Marty Gallagher: September 2008 Archives
Beck showed up at my door this past Tuesday visibly thinner. He had ventured up from Northern Virginia for his second visit. Today we would cardio walk and weight train.
He indicated that he was completely fired up about the process and how our seven week journey had revitalized him. The best thing, he said, was how much he enjoyed the workouts, "I love my outdoor cardio walks; the heart rate monitor provides me with a consistent benchmark and allows me to have a frame of reference. The weight training is a complete blast; by concentrating on a relatively few number of exercises you can get really good at the few you do. Everyone is telling me how much better I look!"
He grabbed his still ample (yet smaller) gut and said, "Now if I could only get rid of this!" He laughed.
I gave him another of my endless analogies. "Your gut is the equivalent of America's Strategic Oil Reserve. Your body's biggest reservoir of fat resides in your stomach. Fat is fuel - food energy that the body stores away for starvation times. Your body will drain down all its other fat deposits before he turns its attention to drawing down gut fat. That is why your limbs and face look so much leaner and trimmer. You've lost fifteen pounds of body fat and that fat has been drawn from your legs, arms and glutes. This is why your face looks so much thinner. In the next few weeks the body will start mobilizing gut fat. We've still got a ways to go."
We started off with a fairly intense cardio walk at the farm. In contrast to his first visit in week I when I had to stop every five minutes to let him regain his breath, this time he was able to walk ahead of me and we only stopped four times in fifty minutes and those were at my command. I showed him a few tricks to make "walking harder." Most people walk with their arms hanging limply at their sides. They use very little leg drive. By pumping the arms hard and really digging with the legs - almost like an ice skater - the heart rate can be elevated 10-20 beats per minute.
Beck ate up the hills and using our new walk techniques was able to register a 165 heart rate cresting one steep hill. His heart rate was dropping 20 beats in a minute (a good thing) after cresting the hills and at session's end he registered 79% of his age-related heart rate for our 47 minute session. He indicated that in his previous life this would have exhausted him and now it invigorated him.
We headed back to my garage gym to hit the weights. The idea was to hone and refine his techniques. In the squat I broke his form down completely: he was stiff and inconsistent and was attempting to rebound out of the bottom position. I showed him how to push the hips back while descending and how to "allow" the poundage to push him downward to the deepest point - all the while maintaining a vertical torso. At rock bottom he would push erect "on the heels" while keeping his hips under his shoulders at all times. I also showed him how to keep his knees forced out on both descent and ascent.
I opened up his stance to allow his gut room to descend between his thighs. 65 pounds was kicking his glutes; which was great. By cranking him way back on the poundage, by insisting that he use an extreme range of motion, by teaching him how to maintain a vertical torso throughout the lift, a relatively light poundage was taxing his thighs so dramatically that his legs were shaking with effort while coming erect on the final reps of a 5-rep set.
"That was incredible!" He commented after three sets of five reps with the light poundage. "My thighs are blasted to smithereens! It was as if no other muscles were being worked."
Beck was experiencing precision muscle targeting. His dumbbell bench presses needed no corrections. He was extremely strong in this lift (remember this is a 59 year old man who'd done nothing physical as recently as two months ago) and he handled a pair of 50 pounders for three sets of ten reps, quite impressive! We moved on to the sumo deadlift ("Think of it as a reverse squat.") and he was able to crush 135 x 5 and 165 x 5 reps using nice technique. By incorporating what we had learned a few minutes earlier in the squat, i.e., vertical torso, knees forced out while rising and lowering, head looking up, push off the rear of the foot, and using those same techniques on the sumo deadlift, Beck was able to harness his power quite effectively.
After his workout he was drenched in sweat. He had hit his scheduled target body weight of 214 two days prior and I remarked that he was likely 212 pounds now. I gave him a triple serving of Parrillo's 50-50 Plus, a post-workout Smart Bomb shake, and sent him on his way. He left elated, invigorated and reenergized. Our goal is for him to achieve a 199 pound bodyweight by January 1st whilst adding 10 pounds of solid muscle. He appears locked onto this goal like a cruise missile heading towards a target.
