Hey Angels and Alphas!

I while back, I did a blog post on the 4 different approaches to weight loss – exercise, nutrition, metabolism, and appetite suppression.

Today, we’re going to the other side of the spectrum!

We’re not going to talk about gaining weight per se, but weight training. It’s a topic so close to my heart (and so vital for your gains) that I decided to take the 4 approaches format and share with you my thoughts on the different approaches to strength training.

I’m sharing this with you because strength training is often misunderstood. “Training for strength” is not enough! Whether you realize it or not, you’re taking one of these four approaches while exercising, and I’m here to shine a light on them!

When you know what approach you’re taking, you can make the right decision for yourself based on what your goal is in the gym.
So without further ado, let’s dive right in!

The 4 “Approaches” to Strength Training;

It all starts with a simple realization. When you’re strength training, you’re either doing it to improve your muscular explosiveness, endurance, agility, or power output.

In this post, we’re not looking at individual types of strength training such as full-body workouts, push-pull splits, or hypertrophy training. We’re looking at the underlining goals that stand behind them.

For example, traditional full-body workouts achieve a balance between agility and endurance training, but won’t do much for your explosiveness and power unless you decide to put more emphasis on them.
This post will help you recognize where you need to put that emphasis to make your workout routine complete.

No surprises here – weight training makes you stronger. But different types of weight training produce vastly different results and give “stronger” a variety of different definitions.

While some types will help you increase your one-rep-max and squat a gazillion pounds, others will make you an unstoppable rep machine that doesn’t know the meaning of fatigue.

And some variations of strength training will do almost nothing for you in terms of strength and endurance gains, but they’ll still produce significant health benefits for you!

By learning all about the different approaches to strength training, you’ll be able to pick the one that tailors around the weight, goal, and look you’re going for in the gym while aiming to fill the gaps in your routine (if there are any).

Approach #1 – Strength Training for Explosiveness

You hear the word “explosiveness” floating around the fitness community, but what does it really mean?

When we’re taking a look at any motion-related metric, we have to realize we’re dealing with a value of change. If you analyze human movements mathematically, every motion will come down to using a unit of force at a unit of time.

You can then define explosiveness as the maximal amount of force you can produce in a minimal amount of time – the lengthening of your muscle throughout its range of motion by a quick acceleration through the shortening phase.

When you’re training for explosiveness, that’s where your focus is – the speed of the movement throughout its range of motion.

Your explosive strength is your ability to generate tension by contracting your muscles rapidly. It’s about increasing the quickness of muscle fiber contraction so you can produce higher levels of force and improve the resilience of your muscles and connective tissue.

How do I train with this approach?

With this type of training, you should focus on compound and single-joint movements while using progressively heavier weights. Barbell cleans, kettlebell swings, box jumps, they’re all types of explosiveness training!

Your rep range should be in the 1-6 zone. If you want the highest amount of muscle power output, strive for short, sharp, explosive reps. Keep the tempo as fast as possible when performing an exercise, and rest between 60 and 120 seconds after every set. (Based on how much weight you were working with).

Who is it for?

Muscle explosiveness is the type of training you’ll see most athletes doing. With it, you’re achieving a great balance of strength and cardiovascular ability.

It’s also the perfect option for those looking to lose weight while gaining strength. While you’re training for explosiveness, you’re keeping your blood rate high, and you’re also demanding more from your muscles. You’ll not only build mass and build more calories at rest, but the lower weight you use will allow even those new to strength training to see quick improvements in their physique!

Approach #2 – Strength Training for Endurance

Now, endurance training is a topic that we could talk about for days!

Here, we’re taking a look at how to strength train for endurance, and we’re not digging in endurance training as a whole (that’s a story for another time).

Events such as marathons, 10Ks, and obstacle courses are also perfect examples of times when muscle endurance matters more than muscle strength. However, most runners don’t incorporate strength training into their endurance routine.

But a lack of strength can hold back an endurance athlete. Just look at triathlon participants! They not only have the aerobic ability to endure long periods of cardio, but they also have the muscle endurance necessary to move a somewhat heavy bicycle for a hundred or more miles. They use strength endurance training, and for the same reason, triathlon athletes are usually way more muscular than marathon runners.

In science-y terms, your muscular endurance is your ability to hold a muscle contraction (or a level of applied force) for extended periods of time.

A lot of bodybuilders focus on incorporating high-intensity endurance training into their routine. This is because bodybuilding exercises strive to reach full muscle fatigue in order to stimulate growth.
This method relies on aerobic efficiency to supply the working muscles with oxygen and nutrients.

How do I train with this approach?

Strength training for endurance involves compound, bodyweight, and multi-joint exercises. They require less intensity on each rep, and the rep ranges vary between 12 and 20 reps performed at a slow, consistent tempo. Keep your rest intervals here low. Between 30 and 60 seconds.

Another variation of weight training for endurance are isometric exercises. They include holding a weight up in one position for a given amount of time (without going through the range of motion). This improves your stamina and makes you incredibly strong in the positions you hold.

Who is it for?

Muscle-endurance training is for those who want to achieve higher aerobic efficiency of the muscles they’re working, get leaner, and stimulate muscle growth as a bonus.

Gymnasts, triathlon runners, rock climbers, and bodybuilders all benefit from strength-endurance training. But the people who benefit the most out of it are the endurance athletes who are missing out on weight lifting as a whole! If that’s you, start incorporating weights into your routine as soon as possible.

Approach #3 – Strength Training for Agility

While explosiveness is your ability to generate tension rapidly, and your endurance is your ability to hold that tension, agility is all about controlling that tension.

Because traditional strength training strives to make you better at moving a heavy load through your full range of motion, many tasks that require quick reactions and rapid changes in your power output merely fall behind.

