Intensity, every rep counts!

This is going to be a short blog post, but this is a crucial thing to remember, and to start practicing. Firstly, from looking at how a lot of people train: reading while on the stepper, talking with a mate while doing some bicep curls, almost falling a sleep on the bench press between sets, or just sitting in the leg-press pushing out some easy reps, then  it's not really hard to figure out why people tend to really over complicate their training programs, by putting in far too many exercises, in hope of getting better results.

The problem is, they don't put enough effort and intensity in the lifts that actually matter. I have to say, specially girls have a problem here. It should be mentioned that girls have the ability to recover faster after a set than us guys, and they are usually "good to go" again quickly, but being apparently unaffected after 5 reps of heavy deadlifts, then something is wrong. The issue here is that you have to perform every repetition in each set like it's your last, it should be done with 100% effort, and every rep should be given the same amount of effort. I know that after finishing 6 sets of 4 heavy reps in bench-press, my heart rate is high, I am really tired, and the last thing I want to do is jumping on to some pec-decks, cable cross overs, or other chest exercises. Why? Cause I put everything I had in to that bench-press. Here is some tips to practice intensity in your lifts:

- Tense your fists as hard as possible around the bar, tense your whole body, before and under every rep.
- Instead of doing 5 reps, do 1 rep 5 times. Actually take a short break between every rep, prepare yourself, then lift as hard as possible. Too many people just "go through" their reps, put everything you have in every rep!
- The concentric part of a lift should be as explosive as possible, go slowly down, push HARD up.
- Take a deep breath between every rep, and hold it until your done.
- Rest enough between sets so you can perform 100% every set.
- Get someone, or something to psyche you up =)

You should always have 1, maybe 2 main lifts in your program, which you give special attention. They should be done first, and this is where you really push yourself hard, get it all out. Then do some assisting exercises at the end, and that should be enough! Some of the strongest and fittest men in the world use training templates like 5x5 powerbuilding, the texas method, Westside barbell, etc.. and a program could look like this:
Day one:                  Day two:                                       Day three
Squats                  Squats (easier)                                           Squats
Bench-press      Barbell shoulder press                           Bench-press
Deadlifts                 Chin-ups                                                Olympic lift

Looks like nothing eh? Well, if you really put everything you got in to these lifts, I promise you, you will walk out of the gym feeling pretty busted, and looking forward to a day of rest. People tend to think they have to go to the gym every day. If you are smart, try doing just a simple program of squats, benches, overhead presses, deadlifts, and cleans, going up in weight a little bit every time you train, three days per week, until you get bigger,stronger & faster — or until this simple program quit working.

Some good words from world known strength coach Mark Rippetoe:

"When you start lifting heavy weights, each workout should represent a stress that takes longer to recover from."

"It's necessary to subject the body to increasing amounts of stress at a level that challenges recovery ability so that the adaptations continue". 

So the point of this post is: Start doing some heavier exercises, lift heavier weights with maximum intensity, cut out useless exercises, get good rest, repeat.

It is not lifting weights that makes you big and strong, you get big and strong from recovering from lifting weights. Don't forget this, do a hard workout, and rest!

One set of five is a lot!

Morten

Good "finishers", or something to do on "off days"

You can get pretty bored by doing the same program and routine day out, day in. That's why I like to mix it up a bit with some short, but very intensive finishers after a workout or on the off days. The workouts usually consist of 3-5 exercises, and just powering through them as many times as possible in 10-20minutes. You could say it's very crossfit inspirated, and I don't have anything special against crossfit, it's just that a lot of people doing tends to totally forget their technique and form when performing it. When doing this you should focus 100% on you form, you will get a better training effect from it, because it's harder, and you will spare yourself from injuries. This form of training will really work on your "cardio-strength" or muscular endurance, and doing the reps right will increase your maximum reps in these exercises. It's also a great way to improve your stamina, and boost your fat burning! Ok, so let's see on some samples of routines you can do.

Tabata intervals
One of my favorite finishers are the tabata interval protocole, and it goes like this:
Choose 1-2 exercises (Front squats, burpees, pushups, skipping, inverted rows, sprinting)
Do 20seconds hard work, as many reps as possible, 110% effort.
Rest for 10seconds.
Then do 20seconds of hard work again.
Repeat this 8times, resulting in a 4min work period. When you have finished one exercise, then try a new interval with another exercises. But trust me, one round with burpees and you're dead.

"Up & downs"
This is also a good one, and shouldn't take you long, but it will smash you pretty good.
So you choose 3 exercises, example: Front squats, chin-ups, and pushups.
You start by doing 10 front squats, 3 chin-ups, and 1 pushup.
Without rest, straight to 9 front squats, 3 chin-ups, and 2 pushups.
You are going to continue until you have reached 1 front squat, and 3 pushups. 3 chin-up should always be done in between. This is a great way to practice your chin-up, and increase your maximum reps.

