a certain way.

Once basic health and fitness are acquired (in what ever definition you personally use) then why do you keep training?

Because it hopefully makes you feel good.

EDT is escalating density training. Pick one or two exericeses that you can do for about 4-5 reps each and then do as many short sets of them as you can in 20 minutes. The goal is to increase the volume you do in those 20 minutes. For a good longer article on it, go here.

Charles Staley came up with this and he has a whole bunch of stuff on the program but it's pretty simple to figure out.

I did a superset of double KB presses and double KB rows with the 24kg KBs and had a blast. Great program. I made 15 sets but I rested way too long at the beginning. I was holding back thinking it would be tougher so I didn't put the right effort into it the first few minutes. Next time I'll try to make 20 sets. Think I can do it.

It's a great way to spend 20 minutes. :)

On one of the fitness boards I post on, a person asked a question about a trainer. They said they wanted to train with this person because he got good results. But the trainer was well-known for making everyone go through a period of stabilization training. But the person asking for some reason didn't want to do that type of training because she thought it was worthless (based on her one year of experience working out at a gym, no less).

To my surprise, many people got on there and gave her advice on how to argue against the training, even trainers gave her tips against it.

It pissed me off.

When someone goes to a trainer, they should be looking for results, not method. The trainer is the subject matter expert, not the client. Take your goals to the trainer and let them devise the program. If you're going to dictate method, then why hire a trainer in the first place?

So I got on there and asked if this trainer was getting good results, making her want to hire him, then why was she second-guessing his methods. She said she didn't want to do this kind of training. I then told her that if it was me, I would refuse to train her because she was being arrogant. Naturally that killed the thread.

I was listening to a stengthcoach.com podcast yesterday by Gray Cook and he covered this well. He called it coddled conditioning where the client gets babied and none of their issues are addressed. Instead the trainer allows the client to dictate an endless variety of methods, none of which make any difference because the client isn't sticking with one long enough to make it work. Nor are they addressing what they NEED instead of what they WANT.

I saw this alot when I taught English and my private students brought in a new book each week. It was frustrating.

As trainers, it's irresponsible of us to not address the client's needs as well as the wants. If people are so spoiled that they leave when we do that, then that's fine too. Not everyone deserves our time.

Gray Cook in the podcast made an excellent point that some training needs to be EARNED. In other words, people that can't do basic exercises don't get to try new things until basics are mastered.

As trainers, we have to mix the hard stuff with the candy. We have to give people what they need along with what they want. It's a delicate balance.

http://www.iwanttolooklikethatguy.com/

This is a documentary of Stu MacDonald and his quest to go from a 42 year old guy with a 44 inch waist to looking like the guy in the supplement ads. If you have any interest in fitness and how people can change their body, then this is something you must see. In short, he did it. He got his body fat down to about 4% but it was a real struggle for him, hence the value of the movie.

Stu starts out by saying he's tried every diet and exercise fad out there and none of them has worked. Jeff Willet, a former pro bodybuilder, opens a gym in Stu's town so Stu decides to get Jeff's help in making a serious stab at looking like the guys in the ads.

The movie shows everything from him getting his fat levels tested to the emotional impact his training has on him. That emotional impact takes a while to build up, though. At first, Jeff has Stu do a period of just weight training to build up a base of training. Stu expects instant results and is disappointed at first when things don't change quickly. But actually at the end of the first three months, Stu lost 8% of his body fat. Not bad.

With that strength basis, the real training begins. The workouts got more intense but the diet was particularly emphasized. Stu really struggled with his mental demons as the diet got tighter and tighter and the calories went down and down. He even became a basket case just as he was about to enter his first bodybuilding contest, the highlight of hs journey.

It was great to watch his transformation from 28% body fat to 4%. He actually did it. His six pack came out, he got ripped, learned to pose, the whole picture. I've never seen a documentary that showed this process before and it will make a great tool for showing clients how tough the fitness lifestyle can be.

BTW, I'm very interested in the Max OT method Jeff used to train Stu. The workouts apparently lasted only 30-40 minutes and yet Stu burned lots of fat and built muscle. I'll report back what I find on this workout method.

The main lesson I took away is that it is possible for a normal guy to achieve amazing results in 6 months given the right plan and the willpower to make it happen. But expect to sacrifice everything to make it happen.

Very inspiring and very highly recommended!

I'm re-reading Tom Kurz' Science of Sports Training because I'm better able to understand the concepts after having gotten my NASM cert. If you haven't read the book and want something that is way more technical about setting up training programs than the average book but isn't quite a real textbook on the subject, then Kurz' book is exactly what you need. Don't look for a cookie-cutter program through. Kurz lays out the basics and gives you the tools to do it yourself. But this is waaaay beyond the average lifting/exercise book so be warned.

In the opening chapters, he talks about how volume should always proceed intensity and that's a good point that I'd forgotten about recently. You have to do a higher volme of work BEFORE you can squeeze all that volume down into a more intense workout.

