The Best Ways To Lose Fat

Hi folks;

I wanted to share some advice on lifting weights and avoiding injury, especially for those just starting out.

When I began my journey in early October, I made the single most common mistake of all of us who haven’t been fit for a while and want to see results fast. I started lifting too much weight too soon.

You see, you can’t follow the theme of more is better…it doesn’t work! Your body will develop at its own pace regardless and over-night results won’t happen. They are, in fact, physically impossible to achieve for anyone, of any age!

But, because I had determined to get back into shape (in fact, I want to be in the best shape of my life!), I started lifting heavy. Too heavy. And I developed one of the most common injuries in weight lifting…a rotator cuff injury.

Here are the facts about the RC, from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons:

The rotator cuff is the network of four muscles and several tendons that form a covering around the top of the upper arm bone (humerus). These muscles form a cover around the head of the humerus. The rotator cuff holds the humerus in place in the shoulder joint and enables the arm to rotate.

Rotator cuff tear is a common cause of pain and disability among adults. Most tears occur in the supraspinatus muscle, but other parts of the cuff may be involved.

The rotator cuff helps to lift and rotate the arm and to stabilize the ball of the shoulder within the joint. The rotator cuff is made up of four muscles and their tendons. These combine to form a ” cuff ” over the upper end of the arm (head of the humerus).

The four muscles of the cuff (supraspinatus, infraspinatus, subscapularis, and teres minor muscles) are attached to the scapula on the back through a single tendon unit. The unit is attached on the side and front of the shoulder on the greater tuberosity of the humerus.

The rotator cuff can be torn from a single traumatic injury. Patients often report recurrent shoulder pain for several months and a specific injury that triggered the onset of the pain. A cuff tear may also happen at the same time as another injury to the shoulder, such as a fracture or dislocation.

Most tears, however, are the result of overuse of these muscles and tendons over a period of years. People who are especially at risk for overuse are those who engage in repetitive overhead motions. These include participants in sports such as baseball, tennis, weight lifting, and rowing.

Rotator cuff tears are most common in people who are over the age of 40. Younger people tend to have rotator cuff tears following acute trauma or repetitive overhead work or sports activity.

In my case, I can pinpoint exactly what I did to injure my RC…bicep curls using dumbbells that were too heavy. That’s it! Simple and avoidable and I did it anyway. And let me tell ya, it hurts like hell and continues to do so.

Now, I’ve since learned to warm up before I start lifting and I’m doing some specific exercises to help to rehabilitate my RC and heal it, but it takes time, patience and has set me back a bit on reaching my goals. However, I will still get there, if only because pain never stops me, it just makes me cranky and determined! =)

But I wanted to share this with you folks in the hope that you can avoid doing what I did. It’s not fun and it is so easy to NOT injure yourself that I hope you will now know to warm up and increase your weight load slowly as you start to get fit.

Good luck on your own journey!

Dave.

Hi folks;

There’s a bit of a debate going on on-line about ab exercises and which ones are the best (and worst) to use to tone and define the abdominal muscles.

The debate basically stems from the question of how the abs should be treated. Are they actually one muscle group? Or are they several muscle groups that should be worked on individually? Well, here are my thoughts for whatever they are worth.

I’ve applied exercises to the abs coming from both directions…i.e. treating the abs as one muscle group and “just” doing one major exercise for them (with variations like twists added) and as several separate muscle groups and hitting them from different directions. And the results from this (totally subjective and unscientific) experiment were interesting.

My favorite ab exercise has always been the incline crunch. That is, using a slant board and crunching several inches up and then back for as many reps/sets as I can do in one session. After the body adapted to the point where I could do 12 reps and 3 sets, I added weight, holding a 10 pound dumbbell to my chest, then as time went on adding more weight.

My theory for this exercise is simply that since I am on an incline, my entire group of ab muscles are involved in the movement, starting with the lower abs as I begin my crunch and working the mid and upper abs as I continue through the entire movement. And using heavier and heavier weight, to failure, encourages muscle growth rather than simple toning. To tone, I would have simply increased my number of reps per set rather than add weight. Btw, I don’t like sit-ups and I discourage anyone from doing them, simply because the lower back and hip flexors get involved in the exercise and there’s a real chance of injury from that exercise.

I also went at the abs from the other direction. That is, I would do regular crunches and also add hip thrusts and/or leg lifts to work the lower abs separately. I also did “the bicycle” routine for awhile, which has been recognized by researchers at the American Council on Exercise as “the best” ab exercise out there. And I have to agree that it is an excellent workout for the abs. However, you can only add weight to “the bicycle” if you use wrist and/or ankle weighs, which is an added expense and a waste of money, IMO.

So, which is the best way to work on the abs? Well, try them all! And then go with the one(s) that you enjoy and feel will do the best job on your abs. Personally, I will stick to my incline crunches. I’m getting great depth/definition from this workout, I can freely add weight as I go and my risk of injury is minimal. But of course your mileage may vary!

As always, good luck on your personal journey!

Dave.

Hi folks:

I wanted to comment about how someone who is over fifty (barely, thank you!) feels as they begin to work out…after not working out and being unfit for a decade or so. Let’s call this a word to the wise (or, it’s gonna hurt for a while!).

It’s true for all of us, at any age. If you’ve been sedentary for some time, starting an exercise regime is tough. Really tough. Yep, we have the best of intentions when we start off; see if this sounds familiar…I’m overweight and tired all the time, think I’ll hit the gym and drop a few pounds. How about this one: I dunno, I’m starting to show my age…think I’ll start banging the iron and get back in shape.

