Ask Charles Staley #3

Dear Charles,

I’m trying to get my metabolism up. My husband sold me on the idea of quitting my daily 45 minute cardio workout, and replacing it with weight training so I could put some muscle on. Now, it’s a month later and I haven’t lost any fat and think I even lost a little muscle in my legs. Should I keep waiting for the results to kick in or should I go back to my old routine?

A: Yes and no. How’s that for a direct answer?

Even if you lost a little muscle following the schedule you’re describing, your husband’s suggestion might have spared you from potentiating a pattern overuse injury. Any ‘routine’ exercise or training schedule performed over an extended period, especially daily, tends to traumatize the joints and their associated connective tissues. Breaking from a habitual activity, or at least altering the movement pattern in some way can either reduce or redirect traumatizing tension to a better-prepared location on your body.

Now that you have had the good fortune of this break, should you go back to more cardio? I think so. Chances are that like many women, you have a high relative proportion of Type I muscle fiber, or as it’s more commonly called ‘slow twitch muscle fiber.’

All people have varying proportions of Type 1 (or slow) and Type II (or fast) fibers in their muscles. Women as a general rule of thumb, tend to have greater proportions of slow twitch fibers as compared to men. This may very well be why they gravitate toward aerobics and other endurance type activities when selecting exercise options.

Here’s a brief description of both types of fibers:

Type I muscle fibers are relatively slow and weak (this is where the term slow twitch comes from) but they also have great endurance capacity. Because of this, slow twitch fibers are much more resistant to fatigue. To challenge these fibers enough to force a training effect, exhausting and frequent exercise is required.

Type II (or fast twitch) fibers are white when viewed under the scope, produce lots of tension, but fatigue very quickly. They also take longer than red fibers to recover, and tend to have greater growth potential. Type II’s have a higher threshold than red fibers (which means they need greater loads to innervate them).

Now, based on what you’ve told me, my guess is that you have more red fiber then the average person and have managed to develop some quality muscle from your cardio training. We see this frequently in sports like rowing and cycling where athletes develop impressive amounts of muscle by participating in mainly endurance activities.

You could refine and maximize your ‘red fiber’ training by doing some weight training exercises that take a minimum of 90 seconds per set (or greater) to perform. As well, I think you should perform some exercises with greater loads for sets that take 20-40 seconds to perform. This will increase the size and more importantly the strength of your fast twitch fibers. Training these fibers will strengthen your ability to handle greater loads when you return to higher rep training.

So yes, go back to your cardio training for a month or so. Then, redirect our training to some higher intensity weight training, and then once again adjust the program to frequent, high rep exercises. As a rule, when constructing the macro-cycle (the long term plan, including all phases of training) place the greatest emphasis on the phase that offers the greatest personal return. Spend less time on the elements that appear less productive – you can recognize them as the ones that are less fun.

Dear Charles,

Do you ever think to yourself – “I’m not strong enough…I can’t pick up the weight…I don’t write well…Everyone is stronger than me…No one likes me…?”

A: This crosses my mind every morning; however, I turn that tide with my daily affirmation: “I’m strong enough, I’m smart enough, and dog-gonit, people like me.”

Q: On the Myo Dynamics website I read that you put 77 pounds on a weightlifter’s front squat in 88 days without ever training that lift. How did you go about that?

A: With a lot of my athletes I spend hours considering experimental training variables and various specific fitness tests searching for the best way to train them at any given moment. When Joe Senate started training under me in January of this year, I took a careful look through his training diary and knew exactly how I was going to improve his leg strength – by finding new, unfamiliar challenges for his neuromuscular system.

According to Joe’s diary, one of the most prominent leg exercises was front squats. He had performed this exercise virtually every week for as far back as his diary went (which is by no means unusual for an Olympic weightlifter, by the way). So I tested his 1RM in the front squat which resulted in a lift of 295 pounds. Now that I had this marker, I never had him perform the front squat until he re-tested about thirty days later.

For the first month of training I focused on hypertrophy (his quad and hamstring development was inadequate given the fact that he had plans to move to a higher weight class eventually). I had him perform deep lunges emphasizing the quadriceps. These are done in place, exhausting one leg before moving on to the next, rather than alternating legs. Joe also performed step-ups on a four inch block, focusing mostly on vastus medialis development. We also utilized stiff-leg deadlifts supersetted with one and a quarter squats (descend, come up a quarter of the way, back down, and finally all the way up). All exercises were performed fairly slowly – about 5-6 seconds per rep.

On one particular session, I went to get a glass of water, only to come back and see Joe’s eyes squeezed closed and clicking his heels together, chanting “There’s no place like home…there’s no place like home!” He never got his trip home, but he did get a 326 pound front squat when I re-tested him on February 13th. At this point I put him slightly back into more familiar surroundings, focusing on clean and snatch pulls. I increased the loading intensities from the previous month, and switched from one and a quarter squats to standard full squats. We also employed trap-bar deadlifts, which is a favorite movement of mine, due to the fact that it allows the athlete to achieve high levels of overload with relatively low compression on the lumbar spine. It also spares the shins, which take a heavy beating during performance of the competitive lifts.

This second month of training lead to a 362 pound front squat test, which I have to admit surprised even me.

I now had three weeks left to maximize Joe’s leg power before getting him ready for competition. I had him start performing the Olympic lifts – the snatch, and the clean and jerk. Joe’s explosive leg power and stretch reflex improved significantly using the these lifts. I had him speed up the tempo on squats; however, I remained extremely careful to monitor his upright posture, never letting that deteriorate. Three weeks into this phase, on April 23rd, Joe front squatted 372 pounds. I think Joe wet his pants when he realized what he had done, but he swears it was just sweat.