I'd forgotten that with my kettlebell workouts recently. I had reached a certain level with the 16kg KB through sets and reps training, tested it with 10 minute sets in the IKFF cert, and thought I was therefore ready to just jump into 20kg KB training with long sets. That was a no go.

It took me time to build up my KB training with the 16kg KB. I didn't just do a long set the first day I got it. I had forgotten that. The intensity of jumping from a 16kg KB to a 20 kg was too much for my hands. Time to go back to volume and build myself back up with the technique and endurance before I try long sets with the 20kg.

Remember: volume before intensity.

There are so many myths out there regarding health and fitness. Here's my pass at a few of them.

First of all, thin does not necessarily equal health and it sure doesn't automatically equal fitness.

I see this all the time, "How can I get thin really fast?" My answer, "Heroin."

Drug abusers are thin. They often have six-pack abs. Are they healthy? No. Are they fit? Absolutely not. Do people really want to be like them?

Health is more than having 4% body fat or fitting into a size zero dress. It's about how well your organs function, actions you're able or unable to perform, and how you feel. If you feel lousy all day everyday then you're probably not very healthy.

If you've used extreme dieting to strip so much fat and muscle from your body that you can't climb flights of stairs, then what has your thinness gained you? You may look good on the outside but what's happening inside? Health is more than looks.

I see this is a lot of women here in Taiwan that want to lose weight. They eat like birds and lose what very little muscle they have in the first place along with the fat they're carrying. Then their legs start bowing in at the knees because of muscle imbalances. They can't maintain good posture because they don't have enough upper body muscle to hold the bones in place. But hey, they're thin and that's all that counts, right? Let me know how having osteoperosis when you get older feels.

Second, going to the gym will NOT solve your fitness problems. I've worked out at gyms for a long time. What do many people do when they go to they gym? Read the newspaper, talk to their friends, watch the walls of TVs that are now in almost every gym. Folks, you can do that at home! Fitness problems are surmounted through effort. That means intensity. Work hard and work smart. Don't waste your time at the gym doing things you could be doing at home. And please, if you don't go to the gym to WORK then don't sit on the equipment I want to use!

Third, running on the treadmill is one of the worst exercises you can do. Walking on the treadmill is even worse. Why do people do this? If you want to walk or run then GO OUTSIDE. Walking and running are basic actions. Everyone needs to be able to do them. And they are the cheapest exercises you can get. Just tie your shoes and step outside. Why would you get a gym membership or buy one of these things to do what you can do for free outside?

But go to a commercial gym and what do you see? People walking on walls of treadmills with their eyes glued to the TV. Look at those people a year from now and you'll see they haven't changed a bit. Why?

Becuase treadmills do almost nothing for you. The machine does the work! The motor moves the belt you walk/run on, meaning the only work you do is to pick up your foot and move it forward. The machine moves it back. Half the exercise is gone!

Save yourself a ton of money buy getting a good pair of shoes and make walking for 30-45 minutes a day part of your life. You'll benefit so much more than using a worthless treadmill!

Finally, using heavier weights will not automatically make a woman get big muscles! I see this all the time. The problem is that people just don't know. They seem to think that gaining muscle is just so easy to do. Apparently all you have to do to become a top female bodybuilder is pick up a heavy weight a few times and the muscles just pop out. It's no where near that simple.

Female bodybuilders are often freaks of nature. They tend to have much more testosterone than normal women. The sport self-selects for that. You must have the genetics to get like that. 99.9% of women do not have those genetics. Female bodybuilders also must work out hard and heavy for years to gain that muscle. It doesn't happen quickly, even for them. Finally, almost all of them are on drugs to make them that big. Even with genetics and good training, most of those physiques are aquired through drug enhancement. Women's bodies just can't pack on the mass like men because they lack enough testosterone. In short, if you're a woman, you're not going to look like them because you lift heavier weights.

Again in terms of fitness, results often come from intensity and that means not curling 5lbs. dumbbells 1000's of times. That's not intensity. This applies even to fat loss.

The main problem is that most people just don't know how to work out. I see it all the time. I hand a dummbell or kettlebell to someone and what do they do with it? A squat? A deadlift? An overhead press? Never. They do a bicep curl instead. How many bicep curls do you have to do with 5lbs. dumbbells to lose weight? A ton.

Bicep curls are what people know so it's what they do. Hand a woman who's used to working out ilke that a heavier weight and she won't likely want to use it because it'll make her biceps bigger. The answer is simple: stop doing bicep curls!

Use heavier weights to work compound joint exercises like deadlifts, squats, etc. and the weight will come off as you build muscles you can actually use. Carrying your child or groceries home from the store will become easier and you fight osteoperosis to boot. You take a lot less time to work out using heavier weights because of the intensity, burn more calories because of the heavier weight, and build good posture because you're working major muscle groups instead of smaller muscle groups like biceps.

Ladies, if you want your chest to look bigger then working the chest and back with heavier weights can help (if you have a good program with good exercise form) because it improves your posture by pulling your shoulders back and opening the chest. As your posture improves, your bustline looks bigger. But working out with 5lbs. dummbells or water bottle isn't going to cut it.

