Getting Better Might Hurt (more than you think) by Paul Nobles Ask yourself this question: ”Am I getting better?” Too often, we run in circles chasing goals we don’t want to achieve, for reasons that don’t really make sense after we start moving in the right direction. When you first walk into a gym, you typically have a resultant outcome in mind – most likely to lose fat. The basic assumption is that since you were relatively inactive before, some level of exercise will benefit you in this process. From a fat loss perspective, there are some inherent problems with this approach but the idea of becoming a more capable human being is a good one. There are a few different paths you can take to increase your fitness: weightlifting/strength training, some level of cardio/conditioning, or a hybrid of the two. With Met Flex for Fat Loss, we suggest that for quality weight loss with little-to-no compromise of lean body mass, you need to burn fat during your periods of inactivity (both rest days and the times you aren’t working out). Simply put, you can’t get around the fact that your body needs more energy intake when you produce greater energy output. Want more fat loss? Allow for more rest and recovery, because those days don’t require nearly as much energy as the days you’re active. On days you hit the gym, fuel your workouts and eat more. That’s one of the basic tenants of this site and for most people, while they may gain a few pounds doing so, if they are smart about their rest days they can keep fat in check and take things a bit further if that is the goal. Getting Better Hurts I am sitting here writing this and my left oblique is “tensed”. My knees felt the strain of a good lower body beating, and then I followed that up with a good upper body beat down, so my chest and arms aren’t feeling all that great either. Let me be perfectly clear: I am not sore. I am not going to suggest to you that my form was perfect with everything I did, but I didn’t “tweak” anything. My body hurts because I beat it down in an effort to prepare it for future beat downs. That’s part of the process of getting better – anybody telling you different isn’t being completely honest with you. You can have perfect form but if you are testing the limits of who you are, you WILL feel the sting. Not injury, not soreness, but stress. Putting your body through stress isis what causes it to adapt, adjust, and make you better. Are you just Burning Calories? The scale is up today for me. This is pretty typical because appropriate healing doesn’t take place without a certain amount of food. It’s a planned rest day and I will be eating lowish carb – that should help with some of the inflammation that occurs with the pursuit of getting better. If I had the mindset that my workouts are how I “burn calories”, I would obviously need to hit the gym today because…Well, the scale is up! This is why understanding how your body works is so crucial. I use heart rate monitors (HRM, or heart rate variability monitor/HRV) but differently than most people. My goal isn’t to track calories burned to see how much food I’ve earned or how much closer I am to my target weight. Most of that is fool’s gold at best. I use HRV to track my rate of recovery. In a workout I will use a HRM to test how quickly I am recovering. In the morning I use an HRV to test if that recovery is working. You don’t get Better by Accident I typically WOD on Tuesdays. It often depends on what’s programmed but if my powerlifting training isn’t a good fit for what is programmed, I program something for myself to work through the various “issues” that have resulted from lifting to get better. Some people would call that “cardio.” You can call it what you want, but it’s part of my process. Being more capable means stretching my limits. I don’t do cardio to burn calories – I do it to be a more well-rounded human being. It’s also part of my process, being strong and then not being able to walk up stairs without breathing hard isn’t my goal. Why I don’t Take a Lot of Rest Days I eat appropriate amounts for my activity level, and I rest appropriately as well. If I wanted to lose more fat, I could do so simply by decreasing my work load and taking more rest days. My weight stays pretty constant, fluctuating 4 to 5 pounds, but I don’t feel a need to lose fat because I am healthy and capable. If I did want to, I know the template, but that isn’t consistent with who I have learned I like to be. I like getting better, and how much I weigh plays a significant role in that (but maybe not in the way you would think). You see, I know that if I took a month off to lose a couple of pounds of fat, it’d be like digging a hole as it relates to my work capacity. This doesn’t mean I won’t do back-to-back rest days on occasion, but if that happens it will happen because of my training goals, not because of my weight loss/body composition goals. It’s OK if the Reason you Work Out Changes Let’s get back to why you entered the gym in the beginning. For most people, it was about fat loss and let me be crystal clear, you can lose fat doing what I am suggesting, it’s just a slower process because building or preserving muscle takes time. If you have more fat to lose, trust me; adequate recovery and added work capacity is the answer. That is how I lost 25% body fat and as far as I can tell it’s the most sustainable approach out there. Wherever it is you work out, look at the veterans that surround you. Many of them that have trained for a long time working towards one end goal: to get better, irrespective of their fat layer. I am not arguing you need to become obese in an attempt to do this, but you do have to apply some level of logic and you have to ask yourself if what you are doing is consistent with your goals to be better. An extreme example would be someone that wants to be better at triathlon’s training as a powerlifter. Similarly, if you want to lift 700 pounds off of the ground and eat an appropriate amount of food, don’t be surprised if you become a hulking mass of awesomeness. Simply put, losing fat is a very small part of becoming “more capable.” For the people that still have a lot of fat to lose, you are much better off working on increasing your work capacity and letting the magic happen, rather than forcing it to happen by under eating dramatically. Make no mistake about it though, the process of getting better takes time and it hurts. It’s also one of the most rewarding experiences you will ever go through. _______________________ Metabolic Flexibility for Fat Loss is an easy, effective approach towards fat loss that champions gradual, lasting progress. This method teaches you to look at your activity levels, your goals, and your food preferences in order to formulate a plan that you can follow for the rest of your life. Click here for more info and a FREE chapter of Met Flex --> bit.ly/17DNa1e
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 02:30:01 +0000
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