twinkie diet

a professor set out to prove that weight loss is nothing more than calories in versus calories out. heres the details, 3,500 calories equal 1 pound. basal metabolic rate is how many calories your body burns in a day on average. so lets say person A has a BMR of 3000 calories, if they maintain a 2500 calorie a day diet they should lose a lb per day.
here is an article speaking about it

(CNN) -- Twinkies. Nutty bars. Powdered donuts.
For 10 weeks, Mark Haub, a professor of human nutrition at Kansas State University, ate one of these sugary cakelets every three hours, instead of meals. To add variety in his steady stream of Hostess and Little Debbie snacks, Haub munched on Doritos chips, sugary cereals and Oreos, too.
His premise: That in weight loss, pure calorie counting is what matters most -- not the nutritional value of the food.
The premise held up: On his "convenience store diet," he shed 27 pounds in two months.
For a class project, Haub limited himself to less than 1,800 calories a day. A man of Haub's pre-dieting size usually consumes about 2,600 calories daily. So he followed a basic principle of weight loss: He consumed significantly fewer calories than he burned.
His body mass index went from 28.8, considered overweight, to 24.9, which is normal. He now weighs 174 pounds.
But you might expect other indicators of health would have suffered. Not so.
Haub's "bad" cholesterol, or LDL, dropped 20 percent and his "good" cholesterol, or HDL, increased by 20 percent. He reduced the level of triglycerides, which are a form of fat, by 39 percent.
"That's where the head scratching comes," Haub said. "What does that mean? Does that mean I'm healthier? Or does it mean how we define health from a biology standpoint, that we're missing something?"

Haub's sample day

Espresso, Double: 6 calories; 0 grams of fat

Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat

Centrum Advanced Formula From A To Zinc: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat

Little Debbie Star Crunch: 150 calories; 6 grams of fat

Hostess Twinkies Golden Sponge Cake: 150 calories; 5 grams of fat

Diet Mountain Dew: 0 calories; 0 grams of fat

Doritos Cool Ranch: 75 calories; 4 grams of fat

Kellogg's Corn Pops: 220 calories; 0 grams of fat

whole milk: 150 calories; 8 grams of fat

baby carrots: 18 calories; 0 grams of fat

Duncan Hines Family Style Brownie Chewy Fudge: 270 calories; 14 grams of fat

Little Debbie Zebra Cake: 160 calories; 8 grams of fat

Muscle Milk Protein Shake: 240 calories; 9 grams of fat

Totals: 1,589 calories and 59 grams of fat

Despite his temporary success, Haub does not recommend replicating his snack-centric diet.
"I'm not geared to say this is a good thing to do," he said. "I'm stuck in the middle. I guess that's the frustrating part. I can't give a concrete answer. There's not enough information to do that."
Two-thirds of his total intake came from junk food. He also took a multivitamin pill and drank a protein shake daily. And he ate vegetables, typically a can of green beans or three to four celery stalks.
Families who live in food deserts have limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables, so they often rely on the kind of food Haub was eating.
"These foods are consumed by lots of people," he said. "It may be an issue of portion size and moderation rather than total removal. I just think it's unrealistic to expect people to totally drop these foods for vegetables and fruits. It may be healthy, but not realistic."
Haub's body fat dropped from 33.4 to 24.9 percent. This posed the question: What matters more for weight loss, the quantity or quality of calories?
His success is probably a result of caloric reduction, said Dawn Jackson Blatner, a dietitian based in Atlanta, Georgia.
"It's a great reminder for weight loss that calories count," she said. "Is that the bottom line to being healthy? That's another story."
Blatner, a spokeswoman for the American Dietetic Association, said she's not surprised to hear Haub's health markers improved even when he loaded up on processed snack cakes.
Being overweight is the central problem that leads to complications like high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol, she said.
How well are you managing your diabetes?
"When you lose weight, regardless of how you're doing it -- even if it's with packaged foods, generally you will see these markers improve when weight loss has improved," she said.
Before jumping on the Ding Dong bandwagon, Blatner warned of health concerns.
"There are things we can't measure," said Blatner, questioning how the lack of fruits and vegetables could affect long-term health. "How much does that affect the risk for cancer? We can't measure how diet changes affect our health."

