You Miss 100% Of The Shots You Do Not Take

Yesterday was another long, long day. I was up at 4 again and worked the Waltham gym until 130. After which I went straight to Powerhouse to train Christina before I trained.
We had a good training session last night:

Dumbbell Swings
supersetted with
Push Ups
supersetted with
Dumbbell Rows
supersetted with
Medicine Ball Leg Raises(I hold a 2lb medicine ball at my chest height, she needs to raise her legs, take the ball, perform a leg raise, and then, under control, return the ball to me)

As always, I beat her up a little but she did well.

I had hockey again last night, so I did some direct arm training and saved my legs for Friday morning.

Flat Bench EZ Bar Skull Crushers: 3 sets
105lbs x 10
125lbs x 6
125lbs x 5

Preacher EZ Bar Curls: 3 sets (These were performed with a 4-6 second eccentric portion. On the final set, my training partner pushed down on the weight so increase the eccentric loading.)
65lbs x 12
65lbs x 12
65lbs x 8(partner applied force on the negative)

Overhead Dumbbell Extension supersetted with Pushdowns:2 sets
130lbs x 8, 70 x 14
130lbs x 8, 70 x 12

Reverse Grip EZ Bar Curls supersetted with Dumbbell Hammer Curls:2 sets (SLOW eccentric)
50lbs x 14, 30's x 10
50lbs x 14, 30's x 10

We then performed some grip work.

We lost in the playoffs last night in hockey, which kind of sucks, but it was a good game. It went into a shoot out and I ended up ringing one off the crossbar to tie it. Sometimes they go, sometimes they dont.

And I want to send a quick shout out to my boy Term who is shooting his video today with Bun B. Kill it son!!



This is dedicated to all you cardio bunnies who are afraid of touching weights:

Schuenke MD, Mikat RP, McBride JM.
Effect of an acute period of resistance exercise on excess post-exercise oxygen consumption (EPOC): implications for body fat management.
Eur J Appl Physiol 2002 Mar;86(5):411-7

This group looked at the effects of circuit weight training on EPOC.

The exercise routine consisted of three exercises (the bench press, the power clean and the squat), performed with 10RM loads as a circuit. The circuit was performed four times (i.e. twelve total sets) and took 31 mins.

EPOC was elevated for 38 hours post workout (possibly longer as this was when the researchers stopped measuring). The duration and magnitude of the EPOC observed in this study indicates the importance of the role of high intensity resistance training in a fat loss program.
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This type of information should go a long way in helping fitness professionals design and implement effective fat loss programs. It's not the workout - it's the effect of that workout on caloric burn over the other 23 hours of the day.

This ties in with some of the interval training studies we've already looked at. They showed that despite burning less calories during the session (when compared to other workout), more calories were burned by the body outside of the workout - which quickly added up and resulted in more real world fat loss.

I call this post-workout phenomenon Afterburn - the post workout period that results in metabolic disturbance, elevating EPOC, fat burning enzyme activity and total body fat oxidation to maximize caloric burn for the other 23+ hours per day. Is there much of a real world effect of burning 300 calories per workout (e.g. aerobic work) if I don't create some form of 'Afterburn'?

If we could elevate metabolism even an apparently insignificant 1/4 of a calorie per minute for the 38 hours that the study showed, then that 31 minute resistance training workout would burn X calories during the session plus an extra 570 calories over the next 38 hours. That becomes significant.
As a side note - this was a pretty simple workout plan wth fairly profound results. The study itelf was designed to look at the effect of a weight training workout on EPOC. But what if we actually designed a metabolic resistance training program that was designed to create an afterburn effect? A workout that was designed to create fat loss in the first place - not as a side effect?

And then we combined that program with a cardio routine that did the same - and added a nutrition program that in and of itself resulted in significant fat loss? Everything would combine synergistically for a better effect overall.
The key is to look at the programs effect on the entire 24 hours, week, or several months on a program. Ignore the acute effects and look at the long term results.

In the past - fitness professionals and researchers have looked at how much fat is burned during the exercise session itself. This is extremely short-sighted.

As my colleague Alan Aragon said:
"Caring how much fat is burned during training makes as much sense as caring how much muscle is built during training."
Think about that. If we looked at a weight training session that started at 9am and finished at 10am - how much muscle would we see built if we stopped looking at 10am? None.

In fact - we'd see muscle damage. We could make the conclusion that weight training does not increase muscle - in fact it decreases muscle right? It's only when we look at the big picture - and look at the recovery from the session - that we find the reverse is true - weight training builds muscle.

Fat loss training is the same way. Someone talking about the benefits of the "fat burning zones" or "fasted cardio" is a sure sign that the individual has stopped looking at the end of the exercise session. They have come to the conclusion that fasted, lower intensity steady state exercise burns the most fat and made a massive leap of faith to suggest it is best for real world fat loss.

Using that same logic these same people would suggest avoiding weight training if you want to grow muscle.

Take home message - focus on the Afterburn effect not just what happens during the exercise session.

Todays video of the day:


Im outtie!

Easy