Ask the Personal Trainer Anything

Lounge
1

Figured I’d lend a helping hand to those of you who exercise or are looking to get back on the wagon. I know Tisha is great with nutrition, maybe she will lend a helping hand as well. Being as I’m a very busy person I’ll check back on this thread regularly but at times the responses may take a day or two.

In a year or so I will begin taking on clients over the internet for a fee so I figure a thread like this will help me get prepared for expanding my business.

About my training style:
I specialize in powerlifting, barbell training, kettle-bell training, triathlons, military oriented weighted rucks & nutrition.

I am not the type of trainer to ask you to stand on a ball with one leg while patting your head and rubbing your belly. The squat will do more for your proprioception, balance, coordination, strength, endurance, muscle gain, & fat loss than any other exercise in the gym while saving you your dignity and building your self confidence. I’ve had a wide variety of clients under the bar. From 65 year old men to middle aged obese women. Each and every one of them has made spectacular results and legs continue to be their favorite training day(not at first of course lol).

So now that you know the type of trainer I am, go ahead and ask me anything :slight_smile:

EDIT: Being as I do not know who you are, what your previous injuries are, what your current condition is in, etc. I’m not going to write up any personalized workout plans. A good workout plan would progress you through specific phases to ensure you continue making progress. What I will do instead, to avoid liability & headache, is refer you to a program that I feel suites you best.

I will answer any questions you may have about your current program, questions you may have about certain exercises, questions about nutrition and dieting, supplement advice, etc.

2

What do you think of the Paleo Diet?

3

What does cardio really do for you? Some people tell me it makes you lose fat, some people say it burns muscle mass, not builds it.

And what is the most effective way to lose a belly? Any recommended workouts?

4

It’s a great diet for the simple fact that it approaches dieting in the way it should be approached. It focuses on building good eating habits that you can rely on for the rest of your life. I know a lot of people who have had great success on the Paleo diet.

Me personally though I can’t stand it. I can’t stand alienating certain foods and saying this that or the other is the cause of your issues. Before I begin let me clarify i am no expert on the whole lectin issue but i do have a fair amount of knowledge on the subject. Accuracy of my knowledge could be skewed so feel free to correct me if im wrong(with research backing your claims preferably).

Sure there is SOME truth to lectins causing issues in certain people but the key phrase here is “certain people”. Lectins don’t ruin everybodies lives only the ones that actually have allergic reactions to them. This whole concept stemmed from Dr. D’Adamos book - Eat Right For Your Type where his dad culminated 20 years of research in to lectins and blood type dieting and his son continued it on and published a diet based on his dads research.

In my opinion the Paleo diet is a good healthy diet to follow but it is not the end all be all of dieting. I personally believe that anything is okay in moderation, to a certain extent. For a male getting down to 12-15% bodyfat, or a female down to 19-22% BF can be accomplished by following any clean eating plan 80% of the time. This in my experience has had excellent results in terms of diet adherence on ANY diet.

I tell my clients:
Rule #1 Where’s the Protein? Each meal should have a protein source as the focal point of the meal.
Rule #2 Where are the veggies? Vegetables should be eaten at each meal and should be the second largest portion of your meals.
Rule #3 Where are the carbs? If you haven’t just worked out then minimize your carb intake. If you’ve just worked out then a mix of carb sources is fine.
Rule #4 Where is your zero calorie beverage? Drink water or green tea with each meal.
Rule #5 Where is your healthy fats? Make sure to include a wide variety of healthy fats in to your diet. Remember that saturated fat is not evil.

5

Think about it this way. When you’re on a diet you’re in a caloric deficit and your body is eating away at itself to survive. Like a bear in hibernation the body views fat as essential for survival. When you drone away on a treadmill for hours on end without stimulating your muscle tissue through resistance training your body sees no reason to keep your muscle around so it starts to atrophy(break down). Steady state cardio is great for weight loss as long as you’re doing 3-4 days per week of resistance training as well to stimulate your muscles and tell your body, “Hey, I need these biceps around to get shit done.” This will maximize your fat loss and minimize your muscle loss.

To summarize: You will always lose muscle mass on any diet. There are certain things you can do to minimize muscle loss like resistance training or low carb dieting, cyclic dieting, adequate protein intake, etc. Cardio combined with resistance training is THREE TIMES more effective for FAT loss than cardio alone.

6

What are your thoughts on crossfit style workouts? Are they too brief to produce results quickly?

7

The problem with crossfit style workouts is that they aren’t progressive. They are random with balls to the walls effort. Crossfit is great for increasing your work capacity or conditioning but when was the last time you heard of anyone getting toned through just crossfit? Crossfit is like a jack of all trades of fitness. You get a little bit of everything but never really a lot of any one thing.

