A lot of women shy away from weight training because they think they will get excessive muscle mass and start looking like men. This myth is often perpetuated by the media sensationalising women’s and men’s bodybuilding and focussing in on the drugs. The thing is the vast majority of people (both men and women) who go to the gym and lift weights do not take drugs or have excessive muscle mass; and in the case of women who train naturally there is no chance you will ever look like men. Why? There are several reasons:
Women produce far less testosterone (the primary hormone that helps men build muscle) than men and as a result they can’t develop excessive muscle mass.
Women do not try and consume excessive quantities of food which is needed to gain lots of extra muscle. Let’s face it- it is hard enough for men to put on a lot of muscle while overeating at the best of times.
Weight training will not bulk up or shorten the appearance of your muscles- in fact it can be used to lengthen and shape your muscles to make your body look more feminine.
So why does weight training work for women? I personally think weight training is by far the fastest and best way to stay healthy, lose weight, change your body shape and maintain it. Here’s why:
Just like other forms of exercise- weight training boosts your metabolism during your work out. However, when you train with weights you cause small micro tears in the muscle which requires your body to use more energy to repair it long after your training session has ended.
Also the small amount of muscle you develop means you will have more active tissue- one study showed that the average woman who does weights two to three times per week over a two month period could gain around a kilo of muscle and lose almost two kilos of fat. More active tissue means more calories burnt per day (around 80-100 calories a day). Consider that if you maintained your normal eating and maintained that extra one kilo of muscle that would translate to burning an extra 36500 calories in a year which is equal to almost five kilos of fat!
You will gain strength (as much as 30 to 50 percent) without excessive muscle mass and this can be useful in everyday jobs. Also strengthening your postural muscles with weights can make you look taller, feel better and avoid injuries like lower back pain.
Instead of gaining excessive muscle mass a gain of one or two kilos of muscle will make you look more toned and defined. You can even build muscle in the right places so that your proportions look more pleasing to the eye. In fact all of the women you see on infomercials selling the latest fitness gizmos primarily lift weights to look the way they do! Believe it!
It keeps your bones stronger by increasing bone density which can be a great preventative against osteoporosis. It can also strengthen joints and their stability.
If you are involved in any physical activity weight training can make you a better athlete physically and mentally with the added benefit of making your body more resistant to getting injuries.
It can reduce health problems like diabetes and heart disease.
Weight training has a positive effect on your mood; in fact a Harvard study showed that only ten weeks of weight training was more successful at reducing the symptoms of depression than standard counselling.
Weight training is one of the greatest ways to stay young! Imagine being in your sixties and being just as strong as when you were thirty or forty years old. Your quality of life will be so much better and the best thing about weight training is you can start at any age and the benefits are the same whether you are twenty or sixty. Also the progress you see motivates you to want to eat more healthy, use healthy supplements and avoid habits that are detrimental to your gains. This alone can keep you looking and feeling younger.
So ladies, if you want the best way to improve your well-being, lose weight and change your body shape, give weight training a go and be amazed at how well it works for you!
Have you been trying different diets to get leaner and healthier over the years with little success? This had been my problem for years as my weight yo-yoed between 68-95kg from the time I left high school in 1993 until 2000- I also had trouble with energy levels and had been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. In 2000 I went to the R.I.F.E clinic in Auckland where they took a sample of my blood to determine what my blood type was. I found out that I was Type A and with that blood type came certain genetic tendencies and food requirements which if I abided by would apparently not only improve my health and vitality, but help me to maintain a more stable and leaner body composition. I was sceptical at first, but nothing else had worked so I thought- why not?
After a couple of weeks on the diet I was amazed at how energetic I felt and the weight began to fall off me. It was tough at first eating more vegetarian proteins and not having my steak! I also began utilising the diet with my personal training clients with the same positive results. I have to say I have heard a number of people bag this approach to eating, however, these people usually haven’t even tried this diet protocol and are usually not nutritionists or doctors, whereas, Peter D’Adamo; the author of eat right for your type is both, with an extensive amount of research behind him (which his father actually started). So what does this diet involve? Here is the basic run down.
