Should I Run?
May 25, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
To run or not to run, that is the question. Running/jogging is something people having been doing for years and years. And I believe it is something that people looking to drop a few pounds will continue to do ’til the end of time. But, is running the best way to “get in shape” and lose weight? Is it even a good way at all? While reading my thoughts below, please don’t think I am biased towards the weight room and power/strength activities due to the fact that I am a strength coach. If anything, my natural bias would be towards distance running as I grew up in a house where my dad was a cross country coach. And one of my brothers is currently the head cross country coach at a high school. I’ve completely thought about both sides of the discussion – running is the best way EVER to lose some weight; and running is a crap form of cardio for weight loss. I’m not saying I have all answers, but again, I’ve put a ton of thought into this over the years, worked with a ton of clients and talked with many other coaches in this field about this topic. So, if at the end of this you disagree with me, that is fine. All I ask is that you read with an open mind and consider my thoughts when making up your mind whether or not you should put much time into running to accomplish your goals. For the sake of this post, I’m talking about a distance that takes 20 minutes or more of non-stop running.
Different “Types” of People
Running For Sports – (Remember, throughout this piece I am speaking of going out on runs/jogs that last 20 minutes or more, non-stop) For most sports, I think running is a bad idea. What sport do you know that involves 20 + minutes of non-stop running? I can think of cross country. If I think hard enough I may be able to come up with a couple more. But most sports involve quick bursts followed by a brief rest. i.e. player sprints all out for 10-15 seconds, the ball goes out of bounds, he/she takes a break, the ball is thrown in bounds and this is repeated throughout the course of the game. For cross country, heck yeah you need to get your distance running in. If you compete in cross country, make sure you run distance, but also make sure you incorporate sprints and weight lifting. If all you do is run long distance at a slower than race pace, you’ll become good at running slow. Not good! Here is a great read from strength coach Eric Cressey for cross country (or those that are out of high school and enjoy competing in road races) runners and coaches talking about the importance of resistance training for runners.
The Person Looking to Drop Some LBS. – I think I first heard this quote from Strength Coach Mike Boyle; “Don’t run to get fit, get fit to run.” In other words, if you have weight to lose, and you decide, “hey, I think I am going to start running on Wednesday,” then you are probably not making a wise decision. Any form of cardio we decide to do is going to cause stress to our joints. But some forms of cardio will cause more than others. And for a person that is a bit heavier, running will cause a high amount of stress to the joints. It will also increase the chance of stress fractures and all kinds of other problems. Not only that, but running is VERY repetitive. I believe it is estimated that running one mile takes about 2000 steps. Go out and run 3 miles, two times per week and we’re talking about 12,000 steps in the same fashion… you are basically an injury waiting to happen. In this case, I’d suggest lower impact activities like using the Airdyne Bike.
The Already Fit Person – For the person that is lean, and in good shape (although that is very subjective), I still don’t like the idea of long(er) steady state running a whole lot. The exception is the person that truly loves running. He/she gets a whole lot of joy out of it and looks forward to his/her weekly (or even daily) running sessions. However, from the people I’ve talked to and worked with, the majority (read: not ALL) of people run because they think this is the best, or only option of cardio for fat loss – rather than running because they truly enjoy it. Hey, we only live one life, and who and am to take away one of your loves in life?!? But for those of you that are reading this that fit in the category of; “I hate going out for long runs but I’ve always done it because I thought I was supposed to in order to lose weight,” you’re in luck. Like I’ve been alluding to, there are other forms of cardio that have you losing just as much, if not more fat, while sparing your joints.
Even if you fit in the, “I love running camp,” I highly suggest you mix it up and do NOT just do long(er) steady state runs for your cardio. Think of the example I gave above… 12,000 steps per week (and something tells me that if you love to run, you are probably running more than 2 times per week, and more than 3 miles per pop. If that is the case, you are taking WAY more than 12,000 joint pounding, repetitve steps per week). If you love it, my suggestion is to still do it, but reduce the amount considerably. Maybe one day is a 6 mile run. The second day you do some interval sprints (yes, your joints still take a pounding with sprints, but if you do ten 50-meter sprints, think about how much you reduce the total amount of steps you take).
And on the 3rd day, you mix up the form of cardio you are going to perform. This is my favorite way, because you more evenly distribute the force throughout your body, greatly reducing the force placed on a joint(s). In part II of “Should I Run,” I will go over a few examples of how to make cardio more fun (at least myself and the majority of my clients say it is more fun 
). And more importantly, ways to make cardio more joint friendly.
Conclusion
As you can see, besides a few exceptions (cross country runners and those that truly love it) I’m not a big fan of steady state running/jogging. In my opinion, the risk:reward ratio is way out of whack for the majority of people. As Memorial Day Weekend, and hot summer days approach, I KNOW the #1 goal for most people is to lean out and look good at those pool parties. If you dread running as a form a cardio, you are not alone. Be sure to check back later this week for some “fun,” very effective alternatives. Beach-ready bodies, here we come – no excuses! 
Overrated and Underrated Exercises: Part III
April 26, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
Installment # 3 in this series is here. Just as I did in the previous overrated/underrated posts, I’ll start off by explaining what I mean by “overrated” and “underrated,” when it comes to exercise selection… I think Michael Jordan is the greatest basketball player of all time. BUT, if the general public was to make this statement; “You give me Michael Jordan with 4 guys off the street, and I’d take Jordan’s team in 6 games over the ‘86 Celtics.” Well, IF that was the thinking