I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much.
--Professor Mark Haub

The ultimate Twinkie diet

RELATED TOPICS

• Healthy Eating
• Hostess Twinkies
• Kansas State University
• Weight Loss
• Diet and Nutrition

On August 25, Haub, 41, started his cake diet focusing on portion control.
"I'm eating to the point of need and pushing the plate or wrapper away," he said.
He intended the trial to last a month as a teaching tool for his class. As he lost weight, Haub continued the diet until he reached a normal body mass index.
Before his Twinkie diet, he tried to eat a healthy diet that included whole grains, dietary fiber, berries and bananas, vegetables and occasional treats like pizza.
"There seems to be a disconnect between eating healthy and being healthy," Haub said. "It may not be the same. I was eating healthier, but I wasn't healthy. I was eating too much."
He maintained the same level of moderate physical activity as before going on the diet. (Haub does not have any ties to the snack cake companies.)
To avoid setting a bad example for his kids, Haub ate vegetables in front of his family. Away from the dinner table, he usually unwrapped his meals.
Study: U.S. obesity rate will hit 42 percent
Haub monitored his body composition, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose, and updated his progress on his Facebook page, Professor Haub's diet experiment.
To curb calories, he avoided meat, whole grains and fruits. Once he started adding meat into the diet four weeks ago, his cholesterol level increased.
Haub plans to add about 300 calories to his daily intake now that he's done with the diet. But he's not ditching snack cakes altogether. Despite his weight loss, Haub feels ambivalence.

"I wish I could say the outcomes are unhealthy. I wish I could say it's healthy. I'm not confident enough in doing that. That frustrates a lot of people. One side says it's irresponsible. It is unhealthy, but the data doesn't say that."

MY THOUGHTS ON THIS

I am not going to argue the outcome of his case study. the data speaks for itself. now apply the same experiment on different populations and the study has firmer legs to stand on. what I will say however is what is healthy? BMI is stupid. my BMI has me paying a higher premium on life insurance. I'm at a higher risk of death because my BMI has me as borderline obese.

if you dont know me here are my stats in brief 5'5 (5'6 if i have new shoes and good posture that day) i weigh between 178 and 183/body fat percentage around 10-12%/ have a 1250 total in powerlifting and working towards a 1300 this december at USAPL's american open.

ok so im a little strong that doesnt mean healthy and public perception of powerlifters (and wannabe's like me) is that we're fat (male) or manish (women). well, are bodyweight exercises a good enough marker of health?-about 20 pull-ups from dead hang/around 120 push-ups straight in 2 minutes/40-50 dips straight/no clue how many inverted rows i can do but a lot/ i run a 10k in under 50 minutes/5k around 21 minutes/2 miles around 13 minutes, and i dont even run, ever.

the purpose is not to toot my own horn, (if it seems that way, its because i dont proofread, i want this blog to seem as if im speaking to the reader right now) my purpose is to start discussions about the definitions of health. Is the good professor healthy because he lowered his vitals? BMI? Cholesterol levels? try-gliceride levels? my ability to "perform" and move is great with a HIGH BMI too!! I dont know if the professor is "healthier" than me, but i doubt it.

health should be defined as the ability to perform many functions as efficient as possible. so if you are weak youre not healthy, no endurance? not healthy, flight of stairs kill you? unhealthy bench 600 lbs but cant do pull ups or many pushups?unhealthy. Food should be viewed as the fuel for the activities that we are going to do, and coupled with exercise, that should determine our status of health.

how has the professor's "performance" been changed due to his diet? yes when your digestive system breaks food down into whatever it is broken down into, it doesnt know where it originated from. how nutrient rich are those cheetos? from a performance point of view nutrition is the fuel needed to do what you want to do better.

maybe his diet allowed weight loss, what did it do to his ability to move a weight as heavy as possible? as many times as possible? as fast as possible? what did his high sodium diet do to his blood pressure? what did it do to his sex drive?

were the changes small? almost negligable? that drop in performance will have a cumulative affect over time. im not advocating gigantic changes in lifestyle or a strict diet, i just made myself a double bacon cheeseburger for dinner, but i know i can use the fat and protien and i have a heavy day of squats tomorrow.

in health,

Jorge Unigarro

good read

Samurai Strategies for Strength

by Nate Miyaki

First, you must choose a goal before you can achieve it, and second, the more difficult and dangerous your goals is, the more effort you must put into achieving it. All achievement starts with goals, and Musashi emphasized that you should be ambitious in setting them.