It is based on the theory that our blood type (which is a big part of our unique internal chemistry) can reflect the way our body absorbs and uses nutrients as well as our genetic predispositions for exercise, stress, health issues and even personality types. Before we start though it must be said that these tendencies need to be considered on a continuum as well as the fact that even if we are given a certain set of genetic tendencies, environmental factors come in to play as well. (D’Adamo has also identified further genetic factors like secretor status, body measurements and unique body markers which also need to be considered). So without further ado here are the general individualised approaches to diet and exercise for the different blood types.
Type O:
They should eat a high protein (which includes red meat) and unprocessed carbohydrate diet which means getting rid of most grain based foods and eating more vegetables & fruits. Exercise should be intense and is a great way to relieve stress in type O’s.
Type A:
They should eat a more vegetarian diet and avoid red meat. Exercise should be gentle and used to lower their naturally higher cortisol levels. (This does not mean type A’s can’t be involved in strenuous exercise- it just means that they will need to make sure they plan their training more carefully than a type O and involve relaxing type activities as well to avoid overtraining and excessive stress).
Type B:
They should eat a varied diet and seem to benefit from dairy products too. If you imagine Type A and Type O at either end of a continuum, B (& AB) are somewhere in the middle-with B being closer to O’s and AB’s closer to A’s in terms of their diet and exercise needs.
Type AB:
They benefit from a similar diet as a Type A with some variations that reflect their unique AB chemistry. They should also perform calming forms of exercises for health and body composition improvement.
Although this is only a simple look at the diet, you can easily access the books online or your local library for further information and specific food lists. Since 2000, Peter D’Adamo has developed further dietary protocols based on the blood type diet which I have used personally and will look at in future articles.
So how do you find out your blood type? You can find out your blood type by donating blood, visiting most naturopathic health centres or by ordering a blood type identification kit from the eat right for your type website.
If you have been struggling to lose weight or always seem to lack energy, why not give the blood type diet a try? The success rate for this diet in terms of satisfaction of results by people who try it is around 75% – other factors I have touched on that can be considered (secretor status & unique body measurements and markers) increase this even further. Just remember though if you do decide to follow the blood type diet make sure you still cover all the recommended macro and micronutrients you need for a balanced diet.
I remember when I first started lifting weights; my training split was chest and arms 3-4 times a week and the rest of the body 2-3 times a week. I was so motivated I trained pretty much every day and loved it. Only problem was that my gains were not great (I was obviously over trained). Then I began reading muscle magazines in the late 80’s and they were saying you needed to train 6 days a week (Being naïve I didn’t realise these athletes were all on steroids at that stage) so for the next couple of years I persevered with this high volume/ frequency approach with little to show for it. Then when I was 15 I was introduced to some police officers who were into powerlifting. I’d like to thank these two guys, Ray Bloomingfield and Barry Dawson as they gave me my first beneficial training split; they espoused a 3 day a week programme focusing on the 3 big lifts, Bench on Monday, Squats on Wednesday and Dead-liftson Fridays with auxiliary work after each of these lifts. Finally I began to see some results for the effort I was putting in and I stayed on this split for about 6 years.
Once gains seemed to plateau and I became more interested in bodybuilding I changed my training split: Monday-Chest & Back, Wednesday- Legs, and Friday-Shoulders & Arms. This made sense to me as I still got plenty of recovery and most body parts got a direct hit once a week and an indirect hit once a week too. (Shoulders and arms got hit indirectly on chest & back day and since I dead lifted on Mondays legs got an indirect hit too). This split was effective for me and I used this for the next 15 years with very little variation.
About a year ago I felt that my gains were not where I wanted them to be so I sat down and wrote all the factors I thought I needed to consider.
I needed a day off after each training session. I have never been able to train two days in a row without feeling fatigued; nervous system fatigue (So that meant training 3-4 days a week at most).
I wanted to train my body parts twice a week but avoid the aforementioned nervous system fatigue. (I have found that my nervous system requires about a week to recover after heavy training a lot of the time, but individual muscle groups seem to be ready to go again after 3-4 days. Some research has suggested that even after 6 days muscles can begin to atrophy due to being in a detrained state).
