Thanks to all of you for allowing me to “vent” my fustrations as I see more and more people set up for fat loss failure and or injury.  As a follow up to yesterday’s post, as promised, I am going to talk about what to do to combat over aggressive short term fat loss programs. 

In order to set yourself up for success you need to have a workout program that is designed to coincide with the long term strategy you are developing.  This will guarantee your fat loss will happen as quickly as possible – and stay off!

Make sure your workouts are F-R-E-E

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The Biggest Loser and all the contests that have spawned off the popular “reality” show at your local gym have placed people who are desperate for fat loss in a very bad situation.  Fat Loss at all costs, training for symptoms and dieting/exercise extremism can cause injury while confusing people into believing that what they always hated about exercise still reigns true.

Long, boring and ineffective cardio.

Working to absolute exhaustion during every workout.

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This month I chose 4 exercises that are complex in nature, as I usually do, to maximize your opportunity to burn more Calories in less time.  Complex does not mean complicated.  In layman’s terms it describes a movement that requires several groups of muscles to work at the same time.

This months exercises for the 10 Minute Whole Body Workout:

1. Standing Chest Press

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The day I left for a conference in Stamford, Connecticut I felt like I barely had time to brush my teeth let alone get a workout in.  I knew I had to move because I was about to sit on a train for 3 hours to essentially sit on my butt for the better part of two straight days.

Which I did.

I was stressed out, due not having to travel much since our boys came into the world, and I felt like a fish out of water as I packed at 4:30 am before I hit the road for my first client of the day.  I must have checked my bags 20 times and still managed to panic half way to my clients house because I couldn’t remember where I put my train tickets.

Well – let’s just say they were right where I put them…in my bag!

While at my friend Gil Cohen’s Personal Training studio I forced myself to get one last workout in before I left knowing I would feel better after.

The entire workout took me 10 minutes and 13 seconds and here is what I did:

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This is a common place to end up, usually a few months after starting a new exercise routine. At first your body responds to your routine in lost pounds and gained muscle tone, then one day your results screech to a stop.

What happened? And, more importantly, what can you do about it?

You may have heard the saying, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best idea is to get off.” This is the perfect analogy for your stale workout routine.

• The problem: Your body has adapted to your routine. Let’s face it, when you can do your workout routine in your sleep it’s time for something new.
• The Solution: It’s time to shake things up, and to apply the concept of muscle confusion.

Muscle confusion means that you keep your body guessing by changing your routine. The following are great ways to do just that:

1. Exercises: When you know that your routine has lost its effectiveness the first obvious thing to change are the actual exercises. It is important to include every major muscle group in your routine, so be sure to exchange each exercise for one that works the same muscle group.
2. Resistance: Do you find yourself always reaching for the same dumbbells or placing the pin in the same notch of the weight stack? Change your weight as well as the number of repetitions performed. If you normally do 12-15 repetitions then increase the weight and do 6-8. The key is to challenge your muscles in a new way.
3. Mode: There are so many different styles of exercise out there—don’t limit your routine to just one type. If you love working with dumbbells but your routine has fallen flat, put them aside and try something new. A little creativity can really jump start your progress.
4. Style: So often the training style that we are first taught sticks with us forever. For you this may be the style of doing one set, taking a rest period, and then doing another set. Or maybe you have caught on to the circuit training style that keeps your heart rate elevated throughout the routine. Whatever your chosen style, be sure to change it once your routine ceases to produce results.

Now, don’t worry, this doesn’t mean that you need a brand new workout every day of the week. In fact, your body will take some time to adjust to each new workout, so it should be done for the appropriate amount of time before results start to slack off.

What is that ‘sweet spot’ of time that each new routine should be used before moving on to the next? Well, the answer to that question is as unique as each person reading this.

For some this will mean a new routine every 3 weeks, and for others it will mean a new routine every 8 weeks. Typically the fitter you are the quicker your body will adapt to each new routine.

Muscle confusion plays a big part of the programs that I provide for my clients and it’s one of the little secrets I use to deliver fast results.

Remember there is muscle confusion built in to all of my programs and workouts on www.homeofficeworkouts.com.

Get confused.  Mix it up.  Win.

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com
www.homeofficeworkouts.net

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When designing your workout program try thinking about things from a different perspective.  The days of split routines and isolation exercises have long since past outside of the realm of bodybuilding and/or specific weakness in a particular muscle group that is causing other issues ie., injury.

Training individual body parts is a time consuming and ineffective fitness model for fat loss.  Split routines are very inefficient and many times the root of common repetitive motion injuries.  Here is a short list reasons a split routine is not the best option for fat loss.

• Less effect on EPOC (Excess Post Exercise Oxygen Consumption)
• Less overall Calorie burn during the workout
• Lends itself to inconsistency
• Time Consuming
• Repetitive Motion injuries due to overtraining and emphasis on one muscle group
• Encourages isolation of muscle groups when performing a complex movement in life
• Neuro-muscular confusion as to role play within a particular movement (the wrong muscles are taking over during a movement or exercise)

To train effectively and efficiently shift your thinking to the following movements and then perform movements that produce them.

1. Up and down
2. Push and Pull 
3. Bend and Twist
4. Ambulate (move forward, back, side to side etc.)

These are, in a nut shell, how we move.  We get up and down; we push things away or pull them to us; we bend and twist and we move by walking, running, etc.  Setting up your workout like this can result in the following 4 exercises:

1. Squats
2. Push ups
3. Sit ups
4. Walk or run

Or

1. Lunges
2. Rows
3. V – sits
4. Side shuffle

The combinations are endless and to be more efficient you can combine two or more movement patterns like a lunge walk or a medicine ball squat and press.

Whether you perform the exercises as a circuit (which I highly recommend) or as individual sets with rest in between them – you will burn more calories as you utilize more muscle groups.  You also don’t have to worry about missing a workout as you would with a split routine.  When you miss a day with a split routine, and that day turns into more of a week – those particular muscle groups have not been worked in quite some time.  If you miss a week training the way I have described you know you have still exercised every muscle group in the previous week. 

Consistency is your biggest advocate…especially over the long run and training movements instead of muscles gives you the BEST chance to do that.

Train movements.  Train hard.  Win.

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com

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Have you been feeling discomfort in your shoulder.

Did you hurt your shoulder doing overheads or bench press?

So many of us are trying to work around, over, under or through
some sort of ache or pain so it does not limit our workout efforts.

By no means do I encourage anyone to “grin and bear it”, continuing to
push throught the pain as to not miss a shoulder workout.

If you have had persistent or consistent pain in any joint or muscle you
should have it evaluated by a medical professional.

Grip strength is a vital component to any well designed program and it is
not always so obvious how easy it is to implement it into your plan.

In fact we now know that when you grip a bar or dumbbell TIGHTLY prior to beginning an exercise it sends a message to your rotator cuff (amongst other areas) to contract.  When this
happens your rotator cuff takes on the roll of stabilizing and preparing the shoulder joint
to take action.

Some prominent and progressive physical therapist are actually using grip strength to rehab
rotator cuff injuries instead of the old protocols of internal and external rotation, etc.

The thought sometimes is when trying to isolate certain muscle groups ie., anterior and middle delts
with a dumbbell overhead press, we grip lightly as to take the tension out of other muscles.
However this is the opposite of what we want to do.

I guarantee if you grip harder you will lift more and without discomfort.  I had a chronic left shoulder
impingement issue and after only a few weeks of gripping hard it got much better and now I am at the point
that it simply is not an issue.

Here are some easy ways to increase grip strength and improve shoulder health.

1.  Grip tightly even with light weights for ANY gripping activity.
2.  Do pull ups
3.  Do farmers walks
4.  Do deadlifts
5.  Use ropes, towels and wider bars for your workouts.

Be patient as this might not be the overnight solution you are looking for depending on the
condition of your shoulder.  I can tell you my clients have commented on a huge difference from one
set to another just by changing the tightness of their grip.

Get a grip.  Workout.  Win.

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com

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So many times in the past I have written about the virtues of being consistent the entire year – allowing you to not worry about your workouts while you are on vacation.

I am not contradicting myself with this post. 

I, like so many other fitness nuts, couldn’t help it.  Call it a sickness if you like…this workout was awesome.  I don’t know how much time it took me but I can tell you I felt like a million bucks afterward.

So here it is:

1. Lungewalk the dock (10 steps out/10 back)
2. Pushups (10 reps)
3. Swim 25 strokes out/25 strokes back – obviously
4. Inch worms length of the dock

6 rounds for time.

Not having the opportunity or the desire to swim much this summer…wow!

Even better – about midway through my 5th set the skies opened and it down poured rain!

Vacation fun.  Workout.  Win

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com

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Squat and walk your way to a great workout.  Leaving for vacation I wanted to get in my whole body just one more time.  I am looking forward to a week off from my workouts to enjoy water skiing, swimming and “hanging out” with my wife Andrea and my two boys Trevor and Andrew.

Here is the workout:

1. Front Squats – 10 Reps
2. Farmers Walk – to failure

6 rounds of this left me absolutley exhausted!

This was my first weighted squat since my knee surgery in March so I went a bit light at 95 pounds for the front squats.  The farmers walk I used 100 pound dumbbells.  Take the least amount of rest between sets as you can (even though your going heavy).

Enjoy this workout and enjoy your next week!

Go heavy.  Walk heavy.  Win.

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com

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As the month comes to a close I wanted to pick up the pace, so to speak, and really crank up some intense workouts.  This one fits the bill!  Hold on to your shoes.

As I have mentioned I am no speed demon but I am going to let you in on what I did for weight, reps and time to give you a bench mark, good or bad.  For me this workout was 20 minutes and 11 seconds of pure intensity!

1. Run 1/4 mile (.25 on a treadmill, one lap on a track)
2. Pull ups to failure
3. Incline bench with dumbbells at a slight incline (maybe 10-15%) to fail.

Here’s my humble stats:

1. 1:48 to 2:10 splits on the 1/4 miles
2. 16, 14, 13, 10 reps on pull ups
3. 12, 11, 10, 8 reps on the dumbbell bench press with 60 pounds and a neutral grip (palms facing each other)

In total this workout took just over 20 minutes and was I glad to be done! 

Do I have to mention it burned tons of calories?

Just did!

Win.  Just win.

Dave
www.homeofficeworkouts.com

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