Entries Tagged 'Injuries' ↓

I can hardly believe its been 3 months since my first post about the Colorado Experiment - but its true!

Thanks for all the emails & comments I’ve received badgering me to add a status report… I needed it!

Ok… So, how did it all go?

In my original post I said that the first few sessions made my muscles the sorest they’ve been for a long time. This effect didn’t last very long. Our routine only had us hitting the gym 2 times a week (because I’ve got a raging fast metabolism and that Colorado experiment guidelines say to keep the frequency low), but even though we were pushing ourselves hard, we quickly adapted & muscle soreness returned to the usual I get the day after a workout.

The best result from the Colorado Experiment so far is the improvement I’ve had in aches & pains… I’ve had a niggling neck injury that I suffered doing pull ups years ago, and it usually protests day in day out, and feels worse when I push hard at the gym.

The Colorado Experiment style workout we’ve been doing has seemed to really improve that injury. Some of you might have it yourselves - when its at its worst, it hurts to look left and right, and you look like you’re walking around with a neck brace on.

After about 2 months of Colorado workouts, my neck on a day to day basis is feeling better than it ever has since I injured it. Most noticably, I don’t feel a constant pain and ache after a day working in front of the computer, and my neck also feels BETTER after a day at the gym.

In fact, one thing that kept me going back to the gym regularly was when my neck started to get a dull ache again - it was like a reminder, “Hey Jon, get back to the gym you lazy so & so, I hurt!”

The routine we were doing was simple - start out with the exercise I needed the most (because I believe my body produces better results on muscles I work first) and finish with the exercise I needed the least (definitely chest!).

Each exercise was a large muscle group, and each session included every major muscle group, so it was certainly a “whole body” work out.

For me, I started with cable rows. Like I said, I’ve got a bung neck, and feel that the stronger my back is, the better I’ll cope with my day to day hunching over a computer. So one BIG, full on set of back was performed (after a good warm up of course), following the parameters of a Colorado style workout… 5 seconds concentric, 5 seconds eccentric. Each workout after each full body routine was complete usually took around 45 minutes (1 min rest between sets).

And just for the sake of completion, I’d vary my workouts. So one day I’d do bench for chest. One day flys. One day I’d do cable rows for back, the next I’d do upright rows. The only thing I didn’t vary much was pull ups, which I do on an assisted weight machine to offset any chance of hurting my neck again.

We followed most of the parameters of the Colorado experiment, but like I said in my first post, we didn’t use nautilus machines.

Any other results? Are you HUGE?

No… sorry… I’m not now 10 pounds of muscle heavier after 3 months… I’m the same weight.

HOWEVER, I’m not eating to bulk right now… When I get a more convenient gym, I will absolutely let everyone know how I go with this routine while I try & bulk.

Got any questions? Have you tried a Colorado style routine? Just punch in your details below & let us all know how you went.

Cheers!

Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t want to go to the gym, I hate looking at myself in all the mirrors” or, “I hate the gym and all the losers checking themselves out in the mirror.” I have, plenty of times. Both of these can certainly be valid concerns, and are without doubt held by a lot of people. You may feel uncomfortable looking in the mirror at the gym, or perhaps you’re a little overweight & it makes you feel self conscious. Fair enough. I can let that slide as we’re all human and by nature we avoid things that make us uncomfortable.

However, what I won’t let slide is the gym’s that are popping up promoting the fact they’re mirror free. I believe this shows two things… One- The owner’s know how to listen to people’s fears. No worries, that’s ok. But more importantly, it shows a lack of care, expertise, and a lack of brains. A lack of care because mirrors are not there for huge muscle bound guys and girls to show off and act like clowns or indulge their ego. And a lack of expertise because they should be well aware of that fact.

What are mirrors there for then? Despite your hatred of gym mirrors, they are useful, and they should be required pieces of equipment because it increases gym safety by allowing gym-goers to practice better form. Not to mention bodybuilders are actually sports people too. Mirrors are required to perfect poses they use in competition, and despite their professionalism body builders also need mirrors to perfect their form and remain uninjured.

There’s no troubles if your gym contains machines only… the machine will dictate what form you use, but if your gym has free weights (as good gyms do), you need mirrors where you can monitor your form, and reduce your risk of injury.

To get over your fear of mirrors, I can suggest a few things:

• Just face it. Fear has been called “False Evidence Appearing Real”. Get out in front of that mirror, amongst the big guys (if there are any), and just get on with it. Facing your fear is the best and perhaps only way to conquer it. You might even find out that they’re not all a bunch of idiot meat heads after all (but some inevitably will be- welcome to humanity).
• Go gym shopping for a few months. Most gyms will offer you a week or two of free membership so you can try it out before committing. Use this to your advantage and find a gym that isn’t full of massive steroid pumping guys and make it your home. The only problem with this idea is that “meat heads” as we stereotypically call them, seek out well equipped gyms, therefore we can pretty accurately assume something is wrong with the gym if there’s no “meat heads” in sight.
• You may be able to avoid the meat head and bicep ogling population by choosing different times of day. Experiment.
• If you’re a female, and you’re more concerned about being the only gal amongst a bunch of testosterone jacked guys with no other eye candy in sight, join a female only gym, or hunt for a gym with a female gym-going population. They do exist. Or see option 1. Face your fear.
• The last & worst option is- don’t work out at a gym with mirrors. Just do like everyone else does and do steady state cardio for an hour, and then wonder why your weight fluctuates so much and you don’t permanently keep it off. See what I’m ranting about, here.