I wish I had a secret formula for strength success. I don’t, but when I saw Joe’s training diary, it looked to me like he was trying to make chocolate chip cookies and the only ingredient he was using was chocolate chips. The theme of this story is not that front squats are bad (if they weren’t so highly prevalent in his past training, believe me, he would have been doing plenty), it is that a recipe requires certain ingredients with careful amount of each element no matter how good that element seems.

Q: Marilyn Manson is cut! There’s not a speck of fat on his body. Is there any relationship between satanic worship and bodyfat percentage?

A: OK, I knew sooner or later something like this would happen. Hey, I’ll just assume that you’re serious and answer the question.

I have three theories regarding Manson’s ripped (although puny) physique:

1) People from warmer continents are statistically leaner than those from colder climates, i.e. Africans tend to be leaner than Northern Europeans. Marilyn Manson is from hell which is rumored to be at least 3000 degrees warmer than the equator…talk about thermogenic!

2) Manson has massive amounts of self-inflicted scarification which, under proper lighting, can appear to be striations.

3) I may be off base in saying this, but Manson appears to be no stranger to recreational pharmacology. Maybe he’s found the next cutting-edge fat burning drug.

Q: I just bought a house and am already laying the blueprints for my home gym in the garage. Do you have any recommendation for a particular brand multi-gym?

A: There are a variety of considerations when considering how to equip your home gym. Cost, space, and your training objectives are just a few important concerns.

When I designed my own home gym (also in my garage), my objective was efficiency – to have the smallest amount of equipment which would allow me to perform the largest variety of exercises. (I can’t seem to convince my wife that the gym is an inappropriate place to park her car, but I’m still working on it). Based on these criteria, here are my suggestions:

Start with dumbbells because of their immense versatility. With a good set of dumbbells you can apply resistance to virtually any muscle without the aid of any other equipment. If you don’t have room for a complete set of dumbbells (which are expensive in terms of space and money), Power Blocks are an unbeatable choice. Power Blocks are basically selectorized dumbbells- you determine the weightload by simply re-setting the pins, just as you would with a machine. I also suggest buying the stand which is designed to hold the Power Blocks- without it, you’ll have difficulty inserting the pins (you can purchase Power Blocks at Dr. Fred Hatfield’s web site at http://www.drsquat.com/ ).

The second choice is an ABS-Pro Swiss ball from Sissel USA. The ABS-Pro can be used as a substitute for a weight room bench, and is a hell of a lot cheaper as well. In addition, the ball allows for a multitude of strength training, flexibility, and stabilization exercises which are unique to the ball alone. At less than $30, this is the most versatile tool in my gym. (Please go to http://www.swissball.com/ for more information).

Thirdly, look into purchasing an Olympic style barbell set, which can be obtained for less than $100, although I’d suggest a higher quality set if you can afford it (a nation-wide chain of stored called Play-It-Again Sports sells every imaginable type of pre-owned sports and fitness equipment at rock bottom prices- check your local yellow pages for one near you). Olympic lifters and power lifters may have to shop around for properly gauged and engineered bars, otherwise any set should do.

Fourth on the list is a power rack. I rank it fourth not because it’s not as useful, but because it costs a bit more (you can easily find a good rack for less than $300 though – I’d check out Bigger Faster Stronger at 801-974-0460 as a starting point) and takes up a fair amount of space. The power rack enables you to perform exercises from various heights and easily and quickly adjusts to different heights for your partner. A good rack has a pull-up bar at the top, and most importantly, a system of adjustable pins so that you can perform benching and squatting variations in complete safety. Although the power rack takes up a bit of space, you can store a lot of your other equipment inside of it when not in use.

Finally, there are scores of useful tools you can equip your gym with – medicine balls, trap bars, squat harnesses, wobble boards, grip developers, etc. I love having lots of options available, however, I can train myself and my athletes without them when the ‘extras’ are unavailable, as long as the basics are there.

Q: My first bodybuilding contest is just four weeks away. What do you think I should focus on in the gym until then? I know I need to get leaner, but I’m afraid to lose the muscle I’ve managed to gain over the past 8 months!

A: You have two major objectives for competition day – be as “freaky big” as possible, and be as “freaky lean” as possible. If you have to choose between the two, go with the former. A strength increase is of no value to you at this stage of the game, and putting on noticeable mass in the coming weeks would be harder than nailing Jello to a wall. You need to find a way to retain as much mass as possible, but accept minor losses in mass in order to decrease fat to an absolute minimum.

As a rule of thumb, exercises which produce high levels of lactic acid are most productive for fat loss. The noticeable burn associated with lactic acid production is a great indicator that you using a system appropriate for pre-contest. The “burn,” suggesting lactic acid presence, increases the likelihood of elevating HGH (human growth hormone), which research shows to be important for facilitating muscle growth and efficient fat metabolism.

Without a doubt, all your efforts will be for naught without a disciplined diet. This may be the most dramatic change of any component of your training regimen. I usually see less value in high or even moderate carbohydrate diets in preparation for a bodybuilding contest.

Check out Mesomorphosis columnist Lyle McDonald’s article entitled “Training on the Cyclical Ketogenic Diet.” I think you’ll find it a insightful and useful tool for dramatic fat loss.

Remember, bodybuilding is a sport! No sport, especially bodybuilding, is synonymous with health. Often bodybuilders question (as they should) certain practices such as carbohydrate depleting, extreme protein consumption, drug use, creatine loading, etc…These methods should be looked at under the microscope, not so athletes can avoid a practice that has certain contraindications, but so they can weigh the benefits and consequences. It is not particularly healthy to run 30 miles a day, squat 1,000 pounds, or get punched in the face by Evander Holyfield, or whatever your favorite pastime is. However, we choose to do these things because we are born with a certain urge that is satisfied by competition.