— Samurai Strategies

Goal setting? I know what you meatheads are thinking right about now. Hold off on that thought for a minute, though, because despite trying to come off as intellectual and well-rounded through studying exercise physiology, nutritional biochemistry, philosophy, and sports psychology, deep down I'm just a pure, simple, fucking meathead like most of you.

I like training in the gym, of course, as well as football, MMA, fire, action movies with gun fights and explosions, porn (both in traditional video format and newer, internet options), Will Ferrell (the movies, not the guy — although he is rocking the mean, brown sugar chest hair), Jessica Alba (the girl, not the movies — although Good Luck Chuck was funny), the occasional whiskey, and when I grow up I want to be just like "the most interesting man alive" guy...am I missing anything?

Setting goals is for dudes with "man-ginas" right? It's for little girls and desperate housewives who, gosh-darn-it, are going to take control of their lives and empower themselves. It's for powerless office workers who can't get out of the grind or get their bosses to stop shitting on them. It's for cheesy, self-help seminars and gurus. It's not for the head of the wolfpack, the alpha males that roam the Testosterone site...or perhaps it is?

What if I told you that you've been setting goals — albeit most of the time subconsciously — all of your life? Hitting new PR's, reaching a certain level of body fat percentage or conditioning, rehabbing an injury, winning a competition, taking the hottest girl at the bar/club home for the night, etc.

What if I also told you that CONSCIOUSLY setting these goals, keeping them always in the forefront of your mind, and setting a definitive plan of action towards achieving those goals can be the difference between consistent mediocrity and consistent excellence?

for the rest of the article click the link

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/samurai_strategies_for_strength_1

variables

The human body is amazing and very resilient. No matter what challenge is thrown its way the human body will adapt to it. This is how the system works, the body is stressed, the body doesnt like that stress so it does whatever it needs to do to so the next time its stressed in the same way its less stressful. Now that the same activity is no longer as stressful, it will not elicit the same response. This is why newbies to lifting make gains more quickly than somebody who has been under the bar for quite some time, they arent as used to the stress. So thats the nature of beast, stress your body and your body will adapt to it, over time the adaptations become smaller as the stress diminishes, eventually leading to a plateau. To put plateaus off we must stay ahead of our adaptations and make said activity continue to be stressful.

This is also known as the overload principle, Vladimir Zatsiorsky and William Kraemer say this of overload-"To bring about positive changes in an athlete's state, an exercise overload must be applied. A training adaptation takes place only if the magnitude of the training load is above the habitual level."

That brings me to my topic, how do you manipulate variables to achieve overload? How do you make tomorrow, next week, next month, next macrocycle, harder than this one? What variable to manipulate to make your workout progressive depends on your goal. Some answers are obvious such as getting stronger, well one obvious variable to manipulate is weight make the next workout heavier. manipulating other variables will elicit other responses.

Volume, how would you manipulate that? more sets? more reps? more exercises in the workout?

Time, this is a fun one to manipulate- longer workouts? (might be counterproductive?), time your set; make yourself last x amount of time, shorter sets; make yourself maintain volume in less and less time or do more reps in the same amount of time

Tempo, slow down the eccentric, speed up the concentric, pause in between to minimize the effect of the stretch-shortening cycle forcing your body recruit more muscle fibers and rely less on stored energy, move a submaximal load as fast as possible.

All these are ideas to play with and I am certain i did not cover all possible variables, adding instability is another variable to play with, I just wanted to get ball rolling here. Lets avoid plateau's, train intelligently and manipulate what we can and want. Let's create a specific stress to produce specific adaptations.