Generating and decelerating muscle force, making quick changes in velocity and direction, and improving your reaction time will all come as a result of strength-agility training.
Imagine a strongman event or a CrossFit game – where participants have to cruise through a variety of exercises and quickly adapt their bodies to the new stimulus. They have to learn to shift the force they’re generating from one point to the other, and they need incredibly resilient connective tissues to achieve that. That’s agility.

How do I train with this approach?
To strength train for agility, you can use a variety of free weights or cable machines with moderate intensity. Your focus should be on your ability to change the direction of your power output – train your knee extensors (quadriceps) and your hip extensors (hamstrings, gluteus maximus, and abductor magnus). Knee extensions, reverse Nordic curls, and hip thrusts are all great exercises options for this type of training.
The goal here is to develop awareness and control over your own body through changes of direction, so a specific rep count isn’t necessary. However, I suggest staying in the 8-12 rep range as a general rule of thumb. Keep your rest periods between 45-120 seconds.

Who is it for?

Muscle-agility training is perfect for anyone who wants to improve their mind-muscle connection, balance, and coordination while decreasing your chance of injury.

Pretty much any athlete can benefit from strength agility training. Footballers, basketball players, hockey, martial artists, CrossFit enthusiasts – they all value agility in different ways and they all need it to perform at their best.

Approach #4 – Strength Training for Power

So far we’ve looked at the speed of your lift, your ability to hold it, and your ability to control the tension you put on your muscles.

When it comes to power, we’re talking about the highest level of muscle force you can exert. This comes down to your ability to use your muscles (or muscle) to engage all motor units, and generate the maximal amount of tension against an external stimulus.

This type of training requires extreme internal body coordination and neuromuscular efficiency. Recently, it has exploded in popularity, and more and more gyms are becoming powerlifting-centered.
Tailoring your program for power training helps your body quickly adapt to a new stimulus (and therefore become stronger) while increasing the levels of muscle-building hormones in your body and improving your bones’ strength and density.

How do I train with this approach?

Strength training for power involves mostly compound movements using free weights or specific machines. Exercises include squats, deadlifts, snatches, and pretty much every exercise that incorporates more than one muscle group.

The rep ranges are kept as low as possible, in the 1-4 range, with the goal of consistently improving your one rep max. Rest here should be held between 2 and 4 minutes depending on weight, tempo, and intensity.
*The focus here isn’t on speed like it is in explosiveness training! Aiming to perform your reps as fast as possible may lead to injury because of the sheer amount of weight you’re lifting.

Who is it for?

This training goal is for those who are looking to become as strong as possible.

Powerlifters, bodybuilders, strongmen, and any athlete that wants to focus on exerting more force in a specific movement.

Putting it all together…

You can look at these approaches as four different training protocols – the four parts of your strength training. For your workout routine to be complete, you need to pay attention to all of them!
If you’re following one of the traditional routines such as full-body workouts and push/pull/legs, chances are your routine is missing one of these essential aspects.

When you started working out, you probably saw some rapid changes to your body. But after your body got used to this new stimulus, doing the same movements may have stopped that much-desired progress.

So if there’s one thing that I want you to get out of this post today, it’s this:
Just by changing your workouts to tailor around one of these approaches, you are going to fill the gaps in our workout routine quickly! And this might be just the stimulus your body needs to get on the gain train again.

Well, what are you waiting for? Hop on! Next destination – your goals.

Talk to you soon,
Ally

Hey Angels & Alphas!

Every experienced trainer or physical therapist will tell you the same thing – in the gym, real progress happens only after you’ve finished your workout.

We’re talking about the time away from the gym – when you let your muscles rest, recover, and grow.

Post-workout recovery is a straight-forward concept, but I believe it’s somewhat overlooked nowadays.

All the latest trends in fitness point to a mindset of burning yourself out to achieve results. Especially with summer right around the corner, a lot of people are going as far as working out twice a day so they can push their bodies to the limit and get that desired “summer body”.

I say it’s time to relax and face the facts! (Hey, that rhymes.)

You’ve probably heard a lot about how important the recovery process is, but for most people, that’s not enough of a motivation to take actionable steps toward improving it.

But the fact is this – it doesn’t matter if you’re a gym-goer, a marathon runner, a dancer, or a professional athlete. During intense physical activity, you’re going to break down your muscle tissues, deplete your energy stores, and sweat out a lot of fluids!

I’d define your optimal recovery as the most effective and productive way for you to counter those effects. If you’re not giving your muscles enough water, nutrients, and time to rest, you’re going on the path toward overtraining.

Repairing your muscles, replenishing your energy, and restoring your body back to its normal state isn’t something you should have to think twice about.

Yet somehow, overtraining is encouraged by some of the most popular fitness gurus out there! That just goes to show how little some of these “experts” know about what’s right for you and what’s not. We’ve talked about how dangerous overtraining is before, but I can’t stress this enough…

If you’re not recovering correctly, you won’t achieve the results you want!

That’s not what I want for you.

For you, I’ve compiled this list of the three major components of the recovery process.

I created this as your personal post-workout checklist!

Anytime you’re feeling too sore, over-trained, stressed, tired, or unmotivated, you can come back to this post.

By doing this, you’ll instantly recognize which part of your workout rehabilitation is lacking, and you’ll know exactly what to do to fix it.

Then, you can focus your attention there and be back on track to your body goal in no time!

Without further ado, let’s look at the 3 essential components of optimal post-workout recovery.

Number #1 – Rest

Here’s your rest checklist! You can use to make sure you’re giving your muscles the adequate amount of rest they need to nourish, rebuild, and grow.

1. Prioritize sleep.

I don’t believe we need to spend too-too much time talking about sleep, but just know this; Lack of sleep increases your chance of injury, diminishes your performance, and ruins your chances of optimal recovery. Getting enough sleep has been proven to positively impact your motivation, focus, memory, muscle performance, accuracy, reaction time, and so much more. After all, while we sleep, our pituitary gland releases natural growth hormone! And growth hormone is a vital component of every major body function. However, I feel like I should point out that the quality of your sleep is more important than the quantity.