I wanted to train for 45-50 minutes max per session (so no full body workouts).
I wanted to do a greater variety of exercises over the week for each body part (I could do this if I was training each body part twice a week).
Incorporate (P.O.F) positions of flexion over 2 workouts.
So I settled on a two day split; Back, Chest and Shoulders one day and Legs and Arms the other day with two variations for each workout. This meant that I would train each body part every fourth day. On paper this seemed to meet all my needs so away I went.
Here was my training split near the end of 2011; using 4X one workout and alternating that with rest pause for the other.
Back, chest and shoulders (workout A) Back, chest and shoulders (workout B)
Deadlift 1 x max Chin ups
Incline DB Bench DB Bench press
DB row/BB row Straight arm pull down
DB incline fly DB Neutral grip fly press
Omni DB shoulder row Omni DB shoulder row
DB lean raise Incline bench side raise
Cable forearm curl BB forearm curl.
Legs (Quad focus) & Arms (A) Legs (Hammy focus) & Arms (B)
Leg extension 1-leg curl
BB Hack squat DB stiff legged deadlift
Squat Leg press calf raise
Calf-raise Seated calf raise
DB curls Dip
Triceps pushdowns Spider curl
Reverse curl DB pull over ext.
This training split worked wonders and in the first 4 months I made some really good gains. My deadlift went from 140kg for 12 in Dec 2011 to a PB of 160kg for 11 by April 2012 which was cool. Over 2012 I have stuck with this split with only minor adjustments and am presently using training protocols like 4X variations, POF, 5×5 (which I will talk about at a later date) and x-reps to augment it. I have to be honest I have really enjoyed these workouts! If you have been struggling to make gains on the training split you are currently using, make some adjustments by considering your own unique needs and genetic predispositions so you can devise the best training split for you.
Have you heard the saying you are what you eat? This is so true if you are digesting and using the foods you eat properly. However if you have digestive problems your hard work in the gym and commitment to a nutritious diet will definitely be compromised. Some common ailments of poor digestion are indigestion (heart burn), chronic fatigue, yeast overgrowth, constipation, diarrhoea, excess gas, bloating, hunger, stomach problems (leaky gut, ulcers, Chrohn’s, celiac, irritable bowel………..) and food allergies. So how can you make sure you are digesting your nutrients optimally so you get the maximum benefits from your food too improve muscle gains? Below are some ideas to improving your digestion.
Do you rush around all day and eat on the run? One of the most basic things you can do to improve digestion is to make sure that when you eat you sit down, relax and chew your food properly. Patrick Holford, a leading nutritionist suggests that the digestive system is like a second brain and that separating thoughts, feelings and physical reactions are impossible. So when you eat you should choose the most nutritious foods, prepare them in a way that you like and have positive thoughts about what you are eating to optimise digestion. Chewing your food does several things too; it begins the digestive process in the mouth and it breaks up your food into smaller pieces increasing the surface area so that your digestive enzymes in your stomach have a better shot at digesting your food.
Some people find that combining foods in certain ways can help them digest foods more effectively and avoid some of the digestive ailments mentioned above. Here are some food combinations that appear to work for those who have had digestive problems;
Combining proteins only with leafy vegetables.
Have fruits by themselves.
Combine vegetables with starches (wheat, rice oats, pasta…..)
Although this seems a rather limited way to eat it may only be necessary to do this for a short period of time until your digestion improves.
Adding digestive enzymes is another good way to ensure you are getting the most out of your foods. There are a number of foods that have enzymes that can help the digestive process like bromelain which is in pineapple and papain from papaya; both are useful in helping digest proteins.
If you still have trouble digesting your food then you can add a digestive enzyme supplement with each of your main meals too.
Avoiding foods that can cause allergies can improve digestion. Some foods that can cause allergies are:
Coffee and tea (can also prevent absorption of nutrients).
Some nuts- peanuts are a good example.