Want to train personally with Marty? Email him at: mgso@embarqmail.com
Those who have been following Beck's transformational saga know that the 59 year old badly sprained an ankle and bruised his tailbone on Thursday, September 4th. This necessitated an "in-flight" course correction: cardio walking was eliminated and all squatting and deadlifting curtailed. Injuries happen, and though Beck's injury was completely unrelated to training, (he missed a step coming off a curb) savvy trainers don't quit training - they devise a way to train around the injury.
Because Beck's twisted ankle prevented lower body work, we "doubled up" on the upper body and substituted seated exercises for standing ones. Curls, tricep pushdowns and lat pulldowns replaced squats and deadlifts. I told him that because his cardio walking was out of the question and because his regular weight routine was derailed, in order to stay on our weight loss schedule he needed to cut back on his caloric intake in order to compensate.
Most trainers are completely ignorant of the ultra-basic Energy Balance Equation - which, put simply, means if daily caloric intake exceeds daily caloric expenditure then guess what: no weight loss is possible. Because his cardio was curtailed he needed to compensate for "un-burned" calories. Since he was burning between 300-500 calories per cardio walking session, Beck needed to reduce his caloric intake between 300 and 500 calories per day. His weight goal for this week was to weigh in Monday at 216 pounds.
His strength level continued improving at a rapid rate despite the injury. This was evidenced by his ability to dumbbell bench press a pair of 55s for two sets of five reps. Beck indicated that his ankle was completely healed so we will recommence squatting and deadlifting in Week VII. He hit a cardio session towards the end of week six and commented how (relatively) out of shape he felt compared to his pre-accident cardio condition. I told him not to worry about this and pointed out a Purposefully Primitive Truth: cardio conditioning is the easiest and fastest to obtain and the quickest to flee.
When an untrained individual begins training, improvement in cardio comes rapidly. When the trainee ceases cardio training for whatever reason, their cardio condition recedes just as quickly. Strength is the hardest and slowest to obtain yet once obtained can be retained for a long time even if the trainee quits completely.
Beck will be able to reacquire 90% of his previous cardio condition within his first full week of training. Below are his comments on how week six unfolded...BTW - at the Monday morning weigh-in that ended week six he weighed 216.2 pounds!
Marty,
Here's my week 6 update. The weights went well: the last set of curls and tricep pushdowns were tough and I backed off the curls when my form broke down. DB bench press went smoothly all three days. I lost a lot of cardio progress; my asthma was kicking in but still I improved each day. Decided to handle hills as intervals, i.e., go as fast and far as possible until a full recovery stop was required. I would then rest until I felt recovered (regardless of pulse rate) before continuing. Set-backs generally occurred on steep hills; which was quite logical. I guess the 10 days off cardio kicked my butt cardio wise. My ankle is totally recovered. Nutrition has not been perfect due to a few biz lunches and my quarterly trip to Annapolis with a Navy bud. I have been losing steadily and expect to make target weight on Monday morning. Right now I can't eat "badly" even if I want to - If I eat junk it makes me sick. Chips and salsa are my biggest temptation. I only had a few at lunch last week. Also went with the veggie omelet, no cheese this morning instead of my usual chili and cheese omelet. My good buddy quizzed me on what I'm doing - on account of I am visibly improving - so I filled him in and suggested he buy your book!
Best weekly weight performances
Dumbbell Bench Press 1x5 with a pair of 50s; 2x5 w/ 55s
Incline Curls 2x10 with a pair of 27.5; 1x7 w/27.5
Tricep Pushdowns 3x10 with 50 pounds
Lat Pulldown 3x10 with 100 pounds
After returning from his 1,200 mile auto trip, the 59 year old Beck had the misfortune to step off a curb and fall, severely twisting his ankle. He was lucky it did not break. He landed hard on his tailbone and that could have had catastrophic consequences. His bodyweight goal for Week V was to whittle down to 218 pounds. He started off the week (having just returned from his trip) weighing 222.4 and by the weeks end, he managed to drop to 219.4, a three pound loss.
Pretty dang excellent considering his twisted ankle put a real damper on his training.
