Exactly HOW Fast Should You Increase The Weights?

You know, writing a blog really hasn't been as difficult as I thought it would be. As I go through my day, many of my clients ask me the same questions that I find myself answering over and over again. Normally I don't even notice myself doing this. But, since starting this blog, I have all this great material to cover!

Today we'll focus on a very important point. The point of working out is to expose your body to a particular stimulus that causes it to adapt. Thats pretty simple, right?

Say you go into the gym to do bicep curls. You begin by doing 3 sets of 12 reps with 12 lbs in each hand. The first time you do this, your body will perceive this to be a significant new source of stress. Your body responds with inflammation through muscular soreness the next day or two, builds up a new reserve, then the next time you go to the gym and do 3 sets of 12 reps with 12 lbs in each hand, not much happens. Maybe you feel fatigued afterwards, but not much soreness afterward.

This process is brilliant. Your body essentially responded to the stress by increasing its reserve, so that the next time it happens, it won't be much of a stress. This is VERY important to understand, particulary when you go to the gym next time.

This adaptation phenomenon is the EXACT reason why you MUST increase the stress on your muscles EACH and EVERY workout. You need to send a signal to your body that the stress will come again, and each time it will be greater than the last. Over time, your body will become very efficient at rebuilding its resources for the next bout of exercise.

How fast should you increase the weights?

The answer: AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!

The truth is, in my experience, most individuals do not workout to anywhere near their true capacity. For example, if I selected a weight that I KNEW someone could handle in the squat for 8-10 reps, a weight that I knew would be VERY challenging to get the 10th rep with, most trainees, particularly at the beginning and early intermediate levels will start to breakdown primarily mentally at the 6th rep. Why? Because, outside of training your muscles while working out, you are training your mental focus and drive. Its very easy to tell how much mental toughness and focus someone has in their outside life when you see them lifting weights to their maximum capacity.

Here are some different scenarios:

Some will simply GIVE UP completely when it gets "hard". They won't even attempt the next rep, because they just "know they won't be able to do it".

Some will attempt the rep, but once the going gets tough through a certain part of the range of motion, they will stop the set, and essentially tell themself "well, I gave it my best shot".

Others will attempt the rep, and squiggle, squirm, and do just about ANYTHING they have to in order to finish the rep. They seem to not want to have "failed" at finishing. I usually have to stop these people early because they'll keep going way beyond good form.

In many cases, individuals will actually progress through these stages during a workout routine, especially with me, because I set this as a goal for the person. As a result, I get to witness changes to other areas of their lives as a result, even when they don't realize how weight training could have assisted them in this process.

So, here is the take home; Remember, you are training your ability to adapt to stressors when you go to the gym. EVERY single time, you MUST strive to increase the stress in order to force adaptive changes in your body. Finally, your MIND is VERY important in this process.

Clearing Up Confusion On Meal Frequency

There seems to be much confusion in the area of how to eat to lose fat optimally. This is mostly due to the misleading dietary advice of "starvation-type" fat loss systems. People have been programmed to "eat less" to lose weight. While this is somewhat true, we have to keep in mind that if you don't eat enough, then your metabolism will slow down.

You see, your body has been designed in such a way that makes it efficient in storing fuel. In paleolithic times, we may not have even had the opportunity to eat for a day, or perhaps in certain regions, especially that were cold, a few days at a time. So, based on this concept, your body is very efficient in storing energy if it thinks an energy crisis is coming soon.

So, this is why the concept of eating small amounts of food frequently is an EXCELLENT way to speed up your metabolic rate and crank up fat loss. To keep this simple, there are 2 key hormones we must regulate to keep fat loss optimal. First is Cortisol, the stress hormone, the next being Insulin, the fat storing hormone.

When you wake up in the morning, you have essentially been fasting for 8 hours. Your blood sugar is relatively low, but you don't feel too bad, considering your cortisol levels are at its peak level for the day. Once you eat breakfast, your cortisol levels go down, and your blood sugar rises. This is of course a good thing. Insulin is secreted in order to slowly bring blood sugar down over the next few hours. Then it is time to eat again.

If you wait too long to eat, and blood sugar levels go low, a signal goes to your brain that blood sugar is low. Hunger pains start to signal you to eat. At this point your blood sugar is already low. If you ignore the hunger feeling and don't eat, then your adrenal glands must increase cortisol levels to bring blood sugar levels back up again. It usually does this through breaking down sugars in your liver. It can also scavenge lean muscle tissue for amino acids as well.

This is why people can go through 6 hours without eating, and they say "I wasn't hungry". The fact is, they ignored the hunger signal, and were essentially riding stress hormones for hours. When cortisol is elevated, you aren't going to lose fat!

So, here is the take home. Make SURE you eat frequently. I like something called the "Clock Rule". This means that you must put something in your mouth at each corner of the clock. If you get up at 7, for example.

7 am: eat breakfast (meat + veggies+ smart fats)
9:30 am: 1-3 oz. almonds + 2 celery sticks
12:30 am: eat lunch (meat + veggies+ smart fats)
3:30 pm: 1-3 oz. almonds +2 celery sticks
6:30 pm: eat dinner (meat + veggies + smart fats)
9:00 pm: 1-3 oz. almonds + 2 celery sticks)

This is simply an example of meal frequency. As you can see, no more than 3 hours goes by without putting in some kind of nutrient dense food.

Thus blood sugar is stable and fat loss!!