Jorge Unigarro

great article

Training Women

October 15, 2010 by Bret Contreras

When I first started training clients full-time, I assumed that I’d specialize in training athletes. I bought all sorts of equipment from Elitefts including a huge power rack/platform with all the accessories (box squat box, step up attachment, monkey chin bar, dip bars, band peg attachments), a 45 degree hyper, glute ham raise, reverse hyper, competition bench press, incline press, deadlift lever, chalk bin, bands, chains, specialty barbells, etc. I situated the equipment in my garage and was in awe at how manly my gym appeared! I was well on my way to be the next Joe DeFranco.

What happened next was unexpected. A bunch of female friends and relatives of mine started requesting that I train them. At first, I told them, “I’m not sure, my equipment is more geared toward training athletes.” They’d say, “Cool, when can I start?” I quickly realized that women like this type of training and all of a sudden I’m training tons of women.

Next thing you know, I open up my own studio and within three months I have 55 clients; probably 45 of them were women. If you train a few women well, out of nowhere you’ll have tons of female clients through word-of-mouth advertisement as they love to tell their friends about their trainer. I’ve really grown to love training women over the past five years, and here are some things I’ve learned along the way:

for the rest of the article follow this link

http://bretcontreras.wordpress.com/2010/10/15/training-women/

daily dose of iron- 1

while Iron benefits the body in many ways including formation of hemoglobin, brain development and function, body temperature regulation, and muscle activity and metabolism, and not getting enough Iron will lead to Anemia. This is not the type of Iron I am going to talk about. the Iron I am referring to is a heavy barbell.



"that which is used is developed, and that which is not wastes away" this quote by Hippocrates explains well Wolff's Law and one of the benefits of strength training. Wolff's Law states that "bone in a healthy person or animal will adapt to the loads it is placed under.[1] If loading on a particular bone increases, the bone will remodel itself over time to become stronger to resist that sort of loading. The internal architecture of the trabeculae undergoes adaptive changes, followed by secondary changes to the external cortical portion of the bone,[2] perhaps becoming thicker as a result. The converse is true as well: if the loading on a bone decreases, the bone will become weaker due to turnover, it is less metabolically costly to maintain and there is no stimulus for continued remodeling that is required to maintain bone mass.[3]"

Osteoporosis is the thinning of bone tissue and bone density over time. According to health.google.com 1 out of 5 women over the age of the 50 have osteoporosis and half of all women over 5o will fracture a wrist hip or spine. Women need to be getting their daily dose of an iron barbell, to lead a strong long healthy less injury prone life, just as much as the meatheads out there do.

Bones get weaker over time, resistance training under heavy loads will cause bone to adapt and become stronger and denser. Seems pretty cut and dry, develop or else you will literally waste away.

YOU ARE?

This weekend Sara Cichorek and myself competed in USAPL's push/pull meet in Atlantic City, it was 4th meet of the year and 5th ever. I began to think, am I a "powerlifter" now? I could argue yes, I read about different techniques and ideas about programming and periodization, I plan for my meets and I've even trained a few friends to compete in a few powerlifting meets. I could argue no just the same, its only my first real year trying to compete, with mixed results.

This got me thinking, what makes someone a powerlifter? somebody that competes? i guess you can make that call, but that led me to think about internet "experts". There are a lot of "coaches" out there, a lot of "athletes" and "trainers" (especially in NYC).

To the coaches, if you do not train/coach anybody that does not compete, you are not a coach.

To the athletes, if you do not compete in whatever it is you are training for, you are not an athlete.

To the trainers, if you do not program for your clients you are not a trainer, you just make people sweat.

Competing does not make a person better or worse. But passing off a title that implies expertise is dishonest.

what happened?

quick rant. no spell-check just a quickie right down the middle. you know how i get down.

1-swithcing focus on this blog to something more maintainable for me. i'll put up links to other awesome articles and blogs i find, and i'll just babble on like modern Iraq.

on to my thoughts.

WHAT HAPPENED TO BEING A MAN IN THE GYM?
Since when is the pursuit of strength not at the forefront of every able-bodied, red blooded american male? its seems the Mustang has given way to the Prius.

people need to man and woman up!

women will not become bulky from getting strong, men you honestly have no excuse to not become strong unless you are a model and need to stay a certain size.