Sound like someone you know? Of course it does. And it’s a good start. It’s motivation and we all need it to start down our own fitness path. But as they say, talk is cheap. Very cheap. What often happens is that you jump right into this new lifestyle. And you over do it. You injure yourself, or you don’t see results in a week, or you’re embarrassed that everyone else in the gym is younger/stronger/fitter (pick one or more) than you are. And that motivation starts to drain away.

Don’t let it! I’m serious here. Don’t let your perceptions change your drive to get into better shape. A question that I ask myself on a regular basis (when I feel like giving up, and I do occasionally) is this: In a year from now, if I stop working out, if I go off my diet (food plan), if I start using the stationary bike as a clothes hanger, what will I look like? And will I be happy with that result?

That’s the question you need to ask yourself, right now. Look in the mirror and decide if you will enjoy what you see in a year from now, or five years, or more, if you don’t change your lifestyle. If you can answer yes without hesitation, great! Call Dominos and order a large with extra cheese and have a terrific life!

For those of you who said no, and are over fifty, do NOT let the prospect of pain stop you from starting. Let me tell you right now, it’s gonna hurt. At first. Well, okay, it’s gonna hurt for awhile. But something really cool happens if you fight through the sore muscles, the aches and creaky joints. It goes away! It really does. And soon you will relish the (temporary) soreness that follows a good workout.

That soreness tells you that your muscles have been challenged, that they are rebuilding and getting stronger. It’s actually quite exciting..okay, it is for me but I’m funny that way.

Anyway, that’s my motivational kick in the pants for today. I know that I was reluctant to begin my journey partly from the discomfort that I knew would inevitably follow. But I just said screw that!, and carried on. And you can too!

Til next time, stay on the path!

Dave.

Hi folks:

I’d like to take some time talking about hitting a plateau in your diet/weight loss/fitness journey.

If you’ve spent any time at all trying to lose weight, you know what I mean about a plateau, but for those who don’t, it just means that from time to time you will reach a point where your body stops (or appears to stop) changing no matter how much exercise you do or how few calories you consume. It’s frustrating and aggravating to say the least, especially if you’ve been enjoying steady progress towards your goal, whatever that might be.

So what the heck is happening and what can you do about it? Well, it’s fairly straight-forward actually. The body is a remarkable machine and evolution has made it highly adaptable to a lot of stresses and conditions. If you start a calorie-reduced diet, you will at first lose weight, sometimes quite a bit…although some of that will be water weight. But fairly soon you will notice that your weight loss has slowed or even stopped. Sometimes you may actually begin putting weight back on! What the…?

The same is true of starting an exercise regime. You start losing weight, seeing some definition begin and bang! Everything slows to a crawl or even stops. Maddening, isn’t it? Darn right it is!

Well, we have evolution to thank for this. Our bodies adapt…and quite quickly too. If you reduce your caloric intake, your body will be triggered into thinking that food is scarce and will slow down your metabolism to compensate. Ditto with starting to work out…you will burn more calories, but if you don’t increase your caloric intake, again the body assumes food scarcity and slows down, often it starts burning your newly-built muscle tissue for fuel. It’s self-defeating but that’s evolution for ya!

So, what can you do to avoid or at least mitigate these set-backs? It’s pretty simple. You beat the body at its own game! As the body adapts, you change things up. Instead of eating three meals a day, you eat five smaller meals. If you eat 500 calories per meal, change it so that one meal you eat 300, the next 600, the nest 400, etc.

If you are constantly doing the same upper and lower body routines, change them! Instead of doing flat crunches for abs, do incline or decline crunches. Or leg-raises. Or combine them. Change the order that you do your sets, change the amount of weight you use, do more cardio and less free weights for a week or two. Whatever it takes!

The point is, don’t let the body adapt! Keep surprising it, keep it guessing. Routine = stagnation. That’s how I think of it anyway. I change how I eat and how I work out usually every month or six weeks. And I recommend that if you find yourself up against the dreaded plateau, you try to do the same. You’ll be pleased with the results.

Till next time, good luck on your journey!

Dave.

Hi folks:

Just a quick note to respond to the question of who to believe when it comes to fitness and weight loss advice.

Let’s face it; the net is literally drowning in advice on how to lose weight. Try Googling “weight loss” or “diet” and you can see what I mean! So, do all these sites and “experts” know what they’re talking about? Not a chance! How do you differentiate between the folks who actually know what path to follow and the majority who don’t? Good question.

Let’s face it…my opinion is worth no more and no less than any other faceless blogger out there talking about whatever they are talking about. One difference though is that I’m living through my own personal fitness/wellness/weight loss (pick any or all!) journey. And I’m a bit of a compulsive buyer when it comes to new techniques or programs on the best way to get in shape. I try a lot of them! Some work, most don’t and some are simple rehashes of other programs that I have already tried! Arg!

Anyway, you may have noticed that I only recommend a handful of programs on the blog. That’s because these ones actually work. Or at least they have for me. What I’ve done is cherry-pick what I feel are the best routines, the best eating plans and the best lifestyle changes from each program and put them together in a system that works well for me.

Would my system work for you? I have no idea! I’m not a guru or an expert on this stuff. I’m just a middle-aged guy who wants to get into the best shape of his life as quickly as possible. And when I get there (and I’ve mentioned my goals in previous posts) I will lay out exactly what I did, how I did it and how long it took. And I’m not going to write some ebook or try and sell a course about it…I’ll just put it on the blog for those of you who are interested.

I guess my main reason for posting today is that I want to let you know (as I’m sure many of you already do!) that there are as many paths to our individual goals in life as there are folks trying to get there. Don’t be afraid to try new programs and systems, but don’t rush head-long into every one that you come across, as I’m often guilty of! Lol. And don’t get locked in to one system either. Take what seems to work for you, use that and add to it from other sources. I think that’s the best way to go…of course, that’s just my opinion!

Good luck on your own journey!

Dave.