Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
If you come into my weight room, you’ll see a board displaying the essential no’s:
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
It’s sweet, bubbly, and oh so refreshing after a long, hot day. A can of Coke or Pepsi is often what many people crave with dinner or for their mid-afternoon sugar rush to get them through the piles of work on their desk. But did you know that your daily soda is actually killing you? […]
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
The common food additive TBHQ, a synthetic antioxidant used to preserve freshness, appears to impair the immune response to influenza.
Maori people have a greater insulin response to fructose than BMI-matched Europeans.
There’s a new DNA editing tool in town.
Dog owners tend to be more happy than cat owners.
Episode 325: Gary John Bishop: Host Elle Russ chats with Gary John Bishop, personal development coach and author of Unf*ck Yourself and Stop Doing That Sh*t.
Episode 326: Dr. Lindsay Taylor: Host Brad Kearns chats with Dr. Lindsay Taylor about silly six-packs and going by how you feel rather than how you look.
Health Coach Radio Episode 7: Michael Rutherford: Michael Rutherford is a veteran health coach who focuses on an underserved population—truck drivers.
Each week, select Mark’s Daily Apple blog posts are prepared as Primal Blueprint Podcasts. Need to catch up on reading, but don’t have the time? Prefer to listen to articles while on the go? Check out the new blog post podcasts below, and subscribe to the Primal Blueprint Podcast here so you never miss an episode.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sounds like he’s been reading this blog.
Researchers find a new human species, a tree-climber with curved toes who lived in the Philippines 60 thousand years ago.
Ancient methods for preserving olives.
I had a good time on the Taste Radio podcast, talking about my history as a serial entrepreneur and how it made growing the blog and brand into what they are today possible.
I also had a blast with Aubrey Marcus on his podcast, talking about our shared vision for changing how the world eats and the importance of learning from failure.
Chinese scientists insert human brain genes into monkeys.
It’s possible to get too much vitamin D.
Norway hospitals offer forest therapy.
New study: Dietary saturated fat unrelated to heart disease risk.
Topic I found interesting: How Alzheimer’s patients usually have more going wrong in the brain than “just” Alzheimer’s, and what it means for treatments.
As someone who has experience with both, I can agree: Exercise makes you happier than money.
I hadn’t thought of this angle: Is work more fun than not working?
Seems likely: Will space colonization be fully automated?
What’s your opinion on the “money vs. exercise for happiness” question?
One year ago (Apr 7 – Apr 13)
“Now that you mention it in your Sunday with Sisson, I think I’ve always thought of the pushup more as a toe-as-fulcrum rotation rather than an up-and-down activity. I mean, this perspective naturally follows if you are already doing pushups with a ridged plank from head to toes and focus on only moving your arms to raise your body up and lower it back down slowly, as if you were a plank of wood a single person was lifting up and down from the floor while standing at one end of the plank. Visualization and imagery can provide key insights into form and technique.”
– Great description and apt point, Aaron.
The post Weekly Link Love — Edition 24 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Those late night or early morning flights can be really hard to take, and many of us look forward to a warm cup of coffee or tea to jolt us into action. However, if you are used to drinking your tea or coffee on your flight, you may want to think twice. Flight attendants report […]
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
While some keto or low-carb proponents claim fiber is useless at best and actively harmful at worst, I come down on the side that says fiber is probably helpful for most people. Some folks have persistently better responses to low- or no-fiber keto diets, and I won’t argue with that—I’ve seen it happen and I’ve read the studies where de-emphasizing fiber can actually improve constipation, for example.
I’ll just say that I have an opposite reaction, and, most importantly, I love eating a variety of plant foods that also happen to contain a ton of great nutrients in addition to fiber.
Do I buy into the idea that fiber is important because it is every human being’s responsibility to produce as much colonic bulk as humanly possible? No.
Do I think we should be consistently pushing the limits of our digestive tracts, performing feats of bathroom heroism so momentous they border on Herculean, and making sure the toilet bowl buckles beneath us? No.
The real value of fiber lies not in its coarseness, its tendency to form colonic bulk, to keep us topped off. The true value lies in its fermentability. A fermentable fiber is a prebiotic fiber—fiber that feeds our gut bacteria.
I won’t get into the many roles our gut bacteria play in our health today (I’ve covered that before. 1, 2, 3).
I will, however, explain why we need to be feeding our gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria form a physical barrier against incursions and colonization by pathogenic bacteria; they take up room along the gut lining so pathogens can’t. If we don’t feed our gut bacteria with prebiotics, it won’t be around to protect us. After antibiotic treatment where both good and bad gut flora are indiscriminately targeted and wiped out, pathogenic obesity-promoting bacteria take advantage of the open space. That’s a worst-case scenario, but it shows what can happen when the harmony of the gut is disturbed by antibiotics or, to a less extent, a lack of fermentable prebiotic fibers.