FITNESS PROFESSIONALS it is OUR responsibility to educate your clients on these things. Regardless of your goal getting stronger makes achieving said goal easier.

put down the BOSU ball the wobble board and get in the squat rack put a bar with appropriate weight on it on your back squat down get back up repeat! put some plates on a bar on the ground and pick it up.
That snippet too complex to understand then go and buy Starting Strength 2 by Rippetoe.
get in the gym and lift
I am stealing this from a t-shirt i saw at USAPL New Jersey State Power Lifting meet,
"7 days without lifting makes one weak"
side note, I am having trouble posting videos on here if you can figure this out show me the way.

cycles of cycles-part 1 Fresher than that prince

Randomly exercising is a guaranteed way to fail, like the saying goes fail to plan plan to fail. How do you plan your workouts? logging what you do is a good start but planning ahead is better. In designing your program all the variables can be confusing, you can get a good start by seperating your workouts into 5 phases

1-the actual training session

2- your training day

3-microcycle

4-mesocycle

5-macrocycle

maybe a 6th with the Olympic cycle if you are fortunate enough to be that elite of an athlete or train one.


1-The training session: Things to consider during your workout

fatigue is specific to the work you are doing. For example curls will fatigue your biceps (duh). the good news is, the specificity of the fatigue will allow you to do different exercise after fatigue has set it in from exercise A. Depending on the load this concept will reappear with other phases of training.


in strength training you want to do as much work as fresh as possible.

in programming your session consider these three things. 1- rest, 2- exercise sequence, 3 intensity. keeping with the thought of being as fresh as possible, when strength training, the higher the intensity of the load the greater the rest. workout density is not of great importance when it comes to strength training.


As far as sequence, you'd want to put the more coordinated and taxing on your neural output first or as rested as possible. Prioritize your exercises, if possible, dynamic and power moves before grinds, and larger muscle groups before smaller ones.


For intensity, if the maximum effort method is the most efficient and if you want to work as fresh as possible and put the most taxing on your neural output first then you'd put the biggest move and higher intensity first.




Training Day


Not just a Denzel Washington movie, its also the grouping of multiple training sessions. If working as fresh as possible is the golden rule and fatigue is specific to the activity performed it might be a good idea to perform multiple training sessions within the same day.


in fact an olympic weightlifing teams schedule may consist of multiple training sessions none lasting more than hour. However, this is the schedule of an elite athlete.





Microcycle


A microcycle can be described as a grouping of several training days. Factors to consider within a microcycle is the balance of adaptation versus accommodation. Proper rest and exercise sequence can be the difference between continued gains and overtraining and diminishing gains. We are at our strongest after we recover from a workout, according to the supercompensation theory, again we want to do something as FRESH as possible, as often as possible. Since what i said earlier about fatigue effects being specific to the activity, proper exercise sequencing is key to staying fresh. Rotating big movements while resting from the others can you allow you to continue to lift heavy while getting adequate rest throughout training days.



Not all movements are the same, different movements require different recovery time. Minor muscles like plantar flexors or biceps can be trained every day. Bigger muscle groups need more time to recover. For example its not uncommon to rest 3-4 days between heavy squat efforts.



to increase strength you should plan at least 3 heavy days in your microcycle (assuming your microcycle is a week long). With good rotation of of exercises you can recover one movement while training another.



to sum it all up, biggest movements and biggest efforts are most important, so prioritize a bit.
lift as often as possible as fresh possible.



see you next time with medium term planning

more on microcycle's, mesocycle's, and macrocycles

Glastonbury weekend weather report: GALE-FORCE winds expected

New York City personal trainer Vanessa Gale will be competing at Red Barn gyms IKFF's kettlebell competition this weekend. You may have seen this young lady displaying her kettlebell long cycle skills at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio, and in our own backyard when Reebok Gyms hosted AKC's Long Cycle Championship.

This New Orleans transplant is not just a southern kettlebelle. She recently competed in AAPF's New York State Powerlifting championship, winning the womans best overall lifter as well as coefficient titles.

Vanessa also plans to compete again July 31st in USAPL's New Jersey State Powerlifting Championship in Princeton New Jersey. For now, her eyes are on the prize, flight 9 will be blown away by Gale-Force! Hope the spectators enjoy themselves because the weather outside is weather :)

how i've been programming for myself part 1

I'll start by saying im new to all this. I could say i've been lifting for close to 15 years, but in reality only in the past 3 (tops) have I started to understand what im doing a litttle better.



the Prilepin post was a little quote heavy I was told, so this one i'll shoot from the hip, heart and head (3 H's, hip, heart and head. write that down).