He contacted me on Monday. Cardio was out of the question and squats and deadlifts were out of the question. I suggested he concentrate on his bench press (no ankle pressure) and add seated curls alternated with tricep pushdowns. In addition he would perform seated shrugs and seated lat pulldowns for some upper back work. It was decided that he should crank back on his overall calorie intake. Being unable to power-walk and being unable to generate those high heart rates he was routinely experiencing after performing squats/deadlifts, it was only logical that he compensate by reducing his caloric intake to offset his enforced lack of activity. His three pound weight drop was fabulous and attributable to having the discipline to cut back on the food when the natural tendency would be to eat more. He commented...
Not a lot of exercise results to report due to travel days and the injury. However, I lifted today and it felt great! I still cannot squat due to ankle pain and substituted some leg presses. I also tried the exercise bike instead of walking. The nutrition is definitely working. Weighed in this morning at 219.4 and expect to hit 218 in the next day or two! I am still right on track and right back on schedule in spite of travel, injuries and assorted setbacks. Ankle is feeling much better. I should be able to resume squats on Tuesday. I tweaked my left hamstring a bit during deadlifts. You were right on in having me take a few days off - I was really tired from the trip and needed the break. Your coaching allowed me to psychologically take a break as well. So, kudos to you!
Often the smartest thing a trainee can do is take a break from training. Certain "tells" and clues start to surface: continual exhaustion, tiredness, mental fuzziness and a telltale lack of enthusiasm for training.
Taking a few days of complete rest can revitalize and reenergize a person. After 2-3 days of rest, the trainee will suddenly feel a tremendous urge to recommence cardio and lifting. When they do begin to train, poundage soars, reps soar and cardio personal records fall effortlessly.
I've seen this phenomenon happen repeatedly: I often have to force a trainee to take a break and often encounter resistance, "I don't want to stop - all my gains will disappear!" Because I have been monitoring their lack of progress and sensing their general fatigue, I can spot the telltale signs of over-training before they can. After coming back from an enforced layoff, trainees are amazed at how rejuvenated, rested and alert they feel. Elite athletes take time off before a major competition. They seek to make sure that they are completely rested and healed from the intense training they've subjected themselves to.
I have applied this "purposeful layoff" strategy to Beck and this coming week when he is able to recommence hard training I expect personal records to fall like dry leaves in late autumn.
One thing Personal Trainers rarely take into account is life. How often have I heard or witnessed the classical totalitarian PT telling clients about to go on vacation, "I need you to find a gym while you're gone. I need you avoid bad foods. I need you to stay perfect while vacationing - I don't want you to undo all the hard work I've put into you!" My favorite tale of lunacy was when a PT insisted that if a particular client "was really committed" they would pack cans of tuna on a trip to Paris. The Hitlerian PT thought he'd hit upon an idea that was pure genius: if before going out to lunch or dinner with friends and family the client would gobble down delicious can of cold tuna the client "Wouldn't be tempted by the all that rich food."
To make a bad story worse, the poor intimidated client actually followed this lunatic advice. While friends and family were having Parisian culinary experiences of a lifetime the poor client refused to indulge, tortured by the smells and aromas of the world's finest food, stoically refusing to eat anything other than salad. How pathetic. If PT Hitler had half a lick of sense he could have suggested to his browbeaten client eat a wonderful piece of grilled fish along with some fabulous sautéed fiber vegetables. How about some magnificent shellfish or perhaps a perfectly prepared steroid-free steak - or a delicious portion of grilled free-range chicken? Needless to say within a year the beleaguered client and El Supremo parted ways: after 12 months of haranguing and harassment, after zero gains for $100 per hour, the client fled.
Beck had finished his third week of training using my Purposefully Primitive approach. He had to drive to Detroit for a wedding: something like eighteen hours each direction. He contacted me ahead of time half expecting I would chide him about what he should and shouldn't do while away. Much to his surprise I told him to enjoy himself and not worry about training or eating or perfection. We are humans, not robots, I related, and the physical renovation process is a process not an event. When we realize that fitness is a long journey and an extended process we can allow for the little detours and potholes life throws at us. Perfection is fleeting and reality is ever present.
So relax and have fun and dance with the bride and have a few cocktails and eat drink and be merry...we'll jump back into the fitness fray with both feet upon your return. Interestingly Beck had, in three weeks time, developed an addiction to our little 30 minute stripped-down weight routine and the early morning outdoor nature power-walks. He craved a lifting session, he wanted to train, and found a gym nearby while he was in Detroit. "I really felt like training so I found a local gym and hit it. You really put out when you show up at a strange location."
