Don't Forget the CNS

Courtesy of Bryan Christie Design

Pushing yourself in the gym or during your activity of choice is how we improve. However, there is a potential downside lurking just below the surface if one is not careful. This downside is more than just sore muscles that require a little rest. What I’m referring to is the central nervous system.

Our movements are all controlled by the Central Nervous System
  Courtesy of Bryan Christie Design

The central nervous system (CNS) is the control center for all that we do. The electrical impulses that travel through this system cause all of our muscular movements. If we work our bodies long enough and hard enough we can eventually reach a state of CNS fatigue. This means the power source that moves our body is over burdened. 

I was actually asked one time by a young man why he could bench press 320lbs but now, a month later, can barely get 300lbs. After a little Q & A it turns out he was using a body part split that had him lifting 6 days a week. When I asked him about de-loading he looked at me like I was speaking another language. This guy was in full CNS meltdown. His system just didn’t have the juice to keep him working at the extremely high intensity he always trained with. Think about it, 6 days a week going to failure on every exercise. That’s very taxing on the nervous system not to mention the rest of the body.

This is why I tend to prescribe a 3 – 4 day a week split for most people because it allows plenty of time off generally spliced between workout days. I also like to use a concurrent type training model, which trains multiple areas of performance at the same time. This introduces multiple loading parameters in a month, which can reduce CNS overloading; it also produces well-rounded athleticism, which most people desire anyway.

Some other factors to consider outside of your training split.

Sleep: 

if you neglect a good nights sleep you are cutting your recovery short, 7 – 9 hours is the recommended dosage for most people. Undercutting this amount on a regular basis will add up over time hindering your physical performance and potential for improvement.

 Food:

Which of these two meals do you think will get your further?

 making poor food choices will definitely affect you as well. Getting the right fuel into your body is essential for optimum performance. You body has nutritional needs and fast food is just not delivering the necessary ingredients, though it is delivering a host of other less than desirable ones.

 Stress:

 all stress is not the same, but it can have a similar effect on the body. If we are overloaded by stress at home, at work, on the freeway, at the gym, etc. we can easily burn out. Adding stimulants to the mix because we aren’t getting enough sleep just makes it worse; coffee to get going in the morning after 5 hours of sleep, an “energy” drink mid afternoon to ward off the post fast food lunch lull, and a cocktail at the end of the day to wind down because we have artificially cranked our system up and now are unable to relax. I assume you can see how this cycle would cost you over time. 

In the end, eat well most of the time, get a good nights sleep as often as you can, try to relax, stop worrying about things you can’t control, and finally train smart. Paradoxically by training smarter and sometimes working out less we can actually gain more. Recovery is as much of the puzzle as training is.

-KO

Prowling for weight loss?

Courtesy of Travis self training

Looking for a better way to condition yourself? Countless hours spent plodding away on an elliptical or recumbent bike can be very boring and in reality not tremendously productive. Additionally, as I’ve said before, keep your goals in mind; are you training for a marathon or high endurance event? If not, why spend countless hours doing long distance cardio if you’re never going to need that level of endurance? If cardio is strictly being used for weight loss there are better options, try something with more intensity and less duration. Limiting the duration will reduce the chances of overuse injuries and not require you to mortgage large shares of precious time just to stay in shape. There are a number of options such as intervals on a treadmill and sprint variations, but the ultimate, in my opinion, is sled work. Nothing really comes close to the intensity of weighted sled repeats.

There are many sled options and all work well, but one of the most popular in the strength and conditioning world is the prowler from Elite FTS.

Who says you can't look good while prowling? "Blinged out" prowler 2

This versatile sled can bring even highly conditioned people to their knees. It has a couple of pushing options from low to high as well as attachment points for pulling. This gives the operator many choices: push, pull, skip, side shuffle, offset pulling for training anti-rotation and more. This sled can be used for conditioning only or as a full-fledged workout itself. You could load it up, press it down one way (like a moving bench press), row it back (think standing cable row), then do a host of pulling and pushing varieties driving with the hips and legs before returning to the first exercise. You can also go heavy and march the sled down and back for more of a strength focus or lighten the weight up a bit and sprint it down for training power. The one thing that is never missing no matter how you use the prowler is cardiovascular conditioning. Your heart rate is guaranteed to be elevated the whole time.

Doesn't this look like fun?

If all of that weren’t enough, another beautiful thing about sled work is that it doesn’t create much soreness if at all. Because the effort is all concentric (all acceleration) you tend to feel fatigue the next day rather than soreness. If you’ve ever done “negatives” then you know what I’m talking about; negatives are all eccentric (all deceleration) which tends to elicit a good deal of soreness. This fact makes sled work a great option for athletes in season that can’t afford to be sore all of the time but need to keep their strength and conditioning up. Though I’m not an athlete in the traditional sense, I don’t participate in organized sports, I do appreciate being able to add the prowler into my programming because it can be done on my non-lifting days without negatively affecting my strength training. It can also be added as a finisher on lifting days because post-workout a couple of repeats can be plenty so it doesn’t add a lot of time or volume.