The best way to improve the quality of your sleep would be to develop a bedtime routine. This includes going to sleep at the same time every night, and waking up at the same time every morning, as well as avoiding TV/phone screens before bed and using sleeping masks whenever possible. That being said, aim for a minimum of 6 hours of high-quality, undisturbed sleep every night!

2. Give your major muscle groups adequate recovery time between workouts.

Working out the same muscle group at a high intensity two days in a row is a huge no-no. Your regimen should be structured in a way that, regardless of which major muscle group you’re working, you’re giving yourself at least 36 hours of rest before hitting it hard again.

This is the same reason you see regular gym-goers train upper body one day, then lower body the next. Useful exercise splits give all major muscle groups 24-48 hours of recovery down between training sessions.

Taking this time will allow your muscle tissues to heal, and your body’s natural hormone levels to be fully restored and ready for your next workout.

3. Take days off – don’t work out every day.

Even if you’re giving all your muscle groups 36 hours of rest, working out every day isn’t productive. Stress, pressure, and muscle fatigue accumulate over time.
To guarantee your physical and mental well-being, pick a day of the week and dedicate it to full mind and body relaxation. Your rest days are your best days.

4. Don’t use caffeine to power through workouts.

If you’re feeling tired or sluggish, don’t just chug a coffee and head for the gym.

I agree there’s a difference between only feeling tired and not being able to perform physically…

But if it’s your body that’s exhausted (and not just your current emotional state), listen to it. As much as people want coffee to be the solution to their lack of energy, it isn’t. Rest is.

5. Active rest.

We can’t talk about recovery without mentioning active rest!

Active recovery is essentially the idea that you should perform light to moderate (25-50%) physical activity even on your days off.

The goal here is to stimulate your blood flow and supply your muscles and connective tissues with healthy nutrients.
Your aim isn’t to further damage the tissues. It’s to substantially aid the natural healing process.

Number #2 – Nutrition

Here’s your nutrition checklist! Use this to make sure your dietary habits are in line with the purpose of giving your muscles the nutrients they need to re-build themselves.

1. Have a post-workout meal, but don’t overeat.

Calories are energy!

They’re literally fuel for the body, and if you want it to grow and adapt to the stress of working out, you’re going to need food rich in macro and micronutrients. Especially after a workout, when your glycogen stores are depleted.

That’s why a post-workout meal is always a good idea. Consuming a healthy snack after crushing a gym session not only feels rewarding, but it’s also super productive.
You’re restoring your glycogen stores and giving your body the energy it needs to kick-start the muscle rebuilding process!

When it comes to choosing the right snack, keep it as light and nutrient-rich as possible. Liquid “foods” are most often preferred over heavy meals. One reason for that is bloating. The other reason is that foods high in fat or fiber slow down your nutrient absorption.

That’s why protein shakes easily became the most popular post-workout “meal”.

Speaking of protein…

2. Prioritize protein and BCAAs.

If you want to ensure you have an effective recovery process and that you’re getting the most out of your workout, and at the same time, you want to drink something sweet and delicious, BCAAs are your thing. We need these essential amino acids (found in protein) to help our body repair and rebuild our muscle tissues on a daily basis.

For years and years, experts have been talking about the importance of protein for muscle growth. That’s because amino acids account for two vital muscle recovery processes; maximizing protein synthesis and minimizing protein degradation.

Women need approx. 0.7-0.8 grams of protein per pound of body weight for muscle building and men usually go as high as 1 gram per pound of body weight.
So if you’re looking for a great way to reduce muscle soreness, promote muscle building, and get back in the gym faster, don’t forget to follow-up your workout with BCAAs or a protein-rich meal!

3. Stay well-hydrated.

I’m only going to lightly touch on this topic because it’s pretty self-explanatory.

Drinking water helps you replace lost electrolytes in the body and speeds up muscle recovery. Not to mention, being sore and dehydrated at the same time is definitely not a fun experience.

The only thing you have to keep in mind here is that you should balance your water intake – don’t consume vast amounts before or after your workout.

Instead, aim for a balanced water intake throughout the day to make sure you’re well-hydrated without risking bloating.

Number #3 – Recovery-aiding Essentials & Anti-Inflammatory Habits

If you’ve got your resting and nutrition habits in line, these methods will serve as the icing on your post-workout recovery cake!

1. Stretching

When you stretch and become more flexible, your muscular strength and endurance improve, but so does your ability to properly recover after each workout.

When you stretch, you release tension off your muscles and achieve a feeling of relaxation.

When your muscles aren’t tight and strained, they naturally recover (and perform) better.

Create a 5-10 minute post-workout stretching routine, and you’ll start feeling less sore and fatigued after you exercise – trust me.

2. Foam rolling

Foam rollers have skyrocketed in popularity in the last few years. Their ability to relieve tension and reduce muscle stress has made them a favorite among fitness and rehabilitation experts.
Most people value them for their pain-alleviating qualities, but the benefits of foam rolling extend way past physical recovery.

Foam rolling helps you stretch and hydrate the fascia, a thin layer of connective tissue that lies under the skin and covers every muscle in your body.

By doing this, you improve the circulation of blood throughout your entire body. This helps you flush toxins, oxygenate your blood, and “lubricate” your joints.

With the right foam rolling technique, you’ll not only recover faster, but you’ll also feel amazing too! Foam rolling helps me unwind and relax after a hard workout, and if that’s not vital to recovery, I don’t know what is!

3. Cold showers

Check out this study – it concludes that taking a cold shower or an ice bath after an intense training session will help you decrease lactic acid, essentially reducing muscle soreness and speeding up your recovery.

4. Saunas

When you’re in a hot sauna, your body releases what are called heat shock proteins. Studies have pointed out that these proteins directly improve protein synthesis and slow down muscle breakdown.
Even though this heat is technically a harmful stimulus for the body, this slowing down of muscle degradation increases your chances to grow and recover your muscles effectively after training.