Complexes
This is hard. Complexes can be done as body-weight complexes, with a dumbbell & a barbell.
Choose 4-5 compound movement exercises. Example on a barbell complex:
Deadlift, stiff leg deadlift, bent over rows, shoulder presses, squats.
Perform 10 repititions on each exercise, no rest in between. When you gone through all, rest 60 seconds, and repeat for 4-5times.

AMRAP's (As many rounds as possible)
Been doing a lot of these lately to get my endurance up a bit, cause I really hate running and stuff.
In this routine your are going to perform as many rounds as possible of 3-5exercises in between 10-20minutes.
Try this one:  AMRAP 15min
5 chin-ups / inverted rows
10 burpees
10 med-ball slams from a bench
25 jumping jacks

Or this one:
10 kettle bell swings
200m run
5 burpees

Use your imagination, anything goes. 
We tried a crossfit challenge today, and it's just brutal.
AMRAP 10min:
60 (!!!) Burpees jumping over a barbell
30 Overhead squats with 55kg
10 muscle ups in rings.

I died after 30 burpees, finished my 30 OHS and suprised myself with 8 muscle ups:

Keep it simple and clean, & eat more!!

The good thing by cleaning up your diet is that you can eat so much food!! I am not that guy who likes to time my meals,and eat every 2-3hours, or bring 6-8 food containers with me everywhere. I usually eat when I feel hungry, and keep it to that. One thing I am good with though, is getting in a big meal after my workouts. I don't freak out if I don't get a protein shake before and after training, and really, it's not a big deal at all, as long as you get a good meal within the hour. I eat 3-4 times a day, and when I eat, I eat BIG!

Although I have a lot of protein powder, I almost never use them as shakes. I just have it cause I really like the flavour, and it's a easy and cost effective way to get lots of protein in your diet. I use it for smoothies, coffees, baking, fluffs, and always in my oats =). Under is some of my post-workout meals, train hard, then eat big! :D

Meatza!

500g tuna, veggies, eggs and 500g potatoes

A lot of oats, veggies & eggs

400g potatoes & huge quiche

Protein fluff always

Eating clean means you can have some treats once in a while, and that's good because I really like sweet stuff. Got the best package in the mail today, Norwegian Easter candy! :

Want to get lean? This treat will assist you on your way!

Protein fluff!!

Have been wanting to make this for quite a while now, finally got around to doing it. It's kinda tricky to make the perfect protein fluff, but it's worth the try!! This fluff is extremely filling, very low in calories, and full of protein and healthy carbs. 
If you are on a mission to get lean, you are going to be hungry, and you will be craving desserts etc.., I strongly recommend you trying this delicious fluff of yummyness! This is what you need:
40g of 100% casein protein powder (ex: Optimum whey)
200g of frozen mashed berries (blueberries,raspberries, strawberries), also the rumors out there is that mashed bananas works as well!
0,5dl of skim milk, almond milk, water. 

Ok, the next part takes a bit of skill. 
Mix the liquid and berries together and mash them slightly with the mixer, then start adding the protein. Keep on mixing it, in a "u shape" way, until the whole thing starts fluffing up to several times it's starting size. This can take about 8-10minutes, so don't stop. 
The whole thing is only around 200calories, and extremly filling. The flavour of the protein powder is up to you, but I have tried with vanilla and peanut butter chocolate, and they are both great. Perfect to have for a big post-workout meal, or as a dessert after dinner =). 

I have no problem downing protein fluff, eggs & veggies, and a big bowl of oats after training! :D

Give it a go!

Morten

Nutrition rules!

People say they are afraid of being changed in to something \ someone else. I think this is really stupid, because I really think that people never change.

Yes, we get older, more experienced, wiser, fatter, leaner, stronger, but our inner nature? I think it is always the same.

So, with all the nutrition “rules” out there, I think they are silly, because they try changing you, which is impossible.

Actually, when writing this, I just finished dinner, and I am now drinking my third Pepsi max, and finishing of a small snickers bar for dessert. I am not going to change this, because the Pepsi max and the piece of treat for dessert is something I really like to have. If I stay away from it for a week, which usually is impossible(!!), I end up in the peanut butter jar with a tablespoon, then a pack of snakes, finishing of with 2-3 chocolates. Any diet or “rule” that force me to quit this habit is going to mean problems, and end in failure. 

To change to a healthier lifestyle, and a way of eating, you need to understand yourself. If you don't, you can never respect yourself, and therefore you are easily influenced by others.. ending up jumping from diet to diet, fail to fail. By others, often meaning “experts” or “trainers” who are excellent in giving out “good” advice, but who actually never do what they tell others to do themselves. How trustworthy is that? 

If a friend keep telling you that this and this is the best thing to do, but he's not doing it himself, would you do it? I see this SO many times, ALWAYS. Personal trainers, or nutritional “experts” giving out advice which seems pretty logical, but they NEVER do it themselves, that's just not right is it?

