Trainer Notes: Week 11

Week eleven brought continued strength and cardio improvements. I know, it's starting to sound like a broken record...but, what else can we say, Michael just hasn't stopped seeing improvements and changes. His current resistance training program has been focused on continuing to build functional strength, and it has been doing just that. One example of this is Michael's Dumbbell chest presses on the exercise ball (seen at the end of this last video blog). He began this program using 35-40 lb db's on this exercise, and by the time we finish this final week on the program, he will be pressing at least 65 lb Dumbbells. His legs and his core have also continued to progress at equally impressive rates. Next week we will shift gears and move to more of an endurance based resistance training program.
We will be increasing the rep range and working into more of a circuit based program (4 or more different exercises done consecutively with minimal to no rest in between). This type of program will be designed to keep his heart rate up more consistently through the workout, maximizing caloric expenditure. O.k., I can already hear the questions...Why wouldn't you always want to do this type of program? Wouldn't you always want to maximize caloric expenditure? Well, there's a few reasons we are just moving to this type of program now with Michael.

First, we really needed to get both Michael's strength and his conditioning level up during these first few months so he could handle the different type of intensity that these circuit programs provide. Second, we needed to increase his lean mass to increase his metabolism, as well as it's contributions to long term caloric expenditure. Additionally, while we do burn a good amount of calories during resistance training workouts, the metabolic increase we get as we recover for the following day or two allows us to burn 2 to 3 times the amount of calories we burn during the workout itself. Therefore, no matter how we approach it, if the right intensity, volume and proper rate of progression is followed, we will be burning plenty of calories whether it's during or after. Finally, many of our circuit programs involve some total body conditioning exercises that help increase the rate and keep it up during the workout. To do these safely and effectively, we needed some good weight loss to occur first. At a lower body weight there is less impact and stress on the joints. Also, now he is much better conditioned, coordinated and functionally strong enough to be able to do new exercises well, while maintaining good form and technique even as he fatigues - helping to prevent/avoid injury. Ultimately, it is just another way to create the change and variations we need to the workouts so we are keeping his muscles and body confused enough that they are continuosly forced to adapt to a new stimulus, thus preventing hitting the dreaded "plateau."

To finish, speaking of caloric expenditure, I thought I'd share a cool thing we started following during this past week. We started tracking Michael's "calories burned" during his coached cardio workouts on the elliptical machine. These cardio workouts are generally 25 minutes long, and are designed to be as effective as possible within this time frame. So, during the first cardio day last week he burned 511 calories, and during the second one he burned 540 calories! To provide a general reference, it would take the average person 45 - 60 minutes of jogging to burn this many calories, and it would take nearly 2 hours of brisk walking to do the same. Not to mention, while also being more time efficient, shorter duration, higher intensity cardio also helps your body retain its lean muscle tissue better, which again is key to maintaining a high metabolism and long term calorie
expenditure.