I’ve actually been wanting to get in to crossfit myself to be honest. I like the camaraderie of it and the atmosphere of it. Crossfit can never replace a sound training program in terms of results in body recomposition, strength gain, power output, etc. I tell people to think about crossfit as conditioning or extra credit towards fat loss. Crossfit combined with a progressive training program though… Now that sounds like fun to me. It’s great for single people as well. It’s got that social atmosphere which girls really dig. The gym crowd is usually a 90% male 10% female crowd where-as crossfit is more 50/50.

8

What do you recommend for skinny people to build a mass (female, 50 kg, 165 cm, 41yo)?

My plan is to include gainer supplement (“Scitec Mass 20” - 50-100 gr/day), and to start with resistance training 2-3 times a week in the gym. Also some vitamin/mineral supplements. Am I on the right track and can you give me some tips about it (types of exercises in the gym)?

Thank you!

9

  1. I’m still waiting on the No. 1 preworkout supplement on the market, if you believe in them.

  2. Is there anything over the counter that will help with vascularity? I’m so wanting veiny forearms!

  3. Ab work before training, or after; and does it really make a difference?

  4. Thanks!

10

Hi PMI! If I were training you I’d ask you the following:
What do you do on a day to day & week to week basis?
What is your current occupation?
Record your daily food intake over the next 3 days. Eat as you normally would.

Once I can get a 3 day food log and compare it to your weekly activity levels I can give you an accurate measurement of how many calories you should be aiming for on a day to day basis.

I personally would avoid the weight gain supplements. If you truly have trouble eating 3 medium sized meals and maybe two protein shakes thrown in the mix then you can use the weight gain supplement. My complaint with those is that they are full of empty calories with no nutritional value(namely maltodextrin). Since you’re fairly tiny your calorie requirements shouldn’t be too high(unless you’re like a nurse who walks 13 miles a day… It isn’t unheard of). I would recommend you get all of your calories from whole foods.

As far as training programs go I’m not going to write up any training programs for people here as I don’t know who you are and what your condition is like(previous injuries, etc). I can refer you to one of my favorite books though: The New Rules of Lifting for Women by Lou Schuler, someone else, and Alwyn Cosgrove(one of my favorite trainers who wrote the workout program in the book).

11

Hi M&M!

  1. Here are my recommendations: C4, 1RM, Rage by Universal, & the old Jack3d. My personal all time favorite is Rage by Universal. It doesn’t have as much caffeine as say 1RM but it gives you really good focus during your workouts.

  2. Don’t buy in to the supplement industry man. Rely on your diet to get what you want. Back in 2009 when I was in Iraq I was spending 300 something a month on supplements and taking 50 something pills per day(no joke!!) and guess what? I’m only taking Creatine mono hydrate, Fish Oil, and protein shakes now and I’m stronger, faster, & leaner than ever. Sure the supplements may do what they claim but to what extent? Will they help improve my size by 1lb per month or 1 lb per 4 months? What advantage am I really getting for 70$ per month per supplement? Save your money I say and spend it on whole foods and grassfed beef. You’ll get MUCH better results I promise. Remember supplements are meant to supplement a good diet. Supplements can never override a bad diet. There’s always room for improvement in your diet before you need to think about supplements.

Vascularity will come around 12% Bodyfat. True vascularity comes at 9% or less. Check out Lyle McDonalds book: The Ultimate Diet 2.0. ***Recommended only if you are already at 12-15% bodyfat to attain extreme low levels of bodyfat.

  1. I personally do ab work at the end of my workouts twice a week but I know of several very famous Personal Trainers that train professional athletes who prefer to have their athletes do their core training at the very beginning of their workouts. The choice is yours and I cannot give you a concrete answer. Sorry!

  2. your welcome! =)

12

What’s your body weight, Musik? Do you BELIEVE in adjusting the recommended dosages depending one’s BODY WEIGHT?

Tis cool that you’re sharing your KNOWLEDGE. Again, THANKS.

13

It depends on what you’re talking about. For example:

If you’re talking about Creatine well everybody is limited to a Creatine load of 20grams over normal levels no matter what your weight is. On average everybody uses 2-2.5grams of Creatine per day so once you have finished your Creatine loading phase then you can drop your daily Creatine intake down to 2.5grams per day.

Now if you’re talking about protein intake well that correlates to body weight. 2.2grams of protein per KG of lean body mass is recommended. I know of bodybuilders that eat upwards of 400 grams of protein per day so you can certainly eat more. I personally eat 1.25 x my bodyweight in protein.