So anyway, to be successful at weight loss and changing your body, you need to know WHO you are, and WHAT you like, and work around it, this way you need to be self-reliant. 

To start with, you have to recognize what you have to work with, and what works best for you. Also, you have to get your eyes up, and understand that if you actually want to improve, you have to do something. It does not help how much knowledge you have about nutrition, weight loss, and training, or how much you want to start doing what you need to do, or how many times you set yourself the “this is the day” it's going to happened, it doesn't matter, the only thing that counts is actually DOING IT. 

Also, you need to know the food you really can't do without. The “bad” habits that you have, that you don't want to give up! 

I am not willing to give up having some cold beers whenever I feel like it.

I am not willing to give up my huge spoon of peanut butter in my oats

I am not willing to give up eating a lot of sweets one day a week, and having small treats for desserts every now and then. 

So, I just have to work around this then..

I never tell clients what they can and can't eat. Off course, I give simple advice like choosing less calorie-dense food, or filling up on proteins and veggies before pasta,rice, & breads, but I don't make any rules.

What you are going to eat and not is up to you (what, I can eat what I want?!!?). Yes, you can actually  eat WHAT you want and still lose weight, but you can't eat how much you want. How good you are going to feel on a chocolate diet though, that is another question.. This allows you to work with your self-reliance. Rules try forcing you to change in a way you usually don't want to. 

So, wrapping up. Don't think that losing weight means changing yourself, rather try improving how you are, in a way that fits who you are..

Success is easier this way..

Morten

Training early in the morning?

A lot of people do their training really early in the morning, either it's before work, Uni, or just because some of us like getting up early and actually doing something with the day. One of many nutrition "rules" out there is that eating breakfast is something you HAVE to do, and that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. If you don't have breakfast when you wake up, your metabolism will slow down, you will get fat, and die, everything is just ruined right?!  Well, I am telling you now, our bodies do NOT work like that. If you wake up not feeling hungry, guess what? Your body is telling you, "I am not hungry yet", so why should you eat then?

Anyway, I am working on a long article about debunking some nutrition myths, and it will be posted this week. I just wanted give an example of how a morning workout session without breakfast should take place. When you wake up, take a cup of coffee and tea; write down your program and goals for today's training session. Take either 20g of pure protein isolate or 20g of BCAA, and a pre-workout drink if you have one. You may want to take a small piece of fruit if you are doing a longer session with cardio etc, but it's not really necessary. Go to the gym, and finish of your workout. Since you are training "fasted" or without having eaten, your session should not be much longer than 45min. Maybe you finish your workout at 8, and then have class from 8-10. That's fine. After the workout, take another 20g of protein or BCAA. Maybe you even have one more class, from 10-12, that is also fine. When finally you have time to eat your first meal, let's call this your "post-workout" meal, it should be BIG. This is the time to eat stuff you really like, add a lot of carbohydrates as well. The picture is my post-workout meal today, didn't quite fill me up so had some more fruit after. The point is, you do NOT need to force feed yourself breakfast, or if you are in a rush, just skip breakfast, and have a big meal after training.

Morten

Get busy between the sets!

Martin doing ball throws between sets

Far too many people sit on their ass doing nothing between their sets, why not use the spare time for something more meaningful than reading the paper, looking in the mirror, or watching TV. What you should do between the sets depends on how your program is put together. For example,  if you are doing heavy load deadlifts, you shouldn't be doing anything with much effort between, but you could still put in some flexibility \ mobility drills to make use of the time. Usually, your heavy lifts are, and should be done in the beginning of the workout, so later in the workout when you are doing more assisting exercises, you can put some more effort in the exercises you do between sets. So, let me show you some examples:



 Full body workout example: 
A1: Heavy deadlifts 
A2: Scapular wallslides \ ankle mobilization \ Shoulder rehab \ Spine mobilization
B1: Bulgarian split squats
B2: Clap pushups \ Dumbell pullovers \ Inverted rows \ DB bench press
C1 :Chin ups
C2: Bridge \ Crunches \ Landmines \ Core work..
D1: Face pulls \ Shoulder rotation \ Band pull-apparts
D2: Stretching

Upper body workout example:
A1: Bench press
A2: Pull-ups
B1: Pushups from bench
B2: Seated Rows
C1: Zottman curls
C2: Reversed Flies
D1: Ab-wheel
D2: Chest stretch

A1, A2, etc means.. you do one set of A1, then straight over to one set of A2. Then you do a 2-3minute rest, and do it all over again for prescribed sets and reps. This way you always keep busy, but you do not hit the same muscle groups with the exercises, this way you can give 100% every set. This is different from traditional supersets in the way that people usually superset the same muscle group. Example: Bench press - Triceps . Doing it like that will exhaust your triceps, so you can't give 100% effort in the main lift, which is bench press. Give it a go, you will see great results, ,it will keep your heart rate up, AND you will be doing your workouts in shorter time.

Morten