At the wedding he had a great time and despite seven beers and five glasses of wine spread over nine hours, despite eating different and varied foods not on "the diet," despite a 1,200 mile round trip, despite "hard partying" and 22 hours in a car, upon his return home he weighed 222.2 pounds. His lowest weight over the past three weeks was 221.8 so he was amazed. How'd that happen? How come he didn't balloon up ten pounds during his four day trip?
After three weeks of 'clean' eating, when he consumed 'dirty' food his body rejected it. The now strange nutrients ran through his digestive track faster than a NASCAR driver running a lap at Daytona. If he were to stay eating the bad stuff the body would "remember" how to process all those nutrients. I address this metabolic phenomenon in an essay entitled, Holiday Hedonism on page 421 of The Purposeful Primitive. Rested, ready and raring to go, Beck is ready to shift into a "power phase." The first four weeks were a "conditioning phase" that is now over. He will be dropping the reps and up the training poundage while extending the length of the cardio sessions. Stay tuned.
Beck Ends Week III: On Track on All Fronts
Beck ended week III weighing in on Monday - we always weigh in on Monday to include any weekend binges. He weighed in at 224.5, exactly on track. He had dropped as low as 222.6 during the week at which point I suggested he increase protein calories. I did not want him to make the rookie mistake of losing too much weight too fast. Our preordained goal was to whittle off two pounds per week for ten straight weeks. Experience has shown that for a 200 pound man to lose at a faster rate, causes muscle tissue to be lost during the process.
Have you ever wondered why the obese crash dieter ends up (still) fat and flabby - still skinny-fat despite losing 40 to 100 pounds of bodyweight? The crash dieter has lost as much or more muscle as fat. Elite bodybuilders, the world's most effective dieters, have discovered that slow, steady reductions in body weight allow the dieter to lose fat while "sparing" muscle tissue. In three weeks Beck has lost six pounds; our overall plan was to par off 20 pounds in 10 weeks. This does not take into account a five to eight pound "muscle acquisition" that will occur during the ten week timeframe. Put differently, over the ten week period, Beck will actually lose 25 pounds of body fat while adding five pounds of muscle resulting in the bathroom digital scale registering a 20 pound reduction in body weight.
Weight training: Being Purposeful Primitives, we believe in doing fewer things better. His thrice weekly training regimen consists of three exercises: the plate squat, the pause bench press and the Sumo deadlift. In the plate squat (grasp a barbell plate to the chest) Beck hit three sets of 12 reps holding a 35 pound plate. He squat down deep, all the way down, he pauses a beat before pushing upward. The critical technical point is to not allow the hips to rise during the difficult upward push. In the bench press Beck made three sets of 12 in the paused dumbbell bench press with a pair of 35s and in the Sumo deadlift shifted from a 56 pound kettlebell to a 135 pound barbell. He successfully managed two sets of five reps in the deadlift. Over the next few weeks we will push that up to three sets of 12 reps with 135. He hit every preordained weight training rep and poundage goal.
Cardiovascular Training: Being an overweight 59 year old, brisk walking around his neighborhood is more than enough to goose Beck's heart rate to 70% +. So why make him jog or run or engage in other aerobic modes? Beck was able to walk six times for 30 minutes and generated a six-session blended average of 74%. For the second week in a row Beck generated a higher heart rate (77.2%) during his three 30-minute weight workouts than while walking. Beck walks for 30 minutes in the morning before breakfast, as this timing tactic accelerates fat-burning. He hit every preordained cardio goal.
Nutrition: As we mentioned last week, Beck's "significant other" is an expert cook. Beck had a great eating week. This was evidenced by the fact that I actually had to advise him to eat more lean protein midweek because he was losing weight too fast. By increasing lean protein intake muscle is feed instead of starved. Our goal is to lose body fat not body weight. I would give him an A+ on this week's eating. Best of all, when I quizzed him he indicated that the process was "effortless." The weight training was fun and challenging, the cardio invigorating and the foods consumed delicious.
Onward!
|