Eggs
Chemical additives
Alcohol
Milk and wheat
Charles Poliquin an Olympic trainer in the States suggests eating a wide range of different proteins as eating one protein for an extended period of time can sometimes cause food allergies.
Making sure you have the right bacteria within your stomach can make or break your digestive efforts. Good bacteria can help make vitamins our body needs to function optimally, they help fight infection, reduce inflammation and food allergies and help digest your food. Eating fermented foods and taking a probiotic supplement can be a great insurance policy to ensure you have a healthy balance of bacteria in your stomach. Supplement companies like Gaspari nutrition realise the importance of probiotics and digestive enzymes to make sure you are getting the maximum benefits from their supplements and have added these to their latest Myofusion formulation.
Although I have only touched on some of the ways you can improve digestion, these small changes will indeed make a big difference to your health, how you feel and how you digest and absorb your nutrients from your food to improve muscle gains in the gym. Incorporate some or all of these ideas and watch your muscles grow!
The first bodybuilding shows for 2012 are done and dusted with many more to come! Now is as good a time as any for first time athletes to throw their hat in the ring and get up onstage. But where do you begin? Whose advice should you follow? What should be your expectations? This all depends on a number of different factors- How long have you been training for? How much muscle and body fat do you have now and how disciplined are you at following through on goals?
I can remember my first show like it was yesterday, it was 1998 and my second year of university; I was lucky enough to have my Uncle Al who was a successful bodybuilder give me some guidance on all aspects of competing. As I was a poor student my diet for 4 months was canned tuna, mixed vegetables and SHAPE 2000 protein powder (I haven’t eaten tuna since then by the way). To cut a long story short the training and diet was HARD but it worked. I managed to lose 10 kg and get in good enough shape to win my first show- the open short Athletic class- I was stoked and hooked on competitive bodybuilding for life! I have to say that competing has had so many benefits for me- It proved to me that being disciplined, focused and having belief in yourself can pay off, but the biggest thing I realised in relation to bodybuilding was that I would need to keep learning about myself, training, diet and presentation on stage if I was to continue to make improvements.
So I was thinking the other day; what would I tell others if I was in the position to offer advice to someone if it was their first time. Below are the top 9 things I would encourage them to do.
Be realistic. When I first started competing in 1998 I saw a number of athletes be given false expectations of what they could achieve up onstage. One guy had only been training for 6 months and still had a bit of a spare tyre around his stomach. Good on him for losing 15kg of body fat but his personal trainer had not been honest with him. The guy was dejected to say the least when he came last and saw how far he still had to go to be competitive; he threw in the towel and never competed again. Make sure you have checked out a few competitions as a spectator first to see for yourself what you should aim to look like. Be realistic with what you have. Some people can walk into the gym and after 6 months look like a competitive athlete while others can’t. I had been doing weights for 10 years before I did my first show. I am also a natural trainer for life with a small bone structure so I will never be a mass monster- but I am realistic about what I can achieve and I am happy with that!
Set your goals well in advance and choose the appropriate competitive arena for you. Select a show far enough away so that you have ample time to lose the body fat slowly so you can maintain all the muscle you have worked so hard to build. For most natural athletes losing half a kilo a week is a healthy amount of weight loss without affecting your training and muscle size. For me I keep close to my competitive weight as I have found trying to bulk up to add size never worked for me. By the time I had dieted down I was never much if at all bigger and felt tired from all the extra work I had to do to lose the weight. Also make sure you go in the right federation for you, if you want to compete naturally you will need to consider that you may not have enough size to compete in the physique class in some federations. There are also other options like Athletic and Classic for men as well as figure and shape for the women.
Find out as much as you can about pre-contest dieting and training. I have found the best strategy for me is to train in such a way as to maintain all my strength. In fact I have found that because I do not have much fat to lose I can aim to keep improving my lifts right until the last week before a show. My training techniques and style (for me) encourages body fat loss and muscle gain and it involves moderate volume, moderate weight and short rest periods. Again your training style has to suit your genetics and goals so you will need to learn as much as you can and believe in your training system whatever it is. You can always make adjustments for the next show if you feel it did not meet your expectations. Diet again is an individual thing but there are some general rules to start.