To answer your other question, I started lifting at 120lbs 6ft tall 6 years ago and am now 190lbs. =)

14

I do agree that we should strive to get nutrients through our diets and is what I suggest people do but we cant ignore the need for supplements in this day and age.

Industry created much of our health problems and our problems with obesity in this country. Of course they didnt set out to do that but solving one problem (feeding a mass population) often creates another that needs to be dealt with.

People don’t eat fresh organic foods enough. For instance vegetables. Most people buy them in a can or frozen. Now these are better then not eating veggies at all but there are no water soluble vitamins or antioxidants left in them due to the blanching process.

The soil… Industrial farmers dont rotate there fields. The soil is depleted so the mineral content of our food is way down from what it was 50 years ago. You even run into soil depletion on organic farms unfortunately. Still organic is better.

In early 2000 the university of Texas conducted a study of over 40 fruits and vegetables to check for decline in nutritional value. The found a 6% to 36% decline in certain essential nutrients the highest being calcium, phosphorus, iron, riboflavin and ascorbic acid.

Just one example…

You need to eat 3 to 5 times the volume to get the same nutritional value. Thats a whole head of broccoli and it still only counts as 1 serving. People dont eat enough to get the proper nutritional value and when the body is depleted of nutrients it needs the brain urges it to eat more to get those nutrients. Unfortunately we dont eat the whole head of broccoli we tend to grab foods made of grains or packaged snacks that have very little to nothing we need.

In my opinion being hungry is more about nutritional value then it is about your stomach being empty. You can fill you stomach with anything and it will stop feeling hungry but your body is still starving for nutrients.

That is a major part of obesity in this country.

To cope with this problem, created by solving the feeding mass population problem they invented the suppliment industry. Its not a perfect solution but its necessary now so while I agree we should try to improve out diets through food some supplementation is necessary

I wont even go into the problems with meat and grains LOL

Tisha

15

Tisha, in terms of health benefits I agree with you entirely. 100%.

For body re-composition though there’s no need to be downing 20 pills a day. I’m more concerned with macro-nutrients here than micro-nutrients if we are talking about body re-composition(M&M wants to see some veins!).

If you focus more on the foods you’re eating rather than being distracted by which pills and powders you need to take throughout the day you’ll not only save money but you’ll also get quicker results. From my experience in the training industry, people often worry too much about the latest and greatest supplements that hit the market and never make any changes to their eating patterns. Then they come to me asking me why their bench numbers are the same or why they are still at the same body fat percentage. Well, what did you have for breakfast? A bowl of cereal? Well there ya go.

Since nobody has asked which supplements I take I’ll list them here:
Along with 12 eggs per day(WHFoods: Eggs) - No joke!
2000 IU Vit D3 (on top of a multi-vitamin)
1000 mg Vit C (Chewables… Yum! Again on top of a multi-vitamin)
6-7 Grams Omega-3 (from Fish Oil capsules)
Creatine Monohydrate 5g/day
GNC’s Multi-Vitamin & Sometimes Animal Pak by Universal
Zinc & Magnesium (ZMA, Sleep support - T NATION | ZMA)
Z-12 (Sleep support - Biotest Store at T NATION | Z-12)
L-Glutamine 5G before bedtime (sleep support)

and of course… protein =)

If you wanted to go the supplement route, those are the only supplements I would recommend. I recommend to all of my clients fish oil. The saying goes, “If it can’t be fixed by squats or fish oil… You’re probably going to die.” lol!! On a serious note.. Research is coming out as of lately claiming Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol) is the next Omega-3 in terms of health benefits.

I have spent a LOT of time researching supplements, or should I say main stream supplements not naturopathic supplements/medicine. I have been researching main stream supplements since 2007 and try my best to stay up to date on the latest and greatest products since I deal with these topics on a daily basis. I have also spent quite a bit of time compiling a list of the most beneficial supplements that provide the most bang for your buck which are all listed above.

16

I guess the only other supplement I would recommend is Greens+ http://greensplus.com/index.php/cPath/84_23_150

17

I wasn’t trying to contradict you. I know nothing about veins or the exercise side of health and fitness. Just pointing out the need for some supplementation. I wish we could get it all from our foods.

I love greens+, I add it to my juices and smoothies. I even add it to soups although my family thinks it looks gross.

Tisha

18

I think you know quite a bit more than me about nutrition so feel free to chime in if you’re ever feeling generous.

I’ve heard greens+ tastes disgusting too, which may be why I’ve been so hesitant to pick it up :o I already drink enough disgusting cheap protein shakes (I could stop bitching and just use cold water or milk instead of luke warm water but I’m lazy and stubborn sometimes). I really need to pick it up though I’ve been looking at greens+ for over a year now. I don’t eat nearly as much veggies as I should.