Strength & Conditioning Myths - Debunked! Part 2

Myth #2:  You must do a lot of steady state cardio if you want to lose fat.

Driving to the gym to walk on a treadmill is the funniest thing ever.

The problem with this one isn't so much the cardio part.  Cardio is a good way to burn fat for a lot of people.  The problem is, that in the real world, where people have jobs, kids, homes, and other interests besides looking awesome and spending lots of time in a gym, cardio is not the best answer for fat loss.


There are 3 main problems with steady state cardio, and this is without even mentioning the fact that it's horrendously boring:

• Time consuming - Steady state cardio can burn a lot of calories.  But, to burn a lot of calories, you have to do it for a long time.  Because when you stop, your body's metabolism quickly reverts back to it's resting state.  Running 6 mph for an hour burns roughly 700 calories, so to burn one pound of fat (approximately 3500 calories) in a week, you would have to run at that pace for 5 hours without changing your diet at all.  I don't think the average person has an extra 5 hours a week to spend on exercise.  I know I don't.

• Repetitive stress injuries - Any experienced runner can tell you that pounding pavement for 10-20 miles a week can take a toll on your joints and bones.  Runners can suffer from shin splints, stress fractures, knee and hip bursitis or tendinitis, foot problems, and a host of other ailments.  Our bodies were built to either move slowly (walking) or to move really fast (sprinting).  Long distance running is an unnatural movement.  Your joints are not built to handle that kind of pounding, especially on hard surfaces.   If you are overweight, this only makes the damage worse.

• Your body adapts to it pretty quickly - This a secret that Billy Blanks would never let you in on, or Tae Bo sales would plummet.  Have you ever started a running program for the first time, and by the middle of the first day, you're just ready to die?  Then by day 2 you feel a little better, day 3 better still, and by day 5 you're cruising along with no problem?  That is your body adapting to the activity.  When this happens, you become more efficient at the activity you're performing so your body actually uses less energy than it did when you started.  Yes, that means that you now have to run even longer just to burn the same amount of calories.  Spending MORE time for the SAME results?  I say SCREW THAT NOISE!

 

Sorry Billy, you and your nipples gotta go.

Thankfully there is a much, much more time-efficient way to burn fat and look better, that I will get into on Tuesday.

Until then, have a great weekend! 

Strength & Conditioning Myths - Debunked! Part 1

Myth #1 - Serious strength training will make a woman "bulky" or "too big."

I hate this myth with everything in me because I see it reinforced in every god awful Pilates marketing campaign and on every stupid late night fitness disinfomercial.  My feelings aside, this is a very common fear for women when they enter the gym, thinking that they will lift a challenging weight and wake up the next morning looking like a Ms. Olympia competitor.

Don't worry about ending up like this.

What most women don't realize, is that female bodybuilders at the highest level have been training for years.  Equally as importantly, they have also been using large amounts of anabolic steroids to increase their muscle mass.

You see, a normal, healthy female just doesn't have enough testosterone flowing through their veins to ever come near that level of muscularity.

Testosterone is the male sex hormone that is responsible for mediating a lot of the processes that cause muscle growth.  Women produce a small amount of this hormone, but it is about 1/10 to 1/15 the amount that men produce.  

Female bodybuilders will inject or injest anabolics, including synthetic testosterone, to make up the difference and allow their bodies to build much more muscle mass.  This has many deleterious effects, including deepening of the voice, masculinization of facial features, unwanted hair growth, and more.  This is the main reason why the lady above doesn't look so pretty any more.  She is literally turning into a man!

Drugs aside, it can take decades for a hard-training man to gain an appreciable amount of muscle mass, even with all of the natural testosterone that we are blessed with.  For a woman to think that she'll get "too big" just by looking at a weight is just unrealistic.  The women that do train hard without drugs have to bust their asses for every ounce of lean tissue they can get.  It's not as easy as simply walking in the gym and picking up a few weights.

Do not be mistaken though, women can make very good gains when following a well designed strength training program.  They usually end up looking pretty good, too. 

 This is what a highly trained, steroid-free female looks like.  Big difference.

There are a multitude of benefits women can experience from a consistent, well-designed strength training program, including:

• Increased resting metabolic rate -  This is the result of increased muscle tissue and simply means that your body will burn more calories at all times than it does now.

