Monday, April 19, 2010

Above Exercise: Beyond what you see

Besides the obvious enormous rumps.

If you take the time to look at a person's words, actions, and personality in their approach to exercise, you can learn a lot. Some details are universal, some vary across the board.

What have I come across? How about:
  • People feel uncomfortable when they exercise. They need to start with the little things before moving on to bigger changes.
  • The same feeling is met when they have to trust someone - a personal trainer for example - and even more so when having to try new exercises, which forces them out of their comfort zone. Anxiety is normal, but it shouldn't control everything. If fear was the dominant feeling, how much would a person miss out on in life?
  • When they do take action immediate gratification is expected, or at least sooner than is realistic. Results are seen after persistent and consistent actions have been done.
  • Trust and results are hard to create when there are preconceived notions already established in the mind. Knock'em down and move onward. You'll be surprised at what you'll learn and experience in the process.
  • What amount of effort is a person willing to put in? Will they be attentive and listen? Will they ask questions out of curiosity rather than suspicion? Are they willing to learn more to understand why they're doing what they do?
These are all important aspects to consider. Why though?

It's a waste of time otherwise. It's a pursuit for failure.

Exercising is more than moving around to accomplish a goal. The goal is only achievable if there are no barriers in front of it.

It's above and beyond what you do in the gym.

Think first, move later.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Card Counting for Balanced Program Design

"How do I count cards Niel?
I need mad munnayz!"

A few weeks ago the power at our apartment building was out and my roommate showed us the gist of card counting. Yes, we were that bored.

Unfortunately I don't recall much of it, but I did get something out from it.

There's a certain strategy involved in card counting where point values are assigned to each group of cards. I loosely based this system off it and applied it to identifying imbalances in weight training programs. The total points in the end show if there's too much of one type of movement in the program.

My first - and only - application of it was to someone asking over at the Precision Nutrition
forums if the program they had was balanced. So for the rest of the post I'm going to simply insert my reply to their question.

Before jumping into the reply, here are some clarifications on terminology:
  • Hip-dominant means it primarily engages the hamstrings & glutes while knee-dominant exercises target the quadriceps.
  • Vertical and horizontal press/pull means how the weight is moving in relation to your body. Typically horizontal movements are moving almost perpendicularly towards or away from your torso - like bench press or seated row. Vertical movements are done in an up-down fashion in relation to your body (think pull-up or overhead press).
  • Press and push are synonymous with one another in case you see push being used somewhere else.
  • You can find out whether an exercise is a push or pull here.
Enjoy!
---------
The question was:
I am considering changing up my exercises a bit. I will stick with the basics of a 5x5 template. I just want someone with more experience than me to confirm that I am going to stay balanced (push vs. pull). Does this look good?


DAY 1

M: BACK SQUAT

M: BENCH PRESS

M: BENT ROW

A: WEIGHTED PUSHUP

A: TRAP BAR SHRUG

A: TRICEP EXTENSION


DAY 2

M: DEADLIFT

M: OH PRESS

M: PULL-UP

A: DB BENCH

A: GOODMORNING

A: BICEP CURLS


DAY 3

M: TRAP BAR DEADLIFT

M: DIP

M: DB ROW

A: DB BENCH

A: CHAIN ROW (FEET ELEVATED)

A: UPIGHT ROW


M = MAIN LIFT (HEAVIER)

A = ACCESSORY LIFT (LIGHTER)


Most likely go 3 weeks or so with 5x5 on main lifts with 2x10 on accessories. Then switch to 3x10 on main lifts with 1x15 on the accessory lifts. Every couple of cycles I will probably move some of the accessory lifts to main lifts and vice versa.
I replied:
From my understanding it looks like this:

DAY 1
M: Knee-dominant w/ vertical press
M: Horizontal press
M: Horizontal pull
A: Horizontal press
A: Vertical pull
A: Vertical press

DAY 2
M: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull
M: Vertical press
M: Vertical pull
A: Horizontal press
A: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull
A: Vertical pull

DAY 3
M: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull
M: Horizontal press (if you're leaning in)
M: Horizontal pull
A: Horizontal press
A: Horizontal pull
A: Vertical pull

So to look for balance, we're checking between hip- & knee-dominant exercises and opposing upper-body movements (vertical press/pull or horizontal press/pull).

A trick to check for balance is to assign a +1 or -1 to movements. Assign +1 to knee-dominant, vertical press, & horizontal press exercises and -1 for hip-dominant, vertical pull, & horizontal pull for the rest. In the end, a total of 0 would mean balance.

DAY 1
M: Knee-dominant w/ vertical press [+1/+1]
M: Horizontal press [+1]
M: Horizontal pull [-1]
A: Horizontal press [+1]
A: Vertical pull [-1]
A: Vertical press [+1]

DAY 2
M: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull [-1/-1]
M: Vertical press [+1]
M: Vertical pull [-1]
A: Horizontal press [+1]
A: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull [-1]
A: Vertical pull [-1]

DAY 3
M: Hip-dominant w/ horizontal pull [-1/-1]
M: Horizontal press (if you're leaning in) [+1]
M: Horizontal pull [-1]
A: Horizontal press [+1]
A: Horizontal pull [-1]
A: Vertical pull [-1]

Totals:
Knee-dominant (+1) + (-3) Hip-dominant = -2
Horizontal press (+5) + (-6) horizontal pull = -1
Vertical press (+3) + (-5) vertical pull = -2

Now while this may seem unbalanced, it might not be. If you have a weak posterior chain and spend a great deal of time sitting throughout the day (i.e., desk job or student), then having more horizontal rows and hip-dominance in the program is beneficial to counter those negative postures and weaknesses.

Of course this doesn't account for exercise selection and volume, but it gives you an idea of how to assess your program.

Best of luck!

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