When our gut bacteria eat prebiotics, they also give off metabolites like butyric acid—a short chain fatty acid that our colonic cells use as an energy source and which improves metabolic health.
Gut bacteria also convert antinutrients like phytic acid into nutrients like inositol. The almond meal-obsessed keto eater would do well to have a powerful gut biome set up to convert all that phytic acid to inositol.
Now, some writers will come up with specific blends of fibers, powders and gums to create the “optimal” prebiotic diet for your gut bacteria, but that’s pretty silly. The gut is a complicated place. We’ve barely begun to even identify all its inhabitants. To think we know the precise blend of isolated fiber that will make them flourish, and then act on that, is a mistake.
A better option is to eat foods that contain fiber. Some of the prebiotic fibrous foods with the best nutrient profiles also happen to be extremely keto-friendly.
Nuts are usually favored in health-conscious circles for a few reasons. They like the monounsaturated fat. They like the mineral profile, or the complete protein, or their ability to dissemble into nut meals and form baked goods. But what gets short shrift is the fiber content. Now, I can’t speak for other nuts, but almonds and pistachios in particular contain fiber with potent prebiotic effects. People who eat almonds and to an even greater extent pistachios end up with improved gut bacteria profiles.
Ripe bananas are difficult to squeeze into a ketogenic diet. The green banana—an unripe one—is mostly resistant starch, a type of starch that cannot be digested and travels untouched until colonic bacteria metabolize it. It’s one of the best stimulators we know of butyric acid production. And sure, you could do a spoonful of raw potato starch to get your resistant starch, but the beauty of the green banana is that it also provides potassium, another nutrient that some find difficult to obtain and stay keto.
Blackberries, boysenberries, raspberries, and strawberries are all loaded with fiber, and you should eat them. They’re lower carb than you think, they’re loaded with polyphenols, and topped with some real whipped cream they make a fantastic dessert. But wild blueberries are special. They’re smaller than other berries, which increases the amount of skin per ounce you get, and skin is where all the polyphenols and fiber lie. Heck, even the blueberry’s polyphenols have prebiotic effects on the gut biome.
A few years ago, I wrote a whole post on mushrooms. Suffice it to say, they’re quite wonderful, bordering on magical. I did not discuss the fiber they contain. It turns out that all the various mushroom polysaccharides/fibers, including beta-glucans, mannans, chitin, xylans, and galactans also act as potent prebiotics that improve the health of the host.
Your standard avocado has about 12-15 grams of fiber, if you eat the whole thing. I
Great with chili powder, salt, and lime juice, jicama is about 11 grams of carbs per cup, but half of those are inulin, a potent prebiotic fiber with a tendency to really ramp up butyrate production.
Onions are another fantastic source of inulin. They go into almost every dish of every cuisine, so there’s no excuse not to be eating onions.
I’ve been known to treat garlic like a vegetable, roasting an entire cast iron pan full until brown and sweet and chewy. They’re another great source of prebiotic fiber.
Leeks have more inulin than onions. Try them crispy in egg scrambles.
Broccolini is a major part of my favorite meal of the day—my Big-Ass Keto Salad. Broccoli (and cruciferous vegetables in general) has been shown to have modulatory effects on the gut biome.
Kraut gives you two in one. It’s a fermented food, which is great for the gut biome. And it’s cabbage, which is very fibrous. Even pasteurized kraut improves gut health.
Dark chocolate, the good stuff with a high cacao content (85%+) and low sugar content, is an incredible source of prebiotic fiber. Eat more of it.
Obligate carnivores like cheetahs who don’t eat any plants (willingly) still have gut bacteria. These gut bacteria thrive on “animal fiber,” the gristle and cartilage and other bits of connective tissue that comprise a good 20-30% of the walking weight of a prey animal. Humans are not obligate carnivores, but eating the entire animal has been a mainstay of advanced hominid existence for millions of years. I find it very likely that something, someone, somewhere inside our guts is breaking down the animal fiber we eat—so you’d better be eating some!
Not so tough, is it? It’s not like I’m suggesting you load up on bran muffins, psyllium smoothies. I don’t want you dumping flax meal into everything or munching on those awful fiber gummies. Just eat some basic, healthy, low-carb plant matter—foods that don’t really scream “fiber”—and the rest will take care of itself.
What’s your favorite low-carb source of fiber? Let me know down below.