If you’ve gone through an injury recently and can’t train, saunas are a great way to reduce muscle loss.

And plus, who doesn’t enjoy a relaxing sauna after a long day (or a really fatiguing workout?)

5. Epsom salt baths

Epsom salts were first extracted from seawater in 1618, in the British town of Epsom. They’re also known as Magnesium sulphate. Ever since fitness pros started adding them to their warm bath water, they’ve been linked to stress relief, improved circulation, better moods, and reduced swelling and soreness.

They’re absorbed through the skin, and they make for almost an instant muscle pain reliever. These minerals are more popular among women because female athletes have a higher physiological demand for magnesium.

If you love taking long hot baths and you want to improve your muscle recovery, do a little digging, and you’ll simply fall in love with them.

A word about self-myofascial release!

Even though self-myofascial release is most often related to foam rolling, I decided to take a moment to talk about it separately.

It’s not that much of a way to generally improve recovery as it is a way to target specific pain points or problematic movements related to past injuries.

It’s a form of manual therapy. It’s used by both fitness gurus and rehabilitation specialists to enhance myofascial (relates to the fascia we talked about earlier) mobility.

I do believe its effect on muscle soreness is rather minimal, but as I said, it’s an excellent way for those who have trouble with specific movements to enhance their range of motion, relieve pain, and ease a particular movement.

If you have a past injury and you have trouble recovering after working out, your problem might not be poor recovery.

It might be that you’ve just accumulated stress in a part of your body related to harmful exercise movement patterns.

Self-myofascial release can help you release that stress.

To wrap it all up…

No matter how many tips and strategies I give you to reduce muscle soreness, alleviate pain, and speed up your recovery, there are always going to be the two main components dictating how fast you’re able to bounce back after an intense workout.

These two main components are adequate rest and nutrition.

When these two are aligned, you’ll most likely have no trouble recovering after even the most taxing training sessions. But just in case, I decided to give you some actionable alternatives you can start using right away.

All of this – rest, sleep, nutrition, hydration, stretching, foam rolling, and every other possible post-workout recovery strategy…

It all matters only if you decide to make this one simple realization;

You should take your post-workout recovery as seriously as you do your training.

Honestly, people ask me this question so many times a day; it’s not even funny!

Since the dawn of time, men and women in the fitness community have all been searching for the best way to structure and schedule their workout routines in ways that will help them achieve their goal weight/physique faster.

For most people, it’s simply not enough to just lift weights and run a few miles on the treadmill.

Most people want the exact process, system, or solution that will get them to where they want in the fastest, most comfortable way possible!

And that’s okay! We’re all wired this way – our brains are always looking for the best (and most of the time this means easiest) solution to the problem we’re facing, so it’s only natural that we like to separate things in a binary way and choose the right path.

We’re either doing weightlifting or bodyweight, weights or cardio, isolation or compound movements, high-reps or low-reps, full-body or split training and so on.

Today, you’re going to learn all you need about full-body workouts and split training regimes so you can rid your routine of that binary, limited way of thinking.

As with all our binary-thinking tendencies, what’s truly “right” for you can only be determined after you have all the information.

Whether you’re entirely new to the gym or have been going there religiously, we’re all always looking for the “right” way to organize our regime.

Some people love going all-in, training their entire body, and busting a sweat every time they step in a gym. Others, on the other hand, prefer to maximize the attention they give to every single muscle.

For you to find the best possible routine that will help you achieve your goals faster, you need to know what you’re getting into down to the tiniest detail. You have to find out what best fits your schedule, fitness level, and the goals you set, and I’m here to help you do just that!

I’m going to list all the pros and cons of both types of training, so you’ll be able to sculpt and train your body just the way you want to.

Let’s get into it!

Full-body Training

A full-body workout means you are exercising your entire body and stimulating all of your major muscle groups in one session.

It’s an excellent option for people who engage in different sports or types of fitness besides resistance training. It’s perfect for beginners, and coaches often recommend that everyone who is new to the gym starts off with two weeks of full-body workouts as a way to “warm-up” the body before entering a split day routine. However, this doesn’t mean that full-body isn’t just as effective on its own.

It’s also the best option for those looking to lose a lot of weight.

In this type of training, you’re working on your body as a whole. Statistically, more women prefer this method.

Pros;

1. More energy expenditure – more calorie burn!

The first (and in my opinion most important) benefit of full-body workouts is that you’re maximizing the number of calories you burn every workout. This makes this method of training perfect for those looking to lose a significant amount of weight.

When you’re training your entire body in one session, you’re expending more energy than you otherwise would because all of the major muscles in your body are getting taxed.

A workout consisting of squats, deadlifts, dips, and shoulder presses will take more out of you than your regular old biceps/triceps days.

By working on all of your major muscle groups in one go, your body is naturally going to release more energy, resulting in way more burned calories!

On top of that, that session is going to be like a reality check for your whole body. All the glycogen depletion, muscle stress, and microtrauma you’ve just caused your body gives you the perfect opportunity to load up on rich nutrients and achieve a super-compensatory recovery!

2. Higher frequency per muscle group and overall body balance.

Bodybuilding is about frequency. The more times you stimulate a muscle to grow, the more it will grow. (granted you get enough rest)

If you’re working out full-body three days a week, that’s a frequency that will always keep your major muscle groups stimulated and growing! If you want to use training splits to hit all your muscles three times a week, you’ll likely be doing at least two workouts a day. Sort of impractical, if you ask me.

When you’re training full-body and putting the same amount of emphasis on all your muscles, you’ll be growing your body in a balanced, more natural way. Chances are you’re not going to worry about muscle and strength imbalances.

3. Helps you save time.

If you travel a lot or you’re always juggling a busy schedule and can’t dedicate more than 2 or 3 days a week for the gym, full-body training is for you. Even though workouts tend to be long, you’ll be saving time in the long run. The time and energy you need to go to and back from the gym are also a part of this equation.