I read an elitefts.com article on Dave Tate's 5/3/1 protocol and fell in love. the honesty of starting off at 90% as a max because most guys fluff the hell out of their pr's is humbling yet genius. so I gave it a shot, this was my interpretation of the article so it might not be as spot as the Ebook says.

my version looked like this.

wave 1- 5x5 @ 65% of our new 1rm


wave 2- 5x3 @ 75%


wave 3- 1x5 @ 65%/ 1x3 @ 75%/ 1x1 @ 85%


wave 4- 5x3 @ 65% (deload)


wave 5- 5x5 @ 70%


wave 6- 5x3 @ 80%


wave 7- 1x5 @70%/ 1x3 @ 80%/ 1x1 @90%


wave 8- 5x3 @ 65% (deload)





hope you guys can see a pattern emerging here. This went on for 5-6 months with me setting personal records in my 3 main lifts, squat, bench, dead.





from this program I learned to appreciate a few things


1. quality over quantity. sure i could've repped the hell out of the first wave, but i stuck to the rep goal, focused on quality reps. This in turn allowed me to better understand my own movement and tune into my own groove and improve my form.





2. The value of the deload week. Exercise is nothing more than a stress to the body, our bodies hate stress and will what it has to so the next time we are stressed in that manner it will not be as stressful. In order for that to happen our bodies need to rest. A good nights rest will suffice for the daily workout stress, but for the accumalated effect of a program a deload. A down week is needed, unless of course you enjoy getting injured a few times a year and losing all the gains you made.





3. Consistency!!!! before this i suffered from flavor of the month syndrome. switching from program to program every month and not letting the effects take place. A good program will have the first few weeks be a prep phase and build up slowly to a peak, go back down start over again but at a higher beginning and ending again with a higher peak. Jumping from program to program will leave you in a constant state prep phase.





4. let go of the ego. I followed the advice and reasoning of someone better. followed the program and ideas posted on the article and learned a ton.

maximal, submaximal, repetition, and dynamic effort methods

There are different ways to classify how to strength train. Some like to seperate them into phases such as light/medium/ heavy or "tone"/ hypertrophy/ strength power, or isometric/ isotonic/isokinetic, pretty much whatever categories you can think of. Vladimir M. Zatsiorsky categorizes by the taxonomy of strength, these categories are the maximal effort method, repetition effort method, dynamic effort method, and repetition effort method.



In the maximal effort method you are lifting a maximum load. Zatsiorky says that the maximal effort method is superior for improving inter and intramuscular coordination and the muscles and central nervous system. Training the central nervous system teaches the body to recruit the greatest number of motor units. The more motor units are recruited the more muscle is fired allowing you to lift heavier and more explosively. It is like having a 10 ounce cup that can only be filled with 3 ounces, a more responsive central nervous system will allow you to fill that same 10 ounce cup with 6 ounces of water, making you double the strength.



In the Submaximal Effort Method you lift a non maximal load similarly to the repetition effort method. Difference between the two being in the number of reps per set. The submaximal effort method will do an intermediate or not to failure set. While in the repetiton effort method the sets are done to failure. Due to similar mechanical volume muscle hypertrophy is similar in both methods. But if the goal is to improve on muscular coordination (inter and intra) repetition effort method has submax method beat. Zatsiorsky states "1. Recruitment order of the MU's is determined by the size principle. 2. only recruited mu's are trained. 3.the recruited MU's should experience fatigue (or at least they should be highly activated meaning the discharge frequency of their motoneurons should be sufficiently large)." so, Motor Units are recruited from small and weak to bigger and more explosive in order, if the weight isnt sufficient enough higher end MU's wont be recruited, if the repetions are not done to failure and not fatiguing then the MU is not trained.

In the dynamic effort method a person lifts or thorws a nonmaximal load with the highest attainable speed. It is used to increase force output not by training to increase the maximal strength but to to increase the rate of force development.