Thanks for reading, everyone.
References:
Hernández E, Bargiela R, Diez MS, et al. Functional consequences of microbial shifts in the human gastrointestinal tract linked to antibiotic treatment and obesity. Gut Microbes. 2013;4(4):306-15.
Ukhanova M, Wang X, Baer DJ, Novotny JA, Fredborg M, Mai V. Effects of almond and pistachio consumption on gut microbiota composition in a randomised cross-over human feeding study. Br J Nutr. 2014;111(12):2146-52.
Jiao X, Wang Y, Lin Y, et al. Blueberry polyphenols extract as a potential prebiotic with anti-obesity effects on C57BL/6 J mice by modulating the gut microbiota. J Nutr Biochem. 2019;64:88-100.
Jayachandran M, Xiao J, Xu B. A Critical Review on Health Promoting Benefits of Edible Mushrooms through Gut Microbiota. Int J Mol Sci. 2017;18(9)
Nielsen ES, Garnås E, Jensen KJ, et al. Lacto-fermented sauerkraut improves symptoms in IBS patients independent of product pasteurisation – a pilot study. Food Funct. 2018;9(10):5323-5335.
The post 13 Keto-Friendly Fiber Foods appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://chriskresser.com/
While the conventional medical community has long considered some eye conditions irreversible and untreatable, a growing body of scientific research suggests otherwise. Read on to learn how simple nutrition and lifestyle changes can promote optimal eye health.
The post Your Guide to Eye Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
The burgeoning CBD oil scene has made finding a product easier than ever, but it’s also made choosing a product harder. If you recall my post from years ago on decision fatigue, you’ll know what I’m talking about: the paralysis of too many choices…. I know my readership, and I know you’re the type of people who will wonder about optimizing their CBD ingestion. This stuff isn’t cheap, and it’s perfectly rational to want to get your money’s worth.
While the compound itself—cannabidiol, or CBD—doesn’t change from product to product, the way it’s administered does.
(Just a reminder that we’re talking here about CBD oil, a.k.a. “hemp extract,” a legal form of cannabis with extremely low levels of psychoactive THC: there’s no “high” with CBD oil, but CBD oil does contain cannabidiol, a component with big physiological impacts for health. Read more on those impacts here. Likewise, “hemp oil” is different from CBD oil; hemp oil isn’t made from the full plant and doesn’t contain substantive CBD content. For the purpose of this article, I’m covering CBD oil only.)
Let’s look at the forms of available CBD oil….
There are oral CBD oil supplements—gummies, capsules, infused teas, chocolates. Things you eat and drink and digest.
There are sublingual CBD oil supplements—sprays, tinctures, lozenges. Things you swish and swirl around your mouth.
There are topical CBD—creams, lotions, and balms.
There are patches—things you rub and attach to your skin.
There is high-CBD cannabis and CBD-only vape juice. Things you can vaporize and inhale.
But how do you choose? What are the differences between the various routes of administration?
Speed of absorption. How quickly do you want the CBD to take effect?
Intensity. How powerful do you want your CBD “experience” to be?
Duration. How long do you want it to last?
Effects. Where do you want it to take effect?
Oral CBD is the most common method of administration. It’s simple, easy, and intuitive. Everyone swallows pills, eats food, and drinks fluids. There’s almost no way to mess it up (choking aside).
Oral CBD is readily absorbed. Like most everything else that travels through the digestive system, it goes to the liver to be metabolized and converted into different metabolites. The liver is so central to oral CBD that people with poor liver function actually end up with higher serum CBD after taking it orally, since their livers aren’t as good at metabolizing it into different compounds. This liver route also means it takes longer for oral CBD to take effect, but it lasts longer.
Taking an acute oral dose every once in awhile is less effective than consistent dosing because of the liver’s tendency to regulate its bioavailability. When you take it on a regular basis, CBD—being fat soluble like other cannabinoids—gathers in your adipose tissue where your endocannabinoid system can theoretically utilize it on an ongoing basis.
Sublingual CBD goes under the tongue for absorption via the mucosal membranes in the mouth, which are highly permeable. From there, it bypasses the portal vein—the passage that leads from the digestive tract to the liver—and heads straight for the blood. And then whatever’s left over and not absorbed sublingually gets swallowed and makes it into the digestive tract, so nothing’s wasted.
You have several sublingual options….
Tinctures: Little dropper bottles.
Sprays: AKA oromucosal spray; think CBD-infused Binaca (anyone remember Binaca?).
Lozenges: CBD lozenges that slowly dissolve in your mouth and enter through the mucosa.