• Increased bone density -  This is one of the most important aspect for women who are at risk for osteoporosis.  Strength training stresses the bones as well as the muscles, and the body will build stronger bones as an adaptation to that stress.

• Injury prevention - This is especially important for female athletes.  Women are much more likely to tear an ACL from participating in sports than are men.  Strength training will strengthen the stabilizing muscles around the knee joint, resulting in a decreased likelihood of injury.

• Looking better, not just smaller - The traditional modes of weight loss for women (dieting and cardio) often have the effect of just making a woman look smaller instead of better.  By this, I mean that you will fit into a smaller size, but without your clothes your body will look virtually indentical to the "before" picture only at a slightly smaller size.  With consistent strength training, you are able to change your proportions altogether, resulting in an actual body transformation.

• Improved posture - This is an often overlooked benefit that can make a huge difference in how you look.  Strengthening the weak postural muscles in your upper back can have a dramatic effect on the way that you carry yourself.  You will project confidence instead of age.

• Increased self-confidence - This is also overlooked most of the time.  Obviously if you look better, you will feel better about yourself.  But, I'm talking about a different kind of confidence.  The confidence that comes from being able to pick up 200 lbs off the ground with ease or from pushing the Prowler in the hot sun is not something that a lot of people have.  It is knowing that you can do just about anything you set your mind to.  It is the feeling that you are in control of your body and physically capable of great and difficult things.  This kind of confidence is something that can't be replicated or substituted for.  It doesn't come from starving yourself and running on a treadmill like a hamster.  It takes a special kind of person to be able to earn this confidence.  Are you one of them?  Then click here!

The Top Dog Creed

We are the Top Dogs.  This is our creed.


We are athletes, students, sons, and daughters.  We are mothers, fathers, husbands, and wives.  We are not defined by our roles.  We stand as individuals, free from judgment and expectation.

We live by a code of principles.  These principles are determined by our thoughts, which produce our speech, that states our actions, which become our habits that define our character.  We know that a person without character is devoid of purpose. 

Our purpose is not defined by outside influences in society.  It is not defined by our teachers, our parents, our coworkers, our husbands, our wives, our children, the TV, internet, music, or movies.  We define our own purpose.  We are the master of our individual aspirations.   

We will not bend to the will of others for the sake of conformity.  We will stay true to ourselves.  We will not be pulled down to mediocrity by those that would not see us succeed.  We will not succumb to the fear and doubt that society has planted in us.  We are the masters of our own minds, not slaves to them.  We will pursue our true purpose with determination and tenacity.


We will work tirelessly to constantly become the best version of ourselves that is possible.  We will strive to become better because we know that change is inevitable.  We know that we will either change for the better or worse.  We will either become stronger or weaker, faster or slower, smarter or dumber, more enlightened or more dogmatic.  We know that maintenance does not exist, and that we are either growing or dying, winning or losing, pushing forward or falling back.  Every minute of our lives, we are either a champ or a chump.  We must choose.

We choose growth.


We choose winning.


We choose to be champions.


We choose to be the Top Dogs.

What's really important?

Is it an expensive new car, mansion, or yacht?

Is it the new designer clothes you see advertisements for in all the magazines?


Or is the important stuff something simpler?






Be healthy and live a simple life.  What a concept!

Perception = Reality

Get Some

"Everyone who runs is a VC!  Everyone who stands still is a well-disciplined VC!"

Summer starts (unofficially) this weekend.  Some helpful points:

• Ladies, are you bikini ready right now?  If not, go here to do something about it.  In the meantime, some helpful tips:
• Eliminate sweets, breads, pasta, cereals, rice, and potatoes from your diet.  This means all of your carbs should come from fruits and vegetables.
• Eat more meat.  Fish, chicken, turkey, and lean beef are great sources of protein.
• Don't forget the healthy fats.  Almonds, cashews, olive oil, avocado, and sunflower seeds are great sources of healthy fats.
• Get out and MOVE!  Get at least 30 minutes of activity per day, every day.

• Guys, will you be strutting your stuff at the pool or will you be hiding under a baggy t-shirt until Labor Day?  May I suggest an alternative?
• To look better with your shirt off, lose fat, get a tan, and build bigger shoulders, traps, and arms.
• Got confidence?  You have to EARN IT!
 