In terms of saving time, going to the gym twice a week is always better than going to the gym 5-6 times a week, regardless of how much time you actually spend in there.

Cons;

• Extremely taxing on energy.
• Increasing the training volume is hard. – Adding more intensity and exercises over time without making your workout too long can be tricky.
• Long workouts.
• Higher chance of overtraining. – For some people, even training full-body three days a week is a lot. The added frequency in which you hit different muscle groups can easily lead to overtraining. Don’t train full-body two days in a row.

Split Training

Working out on a split means you’re separating your muscle groups into different workout days. This way, you can put more emphasis on specific muscles and reach intensity levels that you wouldn’t be able to achieve in a full-body workout.

For example, you can train your chest on day 1, back on day 2, legs on day 3 and so on. You can combine muscle groups into different split days, but the golden rule is working out the bigger muscle group first. (For example, do back and biceps instead of biceps and back.)

This higher intensity and focus on specific muscles naturally makes split training more appealing to men.

Pros;

1. Heavier weights.

And a lot of them!

Think about it – because full-body workouts tend to burn more calories and use up more energy, they’re a lot more fatiguing overall. But for those who want to develop strength in specific exercises like the squat or bench press, this overall fatigue is counterproductive.

Consider the fatigue caused to individual muscle groups when compound movements are performed. After 3 or 4 compound movements, it’ll be harder for you to lift as heavy as possible. If you’re working on strength and size, you have tax each muscle group enough to overload it and let it adapt. Unlike full-body regimes, split training allows you to control that fatigue, and perform your best on specific exercises.

2. Focus on individual muscle shaping and definition.

If you want to spend more time getting broader shoulders, you can.

If you want to spend more time getting stronger, leaner legs, you can do that too.

Training on a split gives you freedom! It allows you to choose for yourself which part of your body you want to work on and improve. You have full control over the development and definition of your physique.

And if you have only two muscle groups to worry about, instead of your entire body, you’re going to give more concentrated attention to those two, which will result in specific muscle overload and adaptation. Split-based training helps you prioritize.

3. Better recovery.

If you’re working out all muscles groups 1-2x a week, you’re giving your body enough time to recover and grow.

With full-body training, anything more than three workouts a week will burn you out and make you wish you went for a split routine. With split-based training, you are far less likely to overtrain.

4. Making changes is easy.

Switching up your workout and adding/removing new exercises is easy when you’re only targeting one muscle group instead of your whole body.

Making these types of adjustments in your training split is as easy as focusing on different body parts on different days – but you have to be responsible with all that freedom!

Cons;

• Going to the gym 5-6 times a week.
• Less calorie burn.
• Possible muscle and strength imbalances. – just like we’ve seen with the gazillions of fitness models that are walking around with arms five times the size of their calves.

To wrap-up…

Full-body training is for the beginners who want to set a great foundation, for those who want to focus on cardio and weight loss, for those who don’t have as much time to work out, and for the advanced lifters who want to push themselves to the absolute max.

Split routine training is for fitness models, bodybuilders, and advanced lifters. It’s for those who need that extra degree of control over the development of their own body and those who don’t mind going to the gym 5-6 times a week.

I want you to stay away from that binary way of thinking (this vs. this) and realize that different periods of your life are going to require different versions of you.

Today, you might be completely comfortable with your split.

Tomorrow, the full-body training option might seem more viable.

That’s why in this post I wanted to lay out all the information in front of you so that you can make the right decision for yourself.

It’s a fact that both of these methods offer great benefits, so don’t let your coach or anyone else downright tell you what’s best for you in your situation.

So I urge you, regardless of where you’re at in your fitness journey, try both of these for a week, see which one you like best, then stick to it until you’re sculpted sexy!

Hey Angels and Alphas, do you remember the five main fitness components?

I’m talking about cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, body composition, muscular strength, and muscular endurance.

Out of these five, which one do you think gets overlooked the most in the fitness community?

You guessed it – flexibility!

Most weightlifters disregard flexibility because of their lengthy routines. Some people argue it has no benefit for the heavy lifters, and some deny it even exists!

But jokes aside, we have to address this topic. After all, what we’re all after is physical fitness – this means more than going to the gym three to five times a week. It means more than lifting weights and doing cardio. Physical fitness means feeling free in your own body, and flexibility is just that.

Today, I want to talk about what flexibility is, what it isn’t, and give you an overview of all the benefits you get for those extra five minutes of stretching at the end/start of your workout.

Let’s begin!

What is flexibility, and what does it truly mean to be “flexible”?

Flexibility is the ability to move your joints effectively through their complete range of motion – the level of tissue extensibility that a muscle group has. Every muscle group has a different level of flexibility and range of motion, but you can always improve them with the right training, even at an older age.

Having flexible joints is crucial when it comes to living a healthy, pain-free lifestyle.

As one of the leading components of fitness, it plays a monumental role in productive physical activity. If you’re a football or basketball player, flexibility plays a huge part of your overall fitness profile. And in activities as gymnastics, it’s honestly the most important physical attribute.

By stretching and training your body to become more flexible, you allow your body to perform deeper movements while building more strength and stability.

To become “flexible” and reap the performance benefits, you need to have a balanced routine of static and dynamic flexibility training. Static training aims to develop muscle elasticity and joint mobility and improve overall flexibility, while dynamic training is all about the full range of motion of your muscles during daily activities such as sports.

Due to being so neglected in the weightlifting community, flexibility remains misunderstood by most people.

We often believe flexible people are those who can bend down and touch their toes, or squat to the ground, and even though that’s true, flexibility goes beyond the ability to do a single stretch.

When you improve your overall flexibility, your muscles and joints will have a higher range of motion, you’ll be able to perform tasks with ease, and your body will feel more balanced and comfortable while you’re going about your daily activities!

Challenge: bend over and touch your toes to test how loose/tight your hamstrings are.