The longer you let the CBD sit in your mouth, the more you’ll absorb. 60-90 seconds appears to be the most commonly recommended period of time.
The original way to get CBD, inhaling CBD, is the fastest-acting and the most intense (with intensity meaning “effectiveness,” not “this will get you messed up, man,” since CBD is not psychoactive). The vapor or smoke enters the lungs, whose alveoli act as a direct conduit to the bloodstream. Inhalation is also the most legally precarious (depending on where you live) because many inhalation CBD products also contain THC, which remains illegal in most places.
You can smoke cannabis bred to be very high in CBD and low in THC, but there will always be some THC present. You couldn’t exactly call this non-psychoactive (or legal in most places) either due to the THC.
There’s also CBD-only vape juice/E-liquid that you can vaporize and inhale.
It’s certainly effective, though if you’re going for efficiency it’s not “optimal.” Your lungs can’t absorb all the CBD in the smoke or vapor; a significant portion is exhaled and lost to the atmosphere. Plus, there’s the whole fact that filling your lungs with smoke is a major stressor. Vapor might be safer, but I’m skeptical.
Like other cannabinoids, the CBD molecule is highly hydrophobic and thus cannot pass through the aqueous layer of the skin to reach general circulation. However, if you lather enough of it on to an isolated patch of injured rat skin, it can interact with peripheral cannabinoid receptors that reduce pain and inflammation at a local level. This hasn’t been confirmed in live humans, but anecdotal reports are positive.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t use CBD myself (though I’m not opposed to it and am open to incorporating it in the future if it proves to be uniquely helpful). As a result, I don’t have any strong personally motivated opinion about specific products. What I can give is my objective take on the available evidence, which is fairly light and preliminary:
The best-studied CBD administration methods are oral and sublingual. The majority of human studies have utilized those two routes. There are quite a few positive studies on smoked or inhaled CBD, too, but those often include THC and fail to isolate CBD. If you’re only interested in CBD and not in THC (or it’s illegal where you live), those studies probably don’t apply to you.
In the large set of case studies that found CBD helped patients improve their sleep, the subjects took CBD capsules.
In a study on CBD and pain, the subjects used an oromucosal spray.
In epilepsy patients, oral CBD capsules were incredibly effective.
For general use, whether it’s for anxiety, inflammation, pain, or “general wellness,” oral and/or sublingual use seems to be the real ticket. You know how much you’re consuming. You get a long lasting, fairly fast-acting duration of action. You get the quick absorption into the bloodstream of inhaled CBD without losing any due to exhalation. And if you don’t absorb it all through your oral mucous membranes, you’ll simply swallow and digest the rest. Nothing is lost.
What about you, folks? I know there are some experienced CBD users out there reading this. What’s your favorite method of administration, and why?
Take care everyone.
References:
Taylor L, Crockett J, Tayo B, Morrison G. A Phase 1, Open-Label, Parallel-Group, Single-Dose Trial of the Pharmacokinetics and Safety of Cannabidiol (CBD) in Subjects With Mild to Severe Hepatic Impairment. J Clin Pharmacol. 2019;
Lattanzi S, Brigo F, Trinka E, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol in Epilepsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Drugs. 2018;78(17):1791-1804.
Richardson JD, Kilo S, Hargreaves KM. Cannabinoids reduce hyperalgesia and inflammation via interaction with peripheral CB1 receptors. Pain. 1998;75(1):111-9.
The post CBD Oil: How Should You Take It? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
The burgeoning CBD hemp oil scene has made finding a product easier than ever, but it’s also made choosing a product harder. If you recall my post from years ago on decision fatigue, you’ll know what I’m talking about: the paralysis of too many choices…. I know my readership, and I know you’re the type of people who will wonder about optimizing their CBD ingestion. This stuff isn’t cheap, and it’s perfectly rational to want to get your money’s worth.
While the compound itself—cannabidiol, or CBD—doesn’t change from product to product, the way it’s administered does.
There are oral hemp oil supplements—gummies, capsules, infused teas, chocolates. Things you eat and drink and digest.
There are sublingual hemp oil supplements—sprays, tinctures, lozenges. Things you swish and swirl around your mouth.
There are topical CBD—creams, lotions, and balms.
There are patches—things you rub and attach to your skin.
There is high-CBD cannabis and CBD-only vape juice. Things you can vaporize and inhale.
But how do you choose? What are the differences between the various routes of administration?
Speed of absorption. How quickly do you want the CBD to take effect?
Intensity. How powerful do you want your CBD “experience” to be?
Duration. How long do you want it to last?
Effects. Where do you want it to take effect?