• Football camp is right around the corner.  Are you ready to bust heads non-stop or are you getting winded just reading this?  If it's the latter, this is what you need.  Quick tips:
• If you want to get faster, work on improving your strength and mobility in your lower body.  All the speed work in the world won't help if you're weak with tight hips.
• To get in shape fast, run hills or push the Prowler.  A LOT.
• If you're training your ass off, you probably aren't eating enough.  This will hold you back until you fix it.

Don't wait for life to give you what you want!!!  Hit it in the freaking mouth and GET SOME!!!

What's pushing you?

Pigs don't sweat this much.

I was soaked to the bone. A casual observer would have thought that I had just emerged from a swimming pool, dripping from head to toe. If you've ever sweated so much that your socks are dripping when you take them off, then you know what I mean.

Gasping for air and fighting the urge to taste my lunch for the second time that day, I just hoped that it would be enough.

It was the summer of 2003 in Columbus, OH, and I was in the midst of training for my first ever MMA fight. Having only a limited wrestling background and about 2 months of training in kickboxing and jiu jitsu, I was more than a little nervous.

All I knew about my opponent was that he was an experienced fighter with more than 10 bouts under his belt, and that he was bigger than me by about 5 inches and 40 lbs.

When I found out about the fight, I only had 5 weeks to prepare.

Let me tell you, those next 5 weeks were the most intense, focused weeks of my life. I trained like a madman, pushing my body to places I didn't think it could go.

Every time I wanted to quit, every time I wanted to give in to the pain, I kept thinking about my opponent, and how hard he must be training. I thought about being embarrassed and having my ass kicked in front of my friends that were coming all the way from Cleveland and Pittsburgh for the fight. I thought about how incredible it would feel to stand in the middle of the ring in front of a thousand people with my arm raised, victorious.

I visualized both scenarios in extreme detail. I pictured everything from the sound of the crowd, to the feel of the gloves on my hands, to the bounce of the ring under my feet. I pictured standing across from another man that wanted to pound my face into the mat.

Every time I felt hungry and wanted to stop at McDonald's on the way home from work, I thought about how the extra fat would slow me down. I thought about how the greasy food would make me sluggish and lethargic, compromising my training.

My focus was unwavering. There was too much at stake for it to be any other way.

After 5 brutal weeks of training, I walked down to the ring and stood across from my opponent, knowing that I had done everything I could possibly do to be better than him on that day. The results of the fight reflected my hard work when I scored a TKO in the first minute of the bout.

I am reminded of that period of time very often. Any time I set a goal for myself I try to attack it with the same ferocity and single-mindedness that I did back then.

I took all of the negative feelings associated with training and dieting and started seeing them as positive signs that I was on the right track. I also constantly tried to feel what it would be like to succeed, and contrasted that with what it would feel like to fail.

You can do the same thing when it comes to your goals. The key is having a clear picture in your mind of what it is you want to accomplish. You may not have the threat of another human being trying to separate your head from your body to motivate you, but you can still use your perceptions of failure and success to your advantage.

If your goal is to finally get the body you want, you need to condition your mind to experience all of the negative things associated with restrictive diets as positive signs that you are getting closer to your goals.

That rumble of hunger in your belly isn't a reason to panic and shovel Doritos into your face any more. It's a sign that your body is burning fat for fuel. (This is not to say that you should starve yourself, but that's another discussion entirely)

That burning in your lungs and muscles is no reason to give up and take a breather. That's your body's fat burning machinery running at full steam ahead.

When you're pushing yourself hard in the gym, and you feel like you can't do any more, picture your ideal body and honestly ask yourself if quitting will get you closer to that goal. Should you give in to the discomfort or push forward?

When you're tempted to order that Oreo pie after dinner, ask yourself if you can afford to eat things like that if you want to look the way you want to look. Should you satiate your base urges with momentary comfort, or suffer in the short term for lasting satisfaction in the end?

Think of how people will look at you and treat you when you're in the shape you want to be in. Will strangers treat you differently? Will your significant other admire you more? How will they look at you if you do nothing and gain another 20 lbs?



Let's face facts, our bodies do not want to be lean. They do not want to lose fat. Your body doesn't care how much your butt jiggles when you walk or how far your belly hangs over your pants. It just wants to keep you alive by taking in and storing as much energy as possible.

You have to be strong enough mentally to force it to do what you want. You have to push yourself to change.

It's that simple, but it ain't easy.

Check out Top Dog's Dead Sexy Bootcamp for women and Rock Solid Strength Camp for men to find out how you can reach your goals faster and easier than you ever thought possible.