Eat every 2-3 hours or at least 6 times a day with protein at every meal.
Aim to have at least 1.5-3 grams of protein per kilo of lean body mass.
Eat a wide range of low glycaemic and nutritious vegetables.
Make sure you get at least 30-40 grams of fibre a day (made up from a range of vegetables, flax fibre and psyllium husks).
Get in some form of Omega 3 fatty acids (fish or flax oil)
Drink 3-4 litres of water a day.
Get rid of all processed foods. (Yes; bread is processed!)
Find ways to serve these foods so they taste good and are enjoyable!
Use natural supplements to augment your dietary needs.
When you get help from someone like a personal trainer make sure they have competed before. Pick someone who has walked the walk and that will provide support right to and on the day of the show. Apart from the training and dieting there is the preparation required backstage like pumping up and tanning which can make all the difference come contest day. In general I found that I spend most of my pump up time on my upper body and less on my legs as some of the shape in my legs can be hidden from a pump. Also I am not a fan of sun beds or applying a base tan. My tan has always looked its best when my wife has applied Dream Tan on the day of the show. Also they should be there for you when you aren’t feeling great (just like anything that requires great effort and discipline it will get tough) to provide the right guidance and support.
Learn to pose earlier rather than later. You will need to find someone to help you with the compulsories (these vary slightly from federation to federation so check on their respective web-sites), picking music and putting a posing routine together. I think you should begin posing when you begin your diet. Have someone you trust critique your physique and make adjustments to the poses so you look your best. You want to make yourself look as X-framed as possible making your legs and upper body look their biggest and your waist as small as possible from all angles (front, sides and back). Learn to hold poses for at least 30 seconds where you can strain the heck out of your muscles while still being able to maintain a relaxed and smiling face.
Learn techniques to stay focused and positive. For me I write my goals for the year in my training diary and often write positive statements or reward myself when I meet set targets. I also say (in my mind) positive affirmations to myself every chance I get during the day. These allow me to stay focussed, positive and avoid negative thoughts and self- doubt that creep up on you when you are tired. Also surround yourself with happy, supportive people as this will help your mood too. You might also have a particular activity outside of bodybuilding that makes you feel good so make sure whatever it is- do it!
Keep a training and diet log leading up to the show. I have kept a log of my training since 2004 and began writing down everything I did (training & dietary) since 2006 with information about how I looked and what I ingested right up to when I got on stage. This has provided invaluable information in terms of what works for me. I know that with hardly any changes apart from slight water and sodium adjustments my diet stays exactly the same even on the day of the show. One thing I do which I think is important for all natural athletes is to avoid dehydrating days from a show. Your muscles are at least 70% water and if you dehydrate you will look flat and feel weak (read my articles on waterworks I and II). Looking at the last show I competed in I had 5 litres of water Monday to Thursday. Friday I had 3 litres and on the day of the show I sipped water whenever I was thirsty. This allowed me to compete with full muscles and I felt good! Often when people say they were holding too much water it usually means they just weren’t lean enough.
Do not change anything drastically at the end. A week out from the show and you look amazing so why would you change anything? Keep to the programme. If you are someone who handles carbs well then a carb deplete and load may work for you but make sure it is planned and that someone is there to help you and knows what they are doing and knows how your body reacts to foods. I think these things should be sorted out well before the show –why would you leave it to chance; you’ve just worked your butt off for the last 12-20 weeks. Stick to listening to one person and avoid listening to all the experts at the gym. All it will do is confuse you and make you start to question what you are doing. You can always make small adjustments for the next show and at least then you will know what worked for you or didn’t.
Have fun. The whole point of getting up onstage is to show off all the hard work you have put in so enjoy it. But if you are grumpy and miserable for the whole time you are dieting then competing may not be for you. You have to love doing it- the training, the diet, the whole lot. Be courteous and friendly to your competitors and remember, although there are no big pay outs financially at the end of it the experience in its’ self can be rewarding in so many other ways. So if you are keen to get your trunks on and jump onstage consider some of these ideas and I wish you all the very best for your first show!