Drive Sled II from Perform Better

Sled Dawg Elite also from Perform Better

Power Sled from Power Systems

If you’re ready to take your conditioning and weight loss to the next level weighted sled work could be the answer. To avoid catching the “prowler flu”, make sure to moderate your volume at first. This type of conditioning is sneaky and more intense than it initially feels. IF you think your recumbent bike is giving you an intense workout, try using a sled and compare because there really is no comparison.

-KO

Buzzword: "Core"

Courtesy of Bryan Christie Design

When discussing the “core” what comes to mind? Ones thinking about this often talked about area can really make a difference in their training. A person who thinks of the core simply as abs and obliques is missing a huge portion of what’s really going on. First let's look at what this area is actually comprised of.

The core is an area floored by the pelvis and topped by the shoulder girdle. With the vertical dimensions laid out it’s pretty obvious that the aforementioned abdominals and obliques are part of it along with a host of other trunk musculature. Now we are three-dimensional beings so think of the core as more of a cuboid or cylinder with a back, front, and sides.

Because the pelvis and shoulder girdle are very mobile areas, any muscle that controls the movement of these two girdles must be considered part of the core as well. This means muscles that attach to the shoulder girdle but extend above to the neck and head can be considered part of the core and the same can be said for the muscles that attach to the hip and extend below to the lower extremities. We are now talking about muscles such as the trapezius, which attaches to the base of the skull but extends all the way down to the mid back, the hip flexors that control much of the lumbar spine and hip complex but attach to the femur as well, and the glutes which attach to the pelvis on one side, cross the hip joint, and tie into the IT band and femur on the other. Obviously muscles such as the trapezius aren't typically trained as core stabilizers, but they do span the distance between the trunk and neck thus providing stability to the shoulder girdle and displaying how interconnected our musculature is. This extends the reach of the core to a much larger area than most people consider and ones core training should reflect this extended region.

The Trapezius muscle, core?

Hip flexors: Iliacus and Psoas major both posses femoral attachments

The "Glutes", strong pelvic stabilizers and also part of the "core"

Now the reality of what the core does; while it certainly has the capacity to create movement, we use it to prevent movement more often. Many of the muscle of the abdomen and spine are postural and stabilize the body against external forces. One of the main responsibilities of our core is to prevent movement and protect the spine from injury. This means we should put more stock into anti-movement exercises than ones that create movement. Planks, glute bridges, pallof presses and other anti-movement exercises are great for training the core to be strong and stable. This also allows optimum power transfer from the upper and lower extremities, which enhances performance as well as reducing the risk of injury.

A Bit About Food

While I am certainly no expert on nutrition or would ever claim to be perfect with my diet, there are some basic tenets I try to follow. Similar to how I look at exercise, these principles tend to be simple, consistent, and functional.

So while I focus on basic, functional movement patterns when I train, I try to keep it simple and follow a diet consisting of as much whole food as possible. The advice I give to those just getting started is simply to replace as much of the processed food they currently eat with whole, real food. I’m not going to wade into the somewhat contentious debate about which macro-nutrient ratios (proteins, fats, and carbohydrates) are best, for now just focus on real food. 

Real Food

This means vegetables (yeah I know, but they get better with regular consumption), fruits, whole grains, organic free-range meats and poultry, and water. While I could go on and on about the organic vs. non-organic debate it really needs to be a topic unto itself so I’ll save it for another time, this is about behavior change plain and simple.

Making changes to your diet is never easy so take it one small step at a time. I find fruit smoothies an easy way to get fruits and vegetables into my body, especially considering that a handful of spinach thrown in is virtually undetectable. This means one smoothie can have a serving of vegetables and probably a couple servings of fruit right there, simple.

Whole grain rice and quinoa are relatively easy to make and accompany a piece of grilled chicken well. Ground turkey or chicken can be browned in a matter of minutes and provide a base for countless meals. Crock-pot dinners are very manageable too. This type of cooking is really pretty easy and eliminates the common excuse of “I don’t have time to eat healthy”.

For most people I recommend focusing on one nutritional change at a time. I’m approaching this from a lifestyle change standpoint and not a drop a few pounds quick one. So if you eat fast food on a regular basis I would start there. Limiting your exposure to this type of food will make you feel better especially if you start cooking at home and eating more whole foods. A close second to fast food would be soda intake. Begin weaning yourself off of sugar-sweetened drinks, which may include energy drinks and many juices as well. The typical American diet is atrocious, loaded with processed food products, too much sugar, salt, and fat so beginning an exercise program and implementing these simple nutritional steps can be a colossal improvement for many.

The Frighteningly Rapid Expansion of Obesity in America

Obviously these solutions are a huge simplification of a very complex topic, but people need to start somewhere. As these changes become the norm, begin looking for other ways to improve your diet. Additionally, get your kids eating healthy as early as possible. My children snack on things like carrots, red pepper and fruit by the pound because it’s what they know and have a taste for.

One final note, cheat days/meals are fine. It can help to have a day/meal here and there where you allow yourself to have something you really enjoy, just be reasonable. Most of us have become so accustomed to eating foods loaded with fat, salt, and sugar that treating yourself is a way to stem your cravings and even potentially wean yourself off. The goal should be to eat clean about 90% of the time.

Good luck and don’t forget to include exercise in your plan as well.