Oral CBD is the most common method of administration. It’s simple, easy, and intuitive. Everyone swallows pills, eats food, and drinks fluids. There’s almost no way to mess it up (choking aside).
Oral CBD is readily absorbed. Like most everything else that travels through the digestive system, it goes to the liver to be metabolized and converted into different metabolites. The liver is so central to oral CBD that people with poor liver function actually end up with higher serum CBD after taking it orally, since their livers aren’t as good at metabolizing it into different compounds. This liver route also means it takes longer for oral CBD to take effect, but it lasts longer.
Taking an acute oral dose every once in awhile is less effective than consistent dosing because of the liver’s tendency to regulate its bioavailability. When you take it on a regular basis, CBD—being fat soluble like other cannabinoids—gathers in your adipose tissue where your endocannabinoid system can theoretically utilize it on an ongoing basis.
Sublingual CBD goes under the tongue for absorption via the mucosal membranes in the mouth, which are highly permeable. From there, it bypasses the portal vein—the passage that leads from the digestive tract to the liver—and heads straight for the blood. And then whatever’s left over and not absorbed sublingually gets swallowed and makes it into the digestive tract, so nothing’s wasted.
You have several sublingual options….
Tinctures: Little dropper bottles.
Sprays: AKA oromucosal spray; think CBD-infused Binaca (anyone remember Binaca?).
Lozenges: CBD lozenges that slowly dissolve in your mouth and enter through the mucosa.
The longer you let the CBD sit in your mouth, the more you’ll absorb. 60-90 seconds appears to be the most commonly recommended period of time.
The original way to get CBD, inhaling CBD, is the fastest-acting and the most intense (with intensity meaning “effectiveness,” not “this will get you messed up, man,” since CBD is not psychoactive). The vapor or smoke enters the lungs, whose alveoli act as a direct conduit to the bloodstream. Inhalation is also the most legally precarious (depending on where you live) because many inhalation CBD products also contain THC, which remains illegal in most places.
You can smoke cannabis bred to be very high in CBD and low in THC, but there will always be some THC present. You couldn’t exactly call this non-psychoactive (or legal in most places) either due to the THC.
There’s also CBD-only vape juice/E-liquid that you can vaporize and inhale.
It’s certainly effective, though if you’re going for efficiency it’s not “optimal.” Your lungs can’t absorb all the CBD in the smoke or vapor; a significant portion is exhaled and lost to the atmosphere. Plus, there’s the whole fact that filling your lungs with smoke is a major stressor. Vapor might be safer, but I’m skeptical.
Like other cannabinoids, the CBD molecule is highly hydrophobic and thus cannot pass through the aqueous layer of the skin to reach general circulation. However, if you lather enough of it on to an isolated patch of injured rat skin, it can interact with peripheral cannabinoid receptors that reduce pain and inflammation at a local level. This hasn’t been confirmed in live humans, but anecdotal reports are positive.
I don’t have a dog in this fight. I don’t use CBD myself (though I’m not opposed to it and am open to incorporating it in the future if it proves to be uniquely helpful). As a result, I don’t have any strong personally motivated opinion about specific products. What I can give is my objective take on the available evidence, which is fairly light and preliminary:
The best-studied CBD administration methods are oral and sublingual. The majority of human studies have utilized those two routes. There are quite a few positive studies on smoked or inhaled CBD, too, but those often include THC and fail to isolate CBD. If you’re only interested in CBD and not in THC (or it’s illegal where you live), those studies probably don’t apply to you.
In the large set of case studies that found CBD helped patients improve their sleep, the subjects took CBD capsules.
In a study on CBD and pain, the subjects used an oromucosal spray.
In epilepsy patients, oral CBD capsules were incredibly effective.
For general use, whether it’s for anxiety, inflammation, pain, or “general wellness,” oral and/or sublingual use seems to be the real ticket. You know how much you’re consuming. You get a long lasting, fairly fast-acting duration of action. You get the quick absorption into the bloodstream of inhaled CBD without losing any due to exhalation. And if you don’t absorb it all through your oral mucous membranes, you’ll simply swallow and digest the rest. Nothing is lost.
What about you, folks? I know there are some experienced CBD users out there reading this. What’s your favorite method of administration, and why?
Take care everyone.
References:
Taylor L, Crockett J, Tayo B, Morrison G. A Phase 1, Open-Label, Parallel-Group, Single-Dose Trial of the Pharmacokinetics and Safety of Cannabidiol (CBD) in Subjects With Mild to Severe Hepatic Impairment. J Clin Pharmacol. 2019;
Lattanzi S, Brigo F, Trinka E, et al. Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol in Epilepsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Drugs. 2018;78(17):1791-1804.