How do we train to become more flexible?

There are three factors you need to consider when training for flexibility: muscle length, muscle elasticity, and joint structure. While genetics are going to be the main deciding factor in the formation of your joint structure, you can still improve your muscle length and elasticity through exercise and physical activity.

There are a few different types of stretching you can do to improve flexibility, but the best way, of course, will be a balance of all three.

1. Static stretching means moving into a position that lengthens your target muscle, then holding that position for up to a minute. – exercises include the standing hamstring stretch, the triceps stretch, and the figure four stretch.
2. Dynamic stretching means moving in and out of a position that lengthens your target muscle, also known as ballistic stretching. This stretching often involves using subtle bouncing movements to put pressure on and off the tissue. – exercises include the leg crossover, the page turn, and the spinal twist lunge.
3. Active stretching, also known as isolated stretching. It refers to moving your joints through the complete range of motion of the muscle, holding the stretch briefly, then going back to square one and repeating. This stretching method is the most famous among athletes for fixing muscle imbalances and preventing injury. – exercises include the quad stretch, the psoas stretch, and the IT band stretch.

All three of these types of stretching are essential, but you don’t need to do them for hours and hours to reap their benefits. You don’t need a special class or machine. Stretching is something you can do pretty much anywhere. You can just put on a YouTube video about stretching exercises and have everything you need to become more flexible!

However, the best approach you can take is to create a stretching program that focuses on your individual needs and imbalances and incorporate it into your regular routine. Similar programs start with a series of stretches that warm you up and lengthen the muscles all around your body, improving joint mobility and range of motion, and preparing you for more intense exercise.

To improve flexibility, all you really need is 5 or 10 minutes a day.

Another workout method that might help is cross training – this refers to a few different cardio and strength exercises such as lunges or swimming strokes.

Lunges will strengthen your quad on one leg, and lengthen your hip joint on the other. Swimmers often have super flexible upper backs and torsos because proper swimming strokes effectively stretch these muscle groups.

Note: You should perform flexibility training after a proper joint warm-up – it’s the only way productive stretching can take place.

The benefits of flexibility!

Aside from gym performance, flexibility is a crucial part of everyday activities and has a positive effect on your overall well-being. Even getting up out of bed and carrying around groceries becomes more natural for someone who’s flexible.

This added level of physical freedom is why flexibility training is so crucial – not only will it help you handle all your physical tasks with more ease, but it’s truly a necessary part of everyone’s life (especially when you consider that your level of flexibility tends to decline as you grow older.)

Do you think you only get better posture, less joint pain, and more freedom in your own body?

Think again!

The list of benefits goes way beyond that, but I’ve managed to bring it down to the big three…

1. Reaching peak performance.

To reach your full potential in the gym, you must utilize the full capacity of your muscles so you can exhibit all your strength and power. You need to work on muscle length and mobility because tight and stiff muscles aren’t going to provide all the explosiveness you need for intense exercise.

If your biceps are tight, you’re not going to be able to perform the full range of motion of a curl. If your hip flexors are tight, you’re not going to be able to extend fully while running. Flexibility changes that – it enhances movement and mobility.

Flexibility will also improve your strength in the gym because having flexible muscles will help you adequately distribute tension along the muscle group, and your joints will become strong and mobile enough to support your movements.

Once you increase your flexibility, you essentially allow your body to move and perform more effectively.

2. Improving physical and mental well-being.

One thing you have to realize is that flexibility improves not only muscular strength and endurance but also your ability to perform aerobic training. Full range of motion is vital for fluid movements such as swimming and sprinting.

It also decreases soreness, especially in athletes who work out at a much higher intensity level.

And it’s not only physical fitness! Stretching helps you relax and enables you to take tension off your body. Taking the strain off leads to not only better physical performance, but more mental toughness. By stretching and opening up your body, you’re guaranteed to get a feeling of relaxation that calms your state of mind. It’s a way to unwind.

A focus on muscular pliability also improves your posture and allows for proper body and joint alignment, aiding in the correction of muscular imbalances.

3. Less pain, fewer injuries.

To top it all off, flexibility is also a massive factor in injury prevention.

It’s no wonder stretching exercises are such a big part of injury rehabilitation, sport-specific preparation, and post-workout recovery.

The more flexible you become, the more you’ll be able to withstand physical stress. Ridding the body of muscle imbalances (by strengthening underperforming muscles and stretching the tight ones) will also reduce your chance of getting injured.

When your muscles become looser, you’ll also feel less pain and aching around your joints.

To conclude…

The key benefits of flexibility are:

• Better performance in daily activities
• Better joint health
• Better posture and muscle balance
• Better gym/sport performance
• Muscle cramp prevention
• Pain and injury prevention
• Relaxation and stress relief

Now if this doesn’t sound like a good list of benefits, I don’t know what does!

If you’re someone who is serious about working out, you can’t miss out on one of the major fitness components.

It’s undoubtedly one of the most overlooked parts of fitness, and it’s going to bring a massive benefit to anyone who chooses to incorporate it into their routine!

Flexibility is more important now than ever before – don’t let it take a back seat to big biceps and rock hard abs!

How to identify, treat, and stay fit with an autoimmune disorder.

The United States is currently experiencing an autoimmune disease epidemic.

With over 60 million affected Americans today, the statistics show autoimmunity has increased threefold over the last half-century.

It’s ranked the third leading chronic illness in the US, behind heart disease and cancer, accounting for over $100 billion (with a b) in annual healthcare costs.

Autoimmune diseases aren’t a specific, labeled group of conditions that are easy to identify. More than 80 different autoimmune disorders exist. Their symptoms often overlap, making them hard to even diagnose.

Today, we’re taking a deep dive into what they are, how we can better our condition, and how we can make working out a beneficial and healthy part of our lifestyle, even with an autoimmune disease.

What Are Autoimmune Diseases?