Cindy

5 pullups

10 push ups

15 bodyweight squats

Today: 18 reps of the circuit in 20 minutes. Three more than last time!

So after I did Cindy the last time, I wanted to know how I did so I searched and saw that my results were not bad. The best I saw was 20 reps of the circuit in 20 minutes. How he did it was to do 1 rep of the circuit every minute for 20 minutes. I wanted to see if i could do that today, and while I didn't reach that, I did much better.

Pullups total: 90

Pushups total: 180

Squats total: 270

Not bad at all for 20 minutes work!

I found this tempo to be even harder because I had to keep the pace. And I did more work this time, obviously. I paid more attention to form but my form started breaking down on the pullups at around the 9th rep. The pushups stayed fairly strong till the end. I took a one minute rest break around the 10 rep and another 30 break near the 14th rep of the circuit.

I found that I did one rep of the circuit in about 45 seconds, leaving 15 seconds for rest. This was nice and allowed me to keep the reps cleaner.

Part of my interest in this is to see how much volume of work I can pack into short workouts. As a trainer, I want to see how much busy people can get done in a short amount of time. More work volume, more calories burned. Personally, I'm very much into efficiency. I work out long and hard sometimes, but I also like to have very intense, short workouts.

I hope that you're learning along with me. This is stuff that you can use to increase your workout intensity, boost your number of pushups, burn more calories, etc.

The factory has informed me that my kettlebells will be done next week and then they will ship them. Won't be long now! Over 100 kettlebells on their way to Taiwan.

In other news, Cindy and tons of kettlebell work tore me up this week. I had three heavy kettlebell workouts this week plus doing Cindy on Tuesday. Hard week for sure. But I'm growing, boy am I growing. I'm also trying to add a second session of cardio in the morning, every morning. Haven't set that up fully yet.

The problem is SAID -- specific adaptation to implied demands. In other words, no matter what you throw at your body, you'll adapt to it eventually. I hit a small plateau with my training and had to kick start with by tweaking my program, both in terms of exercise and nutrition. But I'm back on track now.

Here's another acronym that is important to the discussion -- EPOC, excess post-exercise oxygen consumption. The idea is a bit complex but it basically means burning extra calories AFTER you finish exercise. According the NASM protocols I'm getting certified in, the best way to take advantage of EPOC is working out twice a day. Hence the extra cardio. Plus it's easier for me to do two shorter one-hour sessions and maintain energy levels rather than one two-hour session. Try it out if you want to maximize calorie burn.

Don't tell my wife. Haha. Actually, her English name is Cindy so she wouldn't mind. But I'm referring to the Crossfit workout by the name of Cindy:

5 pullups

10 pushups

15 bodyweight squats

As many reps of this circuit as you can do in 20 minutes.

Yesterday was the first time I did this workout and I'm proud to say that I made it the whole time with no rest breaks. I did 15 reps of the circuit: 75 pullups, 150 pushups, and 225 squats. My form was pretty good except I started losing the form on the pullups at around 11-12th round, pushups I lost it near 14, and squats were consistent. From now on, I'll work on making form better and going faster.

BTW, the video shows kipping pullups but I recommend that you keep strict form. I don't care for Crossfit "slop" as it's called. Don't just focus on sloppy reps done at speed. Get all you can out of the reps!

I fell in love with this workout for many reasons.

First, I love bodyweight training and circuits in general so i was predisposed to like this one.

Second, I've never in my life done so many pullups in one workout and this one got me to do 75 in 20 minutes!! I've been wanting to improve my pullups but I've been stagnating with sets. Cindy got me to do much more with better form than ever before.

Third, it breathed new life in pushups and squats, which I rarely do any more because I find them boring. When I can do high reps of an exercise, I move on to something else because doing long sets of squats, for example, is boring. But I never really felt that I had mastered the pushup and squat in the ways that I wanted to. I think Cindy can get me where I want to be.

Fourth, that's a tremendous volume of work in a very short aqmount of time.

I think Cindy's a keeper for my Tuesday and Thursday workout. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Short on time these days so here's a quick post of the workout I did yesterday.

100 jumps on the rope

pullups

100 jumps

dips

100 jumps

stability ball crunches (strict form)

100 jumps

20kg kettlebell front squats

Then start again at the beginning! No rest!

I did three sets of this circuit in 30 minutes. I managed to do 1200 jumps, 48 pullups, 58 dips, 70 crunches, and 100 squats. 

I did no rest whatsoever in this workout. You move from one exercise directly to the next and then repeat the circuit. It was a solid 30 minute of movement. The jumprope acts as an active rest between the more strenuous exercises.

I'll tell you, a lot of people don't do this much work in two sessions at the gym let alone in 30 minutes. Do something like this 3 times a week and you won't need much else.

他是Steve Cotter. 真的很厲害. 他在做伏虎功,這個運動從神龍唐手道來的.神龍唐手道是很厲害的台灣功夫.是洪懿祥

跟許鴻基

造成的運動.