Richardson JD, Kilo S, Hargreaves KM. Cannabinoids reduce hyperalgesia and inflammation via interaction with peripheral CB1 receptors. Pain. 1998;75(1):111-9.
The post Hemp Oil: How Should You Take It? appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
Eat right and lift heavy.
If there’s one constant thing we say across Nerd Fitness, it’s that if you want to lose weight, gain muscle, or just look better than ever for an upcoming event, the two things you must do is eat right and lift heavy.
In this series on Strength Training, we’re going to cover ALL the things you need to know:
We’ve touched on most of these things a few times before, gone over your diet, and shown you some people it’s worked for, but we haven’t really gone into great detail.
Today that changes.
This is the first in a series of articles from NF Lead Female Coach Staci, covering all things strength training:
Oh, and she can probably lift more than you. Here she is easily deadlifting 400+ lbs at bodyweight of 150 lbs:
A post shared by Staci Ardison (@staciardison) on Oct 11, 2017 at 5:01pm PDT
Staci has been part of Nerd Fitness for the past 7 years, and is now the lead female trainer in our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program!
Our coach gets to know you, builds a program based on your experience and goals, will check your form on each movement (via video), and keep you accountable and on track!
You can learn more about our coaches and schedule a free call with us by clicking the image below:
With that out of the way, let’s jump into the amazing world of Strength Training!!!
First of all, lets face it: Putting everything else aside, life is EASIER when you’re strong. Carrying groceries? One trip. Children to carry? No problem. Car stuck in the snow? Push it out with ease.
Plus, whether you’re 100 lbs overweight or just need to lose the last 15, strength training is one of the most effective ways to burn fat and build muscle.
Lifting has been shown to halt and even reverse sarcopenia – the reduction of skeletal muscle that occurs as we get older – which helps us stay independent (and out of a nursing home) and live longer.
But in addition to making life easier, strength training has a lot of great benefits right now. Here are just a few:
Look Good Naked: Strength training helps you lose weight (and body fat) in a few different ways. First, it helps you retain the muscle you have while eating a calorie deficit and losing weight.
Second, strength training has a much greater level of excess post-exercise oxygen consumption than aerobic exercise. What does this mean? When you finish a workout, your body needs to do a lot of work to replenish itself in order to bring itself back to a normal state (the way it was before you worked out). This takes a lot of energy, and some studies have shown that it can boost your metabolism for up to 38 hours after you finish your workout.
Not only that, but strength training can help increase your metabolism by speeding up your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR). This is because it takes your body more calories to maintain muscle than it does to maintain fat. Estimates are that for every 1 lb of muscle you gain, your RMR goes up 30-50 calories!
Makes You Healthier: If you’re looking for a workout in which you get the biggest bang for your buck, strength training is it. Strength training increases bone density, builds a stronger heart, reduces your resting blood pressure, improves blood flow, halts muscle loss, helps control blood sugar, improves cholesterol levels, and improves your balance and coordination (turning you from this, to this).
You’ll Feel Better: Not only will you find yourself with more energy and confidence, less stress and anxiety, and a better overall mood, but you’ll actually begin to think better (resistance training has been proven to help increase cognitive function). And while training too close to bedtime can be a bad idea, exercising earlier in the day has been proven to help prevent sleep apnea and insomnia. I even improved my posture – when I started lifting, I was 5’4”. Now I’m 5’5.5”.
Prevents disease and degenerative conditions: Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women; Strength training helps correct issues relating to cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, and inactivity – all factors for heart disease. Cardiologists are even starting to recommend strength training for people who have suffered a heart attack as little as three weeks after the attack. Who knows, maybe one day your cardiologist will tell you to do some “cardio” and he’ll be referring to strength training!
Strength training has also been proven to help manage and improve the quality of life for people with Arthritis, Osteoporosis, Parkinson’s Disease, Down Syndrome, Lymphedema, fibromyalgia, who have recently had a stroke, have had a spinal cord injury, cancer survivors and clinical depression.
In addition to ALL of the above, strength training is fun! Whether you are looking for the most effective 20-30 minute workout (to stay fit and look great naked), or are looking for a competitive sport that you can really get into, strength training can help you meet your goals. It’s easy and fun to see progress as you strength train, almost like leveling up. And if you’re looking to improve in other areas (a sport, traditional cardio, or an activity like rock climbing), strength training is an easy choice!
Ok, ok. Enough already. Is there anyone who SHOULDN’T strength train?