First of all, no matter what type of autoimmune disease you have, they all start in one place – your immune system.

Your body’s immune system is a complex network of cells and organs which protect your body against foreign substances, bacteria, cancer cells, transplant tissue, and so on.

The primary purpose here is to keep your body healthy and to keep these foreign invaders out.

To do that, your immune system produces antibodies which, when released, attack these invaders until they’re good and gone.

An autoimmune disease is when that same immune system begins producing antibodies that attack your body’s own tissue, instead of fighting infections.

This often happens in response to certain triggers, which is why treatment for autoimmune diseases focuses on reducing the activity of your immune system.

As I said above, there are more than 80 types of autoimmune diseases, and a lot of them have really similar symptoms.

This makes diagnosing them a long, frustrating, and stressful process, both for you, and your doctor.

Blood tests that search out autoantibodies in your body can help doctors diagnose these conditions with precision.

Often, the first symptoms are things such as fatigue, fevers, muscle aches, and inflammation which causes redness in specific body areas, heat, pain, and swelling.

These diseases often get worse in their so-called flare-up period, and in certain periods, the symptoms may get better or even disappear. That period is called a remission.

Of course, treatment depends on the type of disease you have, but in most cases, the primary goal is to help your body reduce inflammation.

Your doctor might even prescribe corticosteroids or other drugs that reduce your immune system’s response!

Here are some of the more common autoimmune diseases, and what they entail:

• Type 1 diabetes – destroying cells in your pancreas
• Rheumatoid arthritis – joint inflammation (and the surrounding tissue)
• Celiac sprue disease – a gluten reaction that causes damage to the lining of the small intestine
• Scleroderma – a connective tissue disease that causes changes in muscles, blood vessels, organs, and the skin
• Systemic lupus erythematosus – affects skin, kidneys, brain, and other organs
• Psoriasis – a condition that causes redness, irritation, and flaky, silver-white patches on the skin
• Vitiligo – white patches on the skin caused by loss of pigment
• Inflammatory bowel diseases – a group of inflammatory conditions of the colon and small intestine
• Addison’s disease – insufficient adrenal hormone
• Graves’ disease – overactive thyroid gland

If you suffer from any of these conditions, chances are you already know about it.

But for those in the early stages of development, it’s essential for you to know the symptoms that come along with autoimmune diseases, so you can start treating them immediately and make small changes to your daily and fitness routine that will help you ease your condition.

Symptoms and Treatments

When it comes to the early symptoms of autoimmune diseases, a lot of them are very similar, and they include:

• Muscle pains
• Fatigue
• Trouble concentrating
• Numbness in the hands and feet
• Hair loss
• Fevers
• Swelling, redness, and skin irritations

Individual diseases can also have their own unique symptoms. For example, type 1 diabetes causes extreme thirst, weight loss, and fatigue. Inflammatory bowel syndrome causes bloating and nasty belly aches.

And with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or psoriasis, the flare-up and remission periods in which the symptoms come and go are clear to identify.

So, when should you see a doctor?

Aside from your usual check-ups with your health provider, recognizing any of these symptoms that occur on a regular (or on-and-off) basis is a good reason to get yourself tested.

Different specialists treat different types of autoimmune diseases, but all of them should be able to identify your symptoms and point you in the right direction.

• Endocrinologists treat conditions of the glands like Graves’ and Addison’s disease.
• Rheumatologists treat diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, Sjögren’s syndrome, and any joint-related issues.
• Gastroenterologists treat diseases such as celiac, Crohn’s disease, and problems with the GI tract.
• Dermatologists can help you treat any skin condition (like psoriasis) related to autoimmune issues.

Treatments can’t cure autoimmune diseases, but bringing down inflammation and controlling your immune system’s response to your triggers is vital for your quality of life and well-being.

Of course, every condition will have different complications when it comes to changes in your lifestyle.

One thing we know for sure – fitness and working out are both crucial for the people who want to live and overall healthy lifestyle.

So now, let’s look at how we can help our bodies and use fitness as a powerful tool to help us stay fit despite our condition.

Using Fitness to Improve Lifestyle and Better our Condition

It’s a fact – 2 in 3 adults in America are considered overweight or obese. This pandemic results in a lot of health issues for the general population – such as autoimmune diseases, endocrine dysfunction, diabetes, cancer, stroke, dyspnea, disabilities, and the list goes on.

For the people who suffer from an autoimmune disease or any other chronic pain issue for that matter, exercise can be both a blessing and a curse.

We all know moving is essential to our well-being, but too much of it can cause a reaction in your body that will create a flare-up in your condition, and put you in harm’s way.

What people don’t tell you is that exercise WILL help you manage your symptoms and flare-ups.

Your body was designed to exercise! It can withstand heavy loads, aerobic work, and endurance training, and this results in incredibly beneficial physiological adaptations that increase your body’s efficiency on so many levels.

Autoimmune diseases and chronic pain conditions feed off of inflammation, and if you’re working out right, and eating right, this lifestyle will help you reduce the inflammation (and the pain it causes) in your body.

On top of all that, the right workout routine will essentially “teach” your body to adapt to a particular pain response, which can help you get through the sometimes painful daily activities. Your body needs to leave its comfort zone, and learn that being uncomfortable in an otherwise safe environment will teach you how to handle your symptoms appropriately.

In my practice as a coach, I’ve seen people transform regardless of their condition using the right method I’m about to share with you right now.

If you are diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, your workout should primarily focus on adapting your body and building a base of strength and flexibility.

A number of medical studies have found that exercising in that manner has positive effects on reducing the symptoms of such disorders, including the chronic pain and fatigue that they sometimes come with.

Both short-term and long-term exercise programs have shown remarkable results.

On the other side of the coin, research has also shown that physical and psychological stress can aggravate your symptoms. Exercise often increases cortisol levels, which causes stress to the body.

So, there’s only one challenge in front of us – finding a workout program that creases enough work to get you fit and healthy, without overworking your body and risking a flare-up.

