Training Tips to Ponder

I've whacked a shot of Dara Torres, who competed in the Beijing Olympics last year in the 50m freestyle. Dara looks amazing, but from reading more about her, she's a woman that has "trained smart". She has overcome injury to be swimming world class times at 41. She does a lot of stretching and flexibility work, functional training in the gym (ie training to help her move better in the pool) and other strength training I am sure. I aspire to be in tip top shape like Dara and not let my injuries hamper my progress towards good form again.

Here are some tips to help you get the best out of your training:

1) Progress, not Perfection:

All of us, whether we're Olympic athletes like Dara, or fitness enthusiasts like myself need to focus on injury free progression in all of our training. A "niggle" is the body's way of warning us that all is not well, an injury is our body's way of whacking you on the head with a paddle and making you get a grip. When this happens or any other setback occurs you need to look at your progression relative to your situation - for example "Even though I'm not doing a sub 20 minute swim for my triathlon, I'm effecting better movement through my rotator cuff daily and doing all my rehab". The sub 20 minute (if you're talented and nobody kicks you) swim will come in due time. Walk before you run!

2) Rules not Rigidity:

For me this applies to nutrition the most, but can be equally applied to exercise. Your number one concern is when you take a mouthful of food "am I honouring myself by eating this" irrespective of whether it contains fats, carbs, protein or whatever. The drive to eat well should come from an inherent desire to do what's best for you and for most, we tend to thrive on whole food sources, with the odd treat thrown in. Rigidity with nutrition is really an extension of dieting - eliminating whole food groups, only eating certain macronutrients at certain times, being anal at EVERY meal about how your food is prepped (this can be reasonable if you have a finite goal or food allergy, but totally unreasonable if you're at your bestie's wedding as the maid of honour). Many people get caught up in the hype of nutrient timing. For most of us, the pre training meal should be the meal we eat before we go training and the post training meal is the one that you eat afterwards. Does it matter what you eat? Maybe if you're an elite athlete , but if you're a regular person with kids, a 9-5 job and limited time, you are just better off sticking to regular nutritious meals ( and avoid things that come out of packets with a barcode!)

3) Want versus Need:

If it's something you want to do often it's something you don't need to do. This was a common theme with many of my PT clients, especially the boys - who wanted to work all the muscles they could see (eg chest and quadriceps) versus the muscles they needed to develop (ie back, glutes, hamstrings). The best way of getting them to see the light was telling them that we girls dig guys with nice butts. End of story.

4) Planning, Not Paralysis by Analysis

Too many people talk about what they can do in the gym, on the road or on the track and you never actually see them deliver. They get caught up in the minutiae of planning everything down to the last crank of their pedal stroke or the last bicep curl. You do need a plan though if you want to tackle a specific event - if you're not sure get a fantastic Coach and do what they say "follow the plan". My best advice (borrowed from Shelley) is that if you want to add more muscle you need to lift heavy shit and eat protein. Simple, really.

5) Fun, Not Fear

Something we often forget is that fitness should be fun. I've read a few blogs lately about making sacrifices to be a better athlete, about strength, courage and commitment and whilst these are all admirable qualities to have, very often many of the best are motivated because of the adrenalin rush that training can give you. Recently, a few of Australia's swimming greats have retired, the indominitable Libby Lenton and Jodie Henry who made the interesting comment that she got a tremendous buzz from training, but that competing left her cold. I have seen this in some of my clients as well and interestingly enough, a more laid back approach has had nothing short of spectacular results.

So get out there, have a rough plan, train hard and enjoy yourselves!

History becomes legend

"And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth" Galadriel, Lord of the Rings.

This quote from "Lord of the Rings" reminds me of some of the trends and theories that float around the health and fitness world. It seems that some take a little pinch of science and morph it into theories which sound good, but ultimately don't achieve anything.

Take, for example, the idea of a "fat burning" zone. I've heard this a lot around the bodybuilding traps these days - "I'm only walking, to ensure that I stay in my fat burning zone and that I don't burn muscle by exercising intensely. "

Let me say for a start that the statement as is doesn't make sense from this little exercise physiologist's point of view:
a) Yes, there is a heart rate zone where the body uses fat as substrate for fuel more (eg 50-75% of Max HR) but the truth is that the body runs on carbohydrates, either by the process of gluconeogenesis or glycolysis. Fat is converted into carbohydrate for use as fuel. At higher heart rates, the body relies more on carbohydrate (which comes from stored sources, ie glycogen). Unless you're in a super deficit and eating a very low protein diet, it's highly unlikely that doing high intensity work will cause any muscle loss whatsoever. The joke is that when you are doing very intense strength training your heart rate will peak way above the "golden fat burning zone" that some of these bodybuilder types will promote! What happens then, burning muscle? Hardly - rather setting the body up to gain lean mass if nutrition principles are sound.


b) One secret to becoming a lean mean fat burning machine is to actually concentrate on getting fitter. Yep, get fitter and you will train your body to preferentially use fat as substrate during exercise and rest. This means instead of having to walk, you can run for half the time, half the stress and the same caloric expenditure occurs! At the end of the day, fat loss is related to caloric expenditure, "afterburn", and process of recovery from strength training bouts. On this note, I get told that "if I run, I'll release too much cortisol and I'll be catabolic". Whilst it is true that training switches on catabolic hormones, a fit runner will release far less cortisol than an inefficient one - and addressing post workout nutrition/correct supplementation will go a long way in flipping the switch towards a more anabolic environment.

c) I have to add that overdoing the cardio is no good for athletes who are focused on strength training. When I hear of competitors doing two hours of cardio a day to get lean, big question marks can then start to be raised about retaining muscle etc however 30 minute bouts of intense cardio interspersed with the lighter stuff shouldn't hurt anyone's cause, particularly if nutrition is sound.

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Training today: Back and triceps with Shelley. After a slowish start, we both got into it and caned it!
Cardio: total slug fest today (ie nothing). But hey, I stayed in my fat burning zone...heh heh