Honestly, I did a lot of research on this one, because I wanted to find a single group of people who should not strength train. I even found studies on how strength training can be beneficial for paraplegics. Not to mention it can be safe for children, adolescents, and pregnant women. Obviously, you should take a break from strength training if you’re injured, and always check with your doctor before you start any sort of strength training program, but it’s natural for us, as humans, to move around and carry things.
But I’m so old! This can’t be safe!
We hear this from 30 year olds and 60 year olds alike…and, like “I don’t have time,” it is a big fat lie! Even for the frail elderly, studies have shown that drastic results are possible in just 10 weeks of weightlifting (for both men and women in their 70s through their 90s). In fact, weight training has also been shown to delay Alzheimer’s and stave off dementia. So, if you think you might be “too old,” you’re probably the exact type of person that SHOULD be strength training!
But my focus is on (running) (basketball) (quidditch) and I need to stay slim!
Studies have shown that strength training actually increases the endurance of your muscles.
In fact, resistance exercises not only help to tune up an out of shape nervous system and increase the activation of motor units within your muscles, but also helps increase their overall endurance.
If you’re worried about overall size, remember: there are many types of strength training, and size and strength don’t always go hand in hand. We’ll get into more detail on this in a minute.
I don’t want to get bulky
Ladies! The images of “bulky” women that you are conjuring up are from bodybuilding magazines. This is one of the biggest myth surrounding strength training. When I started strength training, I didn’t get bulky, I got lean, And I’m no outlier, I’m just one example of the rule: Women who strength train get strong and lean, not bulky. Like Veronica, who got damn strong and certainly lean.
Or Bronwyn, who turned into a powerlifting super mom.
That “bulky” look in women does not happen by mistake or overnight – we simply do not have the hormones necessary to get there on our own. To achieve this look, women have to eat incredible amounts of food and consume incredible amounts of drugs. When we strength train normally, without these supplements, we end up looking like athletes.
We’ll be talking more about strength training for women in a later article, but for now, just remember that everything in this article applies to both men and women.
I’m fat. I need to lose weight first.
Great! Start with strength training 🙂 When you’re overweight, my guess is that you want to be preserving the muscle you have while losing the majority of your weight through fat. With strength training, your overall weight loss may seem slower, but you will lose inches faster. Strength training increases your metabolism; as long as you’re still eating in a deficit, you’ll lose weight.
It’s boring
We’ll be talking more about this later, but for now, just give it a shot! In strength training you can see your progress so clearly that as you can do more and more, you’ll also be rewarded by seeing your strength progress from level 1 to level 50! If you aren’t a fan of the downtime, put on a book on tape or throw on your favorite playlist while circuit training to ensure you’re always moving (instead of sitting and waiting in between sets).
Is that enough for us to convince you? Awesome.
If you read the above and said to yourself “Hell yeah, I’m ready to get started. Let’s goooo!” You’re in the right spot!
Before we start actually lifting anything, the first thing we need to do is have a basic understanding of how our muscles work.
Our muscles are made up of many smaller muscle cells, more commonly known as muscle fibers. They’re long and cylindrical, and about the size of a single strand of hair. Muscle fibers are comprised of myofibrils surrounded by sarcoplasm. (This is the super short version – if you’re looking for more detail, check out this page.)
We’ve got about 642 skeletal muscles, and they all work together to help our bodies move. For example, when you bend your arm, your bicep contracts and your tricep does the opposite (elongates) in order to let your elbow bend. Every muscle in your body works alongside the other.
We also have different types of fibers within our muscles, which help determine what type of training we respond best to.
The most common fiber types are:
Every person has a different percentage of fast twitch and slow twitch fibers, which is why some people tend to be naturally better at running distances than sprinting, or better at longer sets than short ones.
Most people believe that we can increase the amount of muscle fibers we have by weight training. In reality, we’re only born with a specific amount of muscle – by strength training, we don’t actually increase the number of muscle fibers, but we increase the size of them, increasing overall mass. This is called hypertrophy.
Now, there are a few types of hypertrophy. When someone normally just says “hypertrophy” they are most likely referring to sarcoplasmic hypertrophy.
So in summary, if you want to focus mainly on building super strong dense muscle, you want myofibril hypertrophy. If you only care about your muscles getting bigger, focus on sarcoplasmic. Transient hypertrophy is temporary and will appear alongside with both types.
When you strength train you’re basically doing two things to your muscles:
What does this mean for me?
It means that there’s a lot more to do with strength training than just lifting things. You need to be training differently, depending on your specific goals.
Now I don’t want you to go into information overload and not end up in the gym. So, we’re going to break it down for you here:
NOTE: This chart is from Practical Programming for Strength Training by Rippetoe and Kilgore.