As you can see, both the benefits and the potential risks of exercising are not to be ignored.

You have to find a way to balance both of them if you want to live a healthier lifestyle, look better, and go about your life worry-free.

To conclude…

I can say that symptoms of autoimmune disorders are NOT to be ignored, and they sometimes come and go over time.

In my practice, I’ve found that two schools of thought exist among people with such disorders.

For those who can (but don’t do it) exercise is viewed as a dull, tedious, pointless waste of time.

But for those that do take the time, exercise is therapy. For them, it’s a required part of their day, helping them develop emotional and physical strength, and helping them manage their symptoms, inflammation, and stress, so they can be insured they live a life of optimal health.

I hope this blog post was educational and gave you some perspective on the benefits of working out with such a disorder.

I want you to know I’m always looking for ways to help, and if you need an expert you can trust on this matter, feel free to book your free consultation call.

Many people like to think that heavy weightlifting and bodybuilding, in general, is a guy’s thing. The general advice is that women shouldn’t engage in it, because they will become “bulky”.

They can train gymnastics, swimming, and other sports but not weight training. There is still a negative stigma in society about women who engage in heavy weightlifting.

Shucks! We’re here to prove them wrong.

I’m happy to say more and more women start training with weights and competing in bodybuilding competitions. I adore that fact, and I’m here to give you eight reasons why weightlifting is a no longer man-exclusive sport.

I will be talking about what benefits can women get from weight lifting and why should every woman engage in some type of resistance training.

Let’s get right into it.

1. You’ll Burn More Fat

The Turfs University did a study which separated overweight women in two groups. One group engaged in weight training twice a week, resulting in lost an average of 14.6 pounds of fat and gained 1.4 pounds of muscle in the process. The other group, which only dieted without weight training, lost only 9.2 pounds of fat but gained no muscle in the process.

There is a simple fact which can explain these results – when you do an intense weight-training program, your metabolism is elevated, and you continue to burn fat for several hours after you have finished your workout.

If you do a regular cardio exercise, you’ll stop burning fat shortly after you have finished your session.

2. You’ll Build Your Ideal Shape

Whether you want to look great in a dress, rock a bathing suit on summer vacation, or to have shapely arms in a tank top, weight training is the best way you can do that. It’s not only the best but also the fastest way you can reach your aesthetic goals. To achieve these goals, you should train with progressively heavier weights.

Some of you may think “But my goal is to lose fat”. It doesn’t matter. If you commit to losing fat by doing a lot of cardio and bring your fat percentage down into the teens (which is very lean for a woman), you won’t like what you see. You’ll have little to no muscle to work with on this body fat level, and you’ll be a skinny girl with no curves to be seen.

It’s essential for you to understand that your muscles will give you your desired shape. So if you want to be lean and look great in whatever dress you rock, lifting weights is the way to go.

It would be best if you aim to do at least three sessions a week for better results.

3. You’ll Strengthen Your Bones

As we age, our estrogen levels drop and this lead to postmenopausal women to be prone to osteoporosis. Estrogen is the chemical which is responsible for bone building.

Numerous studies show a positive correlation between resistance training and bone density. When your bones feel your muscles pulling, bone growth is stimulated. Women who lift weights regularly can have an increase in bone density and offset the bone loss.

4. You’ll Be In a Better Mood!

Women are twice as likely to develop clinical depression as men, yet most of these women don’t do anything to combat these feelings. When training, your body releases norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin which will help you achieve a sense of well-being. Weight training also leads to an increase in energy, better and higher-quality sleep, and a feeling of accomplishment and control.

5. Higher Life Expectancy!

Women who spend time in the weight room are typically active for more extended periods. That’s because weight training strengthens your muscles and improves your bone density. The upper-body strength helps you combat postural issues which can lead to back and shoulder issues. An increased hip and leg strength aid in mobility and balance.

So if you want to look and feel better for the rest of your lives, you better start hitting the heavy weights!

6. You’ll Improve Your Posture

In our everyday lives, nothing is abused more than our posture. Sitting all day at work and having bad walking patterns lead to many problems with our posture and most importantly, injuries. Proper posture will prevent that and help you have better power transfer in athletics.

You can combat a bad posture by strengthening your body. Exercises such as rows and scapular retraction (a move where you squeeze your shoulder blades back and together) help you enhance your postural muscles. Core strengthening also helps with improved posture by strengthening the entire torso area. Resistance training will also help you improve weak muscles which affect your posture.

7. You’ll Speed Up Your Metabolism

The less muscle you have, the slower your metabolism will be. As we age, we lose muscle at increasing rates, especially after the age of 40. If you have never done resistance training and you die, up to 25% of the weight loss may be muscle loss. If you start training with weight and combine it with dieting, you can preserve and even rebuild your muscle fibres. The more lean mass you have, the higher your metabolism will be and the more calories you’ll burn all day long.

8. You’ll Get Stronger And Be More Confident

If you have never lifted weights in your life, your everyday tasks such as carrying children, lifting grocery bags and picking up heavy suitcases must be challenging as hell. If you start hitting the gym, however, more frequently you’ll have an increase in functional fitness and will have no problem doing all of those things.

Researches show that regular weight training can make you 50% stronger in only six months. Being stronger and having more power is very empowering feeling. It will not only improve your physical activities but also will build emotional strength by boosting self-esteem and confidence. It also builds character as to build muscle long-term you have to be dedicated and disciplined.

Conclusion

As you can see, weight lifting has a tremendous amount of benefits for women! We feel and look better when we train with weights, and our overall quality of life improves. You should realise by now, that weightlifting is not exclusive to women or men, but it’s for everybody who wants to improve their lives!

Whether you want to look good, build muscle or even compete as a competitor, heavy weight training is one of the best things you can do not only for yourself but also for the people around you. Remember, if you improve yourself, you can help others grow, and that is all that matters.