All this sounds great but theres always some negatives. With the Maximal Effort Method, it is irresponsible to use with a beginner. Another negative effect of Maximal Effort Method is it allows for only a low volume workload. Having a such low volume of mechanical work limits the degradation of contractile proteins which doesnt allow for much hypertrophy to set in. Lastly, its easier to burn out at such high intensities. Repetion Effort could lead to injuries in most trainee's while submaximal effort may not fatigue motor units as efficiently

prilepin's table

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE MAN

Alexender Prilepin was the soviet olympic lifting coach in the U.S.S.R. from 1975-1985. Prior to that, he studied the practices of Olympic lifters in attempt to figure out how many repetitions per set, and what should the total training value should be for optimal power development. The chart to my left is what he came up with.

EXPLANATION OF CHART

First thing is how to read this chart. The columns from left to right are percentage/reps per set/the optimal amount of total reps/ and the range of total reps.

So if you are lifting at 55%-65% of your 1 rep max, you should do 3 to 6 reps per set for a total of 18 to 30 reps, with the best results coming at 24 total reps.

Reading the chart across, you can gather that 70%-80% of 1rm is done for 3 to 6 reps per set. The total range being12-24 reps, with an optimal total rep goal of 18.

80%-90% of 1rm, 2-4 reps per set for a total range of 10-20 reps with an optimal total of 15.

90+% of 1rm, 1-2 reps per set for a total range of no more than 10 with an optimal total of 4.

An example of how to use this chart could be at 85% of your 1rm you attempt 5 sets of 3 reps. falls in perfectly with the ideal total reps. The possibilities are pretty varied, giving you many different approaches, even within the same percentages, to avoid plateauing, if programmed properly.

WHY?

Well, I always thought your 75% of 1rm was approximately your 10rm? not necessarily a true statement, 75% of your squat will give you different rep maxes than 75% of your bench, different body parts have different make-up of different muscle types. Charles Poliquin said in his article "manipulating reps for gains in size and strength" for the may 02, 2005 edition of tmuscle.com (look it up lots of gems in that one) "if an athlete performs his 12rm (the amount of weight he can lift 12 times) in the bench press, he may only be working at 70% of maximum, but at 12rm in the leg curl he may only be working at 57% of maximum.

The extreme is even more remarkable when you consider certain lower body movements that imply a high stretch-shortening cycle component, such as leg presses. Many athletes can do 65 reps on the leg press while using a weight that is 70% of their maximum!"

So why do so few reps if you can do so much more? Coach Matthew Gary of Supreme Sports Performance and Training in Rockville Maryland said on youtube (look up prilepin's table) "if training from 80-90 if you're use anything less than 2 its not enough of stress on the body and central nervous system and get a response and when you go past 4 and get into 5, 6 and so on, its too much of a stress on the nervous system, thats when fatigue sets in and in all likelyhood your form is starting to break and when your form breaks you just need to shut it down. thats when you start reinforcing a negative motor pattern and thats not good. you're really opening yourself up to injury and the risk of injury increases exponentially. thats not to say you're incapable of performing more repetitions". Matthew Gary coaches multiple world and national champion powerlifters, so he knows a thing or two.

"Training to failure slows your results, say Spanish researchers. They found that lifters who performed each set of a workout until they couldnt complete a repetition had smaller gains in strength than those who left a bit in reserve."-actually found this in Men's Health with a Mike Robertson quote (if you dont know who he is google him, buy his dvd's. whatever, learn from what he says, very smart guy.)

So, now you know just because you CAN push your 80% for more than reps than what your online certification suggests, it does not mean you should. Especially if strength is the goal The Spanish, Soviets, and Americans agree leave a little in the tank for next time. i personally use prilepins table with my program design, and 60% of the time it works everytime.

starting out

In my career as a trainer I have learned there are many ways to get to the top of that mountain. Different trainers have different philosophies and approaches. I approach this blog with that mindframe. My goal is to share views and ideas from trainers ive met, worked with, been mentored by, managed by, and most of all respect. second i plan on sharing my own training towards my own goals, as well as that of my teamates at Team VJ with kettlebell sport and the 63rd street powerlifting crew.

I'm sure the upcoming content will be interesting to say the least, and hopefully very informative.



You stay classy and thanks for stopping by