Rep (Repetition) – One movement through a range of motion and back again. One full squat, dropping below parallel and standing back up again is “one rep.”
X Rep Max – The heaviest load you’re able to successfully complete for X reps. So for example, a 1 Rep Max (or 1RM for short) is something so heavy that you can only complete one rep of that weight. A 10RM you can only complete 10 reps of – you would fail on the 11th.
Looking at this chart, if you want strength (myofibrillar hypertrophy), you’re going to want to keep the reps low and the weight heavy.
If you’re looking for size, which you get mainly from sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, you’re going to want to keep the weight lighter and the reps higher.
Now, one thing to understand is that each of these elements are NOT exclusive – when you train in a higher rep range you’re not JUST getting size, you’re also getting strength.
This is why I never understand why girls who don’t want to “get bulky” are told by trainers to do 3 sets of 10-12 (or 5 sets of 1,000 reps of bicep curls with a 1 lb pink dumbbell). While it’s difficult for women to gain any sort of size lifting in ANY rep range, if we were trying to gain muscle size, that’s EXACTLY what we would want to do (as it would be causing sarcoplasmic hypertrophy).
Personally, I wouldn’t worry TOO much about all of the stuff above, especially if it starts to overwhelm you!
After all, we want you to be CONFIDENT and not overwhelmed, as the sooner you start strength training, the sooner you learn the ropes and start to make progress! We cover all of this in our free guide, Strength 101: Everything You Need to Know, along with free workout plans – grab all the goodies fo’ free when you join our worldwide Rebellion with your email in the box below!
Have you ever heard anyone say that your muscles aren’t built in the gym, but in the kitchen?
That’s because when you’re in the gym, you’re breaking apart the muscle fibers. When you’re out of the gym, you’re healing (and getting stronger). So it’s important to take adequate rest days as a part of your strength program.
The general rule of thumb is to wait 48 hours before working the same muscle group again.
One thing to remember with this is that our muscles work together – so when you’re working on your “chest” you’re probably also working all of the muscles in your shoulders, along with your upper arms.
Recovery is different for everyone depending on many different factors such as what the actual workout is, how old you are, your sleep quality, diet, and other recovery elements (such as massage and stretching).
For a basic strength program, working out 3-4 days a week is plenty. This is one of those situations where more is not necessarily better.
Why Do I Get Sore? What’s DOMS?
DOMS is an acronym for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It’s soreness that you feel in your muscles that doesn’t show up until a day or two after you work out (hence the ‘delayed onset’). It’s a normal part of the process of repairing your muscles from the damage to the fibers you created while exercising.
Expect to be more sore a few days after doing an exercise for the first time, or after not doing it for a while. As your muscles get used to that movement (and adapt to being put under stress), they will get less and less sore every time.
So, one way to make the soreness go away, at least temporarily, is to continue exercising. This increases blood flow to the muscles and helps them heal. However, remember that we still need them to heal. So if you’re sore from heavy squats, don’t turn around and do heavy squats again. Try doing squats with no weight or yoga/stretching to help bring the soreness down.
We have a whole chapter on DOMS and what you should do after a workout, and what you should do days after a workout if you’re still sore, in our free guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, which you can grab when you sign up in the box below:
Of course, of course! If you’re ready to start, we’d recommend a simple program to follow until you get a better feel for each movement and how your body reacts to them.
There are a lot of really great programs out there for newbies. Starting Strength is probably the most well known beginner lifting program and the book is highly recommended. You can also check out our Beginner’s Guide to the Gym article for a good step by step progression to get comfortable in the gym and start working out.
Still not sure what to do? Scared you’ll injure yourself or not sure what you should be doing in the gym? Need more guidance?
If you are somebody that wants to know they are following a program that is tailor-made for their life, situation, and goals, check out our popular 1-on-1 coaching program. You’ll work with our certified NF instructors who will get to know you better than you know yourself and program your workouts and nutrition for you.
If you are looking for more guidance, but without a private coach… No worries, we’ve put together the Nerd Fitness Academy! This comprehensive, self-paced course covers:
Here is a sample of one of the high-quality videos in Nerd Fitness Academy. You will see the exercise performed several times and hear important cues, so that you can confident perform the workouts yourself!
Whatever program you choose, make sure:
Congratulations, you just made it through the first class of Strength Training 101!
What big questions do you have about strength training?
Has strength training worked for you?
-Staci
PS – Be sure to check out the rest of Strength Training 101 series:
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photo source: man balance, droid lift, magazine, lego relax, strongman
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