I hope you enjoyed today’s soap box. And I hope you find it useful. Remember, while I like to say everything you do should be based in having a bit of fun, avoiding the mirror may sabotage you in more ways than one.

If you’re one of the many, many people out there that struggle to remember how to perform particular exercises, or how to execute common weight training movements, then check out the fantastic and free website from The Training Station Inc.

You’ll find over one-hundred animated figures that quickly give you a no-nonsense and surprisingly accurate idea of how to perform a range of exercises. For example, the dumbbell pullover animation correctly shows that you need to keep the dumbbell level with your head, and keep your elbows bent.

Clearly, if you still aren’t sure on what you should be doing after watching these animations, ask your personal trainer… If you’ve found a good one that is! If you haven’t, maybe you should see my previous article on the subject.

Otherwise, check out arguably the best book available on performing exercises with perfect form: Strength Training Anatomy, by Frederick Delavier. It’ll show you exactly how to perform the core movement to avoid injury, as well as exactly what muscles you’re activating. If you’d also like to incorporate variation into your movements to shock, confuse & abuse your body into losing fat or gaining muscle, Fred’s book will show you how.

I’ve used this book for years and can personally attest to how valuable it can be when it comes to designing your own programs, or rechecking that the technique you’ve settled into is in fact the correct, safe technique!

Avoiding bad personal trainers is key to your health, and your future as a fit, healthy human being in control of your body. I count very few people I know who see a personal trainer regularly. Why? Because they aren’t educated on what makes a personal trainer great, and because there aren’t many great personal trainers out there!

The main problem though, is education. How do you suppose you’ll choose a personal trainer who is interested in not only making you fit, but ensuring that you stay healthy and stay injury free, without knowing what to avoid when you’re shopping for one?

Our health is without question our most valuable thing we own. Even if you’re a billionaire, you’re not going to be enjoying your wealth if you have agonizing neck or lower back pain… which is why I believe we all need to educate ourselves to a basic level on what to avoid, and what to know when looking for a personal trainer.

Firstly, I believe the most important trait when choosing a personal trainer is their passion for training. Not how they jump up and down and smile the most, but how passionate they are about making people fit and healthy. Ask them, “Why do you like personal training?” On some level they should give you a response which involves helping people, but you need to go a little deeper…

If they’re passionate, wouldn’t you think they also seek to educate themselves to the utmost, in order to meet their claims about helping people? After all, how committed would you say a trainer is who did an online course, and hasn’t read anything else about training methods since they completed the course last year… or at the end of the last century?

You need to, for your own sake, ask them where and how they keep their knowledge up to date. Do they subscribe to industry journals? Do they consume books written by experts every month? Do they go to seminars or consume information regarding cutting edge techniques? Even Joe Lunchbox can accumulate a better understanding of training principles than most trainers by reading a book written by an expert in exercise every month, so why isn’t your trainer updating & expanding their knowledge too?

This personal trainer you hire is putting your body at risk, for probably less than $50 an hour. Think about that. You can’t put a price on your health.

There’s a bunch of other ways you can avoid hiring a bad personal trainer, but I believe that just by interrogating your trainer (in a friendly way of course!), you’ll be able to work out if they want to train people because they’re passionate about it, or because it gives them spare change to go out and get drunk on the weekend.

Here’s a few other ways you can tell your trainer is as useless as a bicep curl in a squat rack:

• You aren’t given a detailed screening upon seeing your trainer, including but certainly not limited to- your exercise history, your injury history, your goals, and any health risks you have.
• They make you do cardio during their personal training session. Unless its a special kind of cardio, like High Intensity Interval Training… they’re wasting your money and your time.
• Your trainer doesn’t track your progress, or worse, doesn’t show YOU how to track your OWN progress.
• Your trainer doesn’t bother changing your exercise program. Bring on the end of your exercise program due to a massive boredom attack. Exercise needs to be fun.
• Your trainer doesn’t explain why you’re doing particular exercises. I’ve always believed a good personal trainer’s end goal should be to “eliminate” their clients, one by one, by educating them properly about how to train optimally, and how to nourish themselves with proper food.
• Which leads me to my next tip. Is your trainer teaching you about food? How do you expect to lose weight when the advice you get is, “eat healthy”. A good trainer should offer to come to your house & raid your fridge & cupboards, and go shopping with you. A good client (i.e. you) should be prepared to pay for this vital service.
• Your trainer watches and chats up the hot guys & girls on the treadmill while they assign you half an hour of cardio.
• Your trainer is overweight, dangerously underweight (and they aren’t marathon runners) or you catch them smoking in the car park. Do they look the part? Why not? Is it because they really aren’t that passionate about it at all?
• Your perfectly good question (I’m 99.9% sure it was a good question) is handled by your idiot personal trainer with the response, “ah, don’t worry about that”. Again, we need to find a great trainer who wants to see us go one day, because we don’t need them anymore! Don’t worry… these highly evolved individuals almost always have more clients than they can handle, because they get lots of happy customers giving referrals.
• Your trainer (again with the education I know!) doesn’t make a point of getting back to you if they don’t know the answer to your questions. Or better yet, they don’t know and make up an answer. You get suspicious- and your google search reveals they were wrong. Avoid this trainer like the plague, their ego is getting in the way of your progress, and it might end up hurting you. Permanently.
• Your trainer never goes near the free weights, and just assigns you to the machines. You know, the ones with detailed pictures & instructions written on them already… that you can read… without your useless personal trainer. Free weights have many, many, benefits over machines that you can find googling “free weights vs machines”.
• Your trainer has you work all the ’show’ muscles, and never any of the ‘go’ muscles. What are show muscles you ask? The beach muscles- arms, chest, abs. The go muscles? They’re the ones that stop you from becoming unbalanced and injured- back, legs, buttocks, postural muscles.

If your personal trainer avoids my list of shame above, they might actually be one of the good ones. But as I say, we want education for you, and education and passion from your personal trainer. Without both, you’re bound to progress slower, or worse, hurt yourself unnecessarily.

The perfect body and fantastic health could be yours if only you knew how not to start an exercise program. Think about how many times you’ve started an exercise program only to stop shortly after. People start exercise programs every day, but can you stick with it?

If you want to beat off members of the opposite sex like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s baby will have to, a few key principles will stop you bailing out like an overweight skydiver, keen to plummet to earth to devour a box of sweet, tasty donuts.

If you want to fail, make the following mistakes:

• Always exercise alone
• Keep your weight loss goals a big secret
• Follow every starvation diet plan you read about
• Stay away from fresh fruit and vegetables, they give you gas anyway. And we’d rather never get gas than be skinny, right?
• Run run for hours on the treadmill alongside all the skinny 18 year old girls who’s metabolisms haven’t caught up with them yet (guys, maybe forget this point).
• Choose an exercise plan, and
  • change that plan every week to something completely different (you can’t track your progress)
  • don’t tweak the plan sufficiently to keep you interested
• Choose an exercise plan that you have no interest in; for me, thats the “treadmill only” plan
• Choose an exercise plan written by a body building magazine, even though you’re a total beginner
• Choose an exercise plan that you can’t have fun with. I.e. you love exercising with your dog, but you choose to workout in a commercial gym- and your dog isn’t for your blindness
• Start a new program and give it 1000% You’ll get injured, and then you’ll gain weight. Why did you start this exercise program in the first place…?
• Start a new program and be scared to try new things, and don’t give it your best shot. Just read my 1000% percent comment again though, please?
• Do exactly what you did last time you started, and then gave up on, an exercise program. Learn from your mistakes, okay?
• Start exercising without even considering seeing your doctor. From www.fitness.gov:

If you’re under 35 and in good health, you don’t need to see a doctor before beginning an exercise program. But if you are over 35 and have been inactive for several years, you should consult your physician.

• Plan, and plan, and plan, and then research… and research some more, and then forget you need to start some day. Its called the, “Ready, aim, aim, aim… aim… now your old and fat” approach. Summon the courage to start, then build upon your experience. This plan is called the “Ready, Fire, Aim” approach. It’s my favorite. Again, remember my doctor point, above.
• Take crazy full on weight loss products that do terrible things to your body. Forget stuff that’s good for you and helps you look good- you know; like fish oil, green tea, and multivitamins. Unless you’re a painter at heart, I’d stay away from drugs that stop your body absorbing fat. You get the picture.
• Never record or measure anything. Just because “some guy your friend knows” is ripped (read low body fat) from going to the gym twice a week, or as I alluded to earlier, just because the 18 year old skinny girls at the gym are only ever on the treadmill, doesn’t mean those methods are the best for you. Make meaningful long term efforts and record your progress.
• Don’t make yourself accountable by using social networking sites like my friend at “The Fit Blog” suggests. Failing to keep up with your promises to those new friends is a great motivator.
• Forget the latest weight loss craze of using video games to lose weight. Think of it this way: it’s a bit like getting into a car crash in that you don’t really see it coming, and then BAM! You’re losing weight and enjoying yourself. Plenty of people around the world are losing weight (or at least slowing the speed of weight gain) accidentally every time they play games. Why not use that? Fun while you exercise is key for motivation.
• Never think of starting a new sport, or getting back into the old sports you played in school, you’d suck now and make a total fool of yourself. Wrong. Look for social sport listings in the paper, or in local take-aways and laundromats everywhere- there’s sports available for all skill levels.

Don’t let that little voice in your head make up excuses, start a new exercise program today, and follow my advice. I think you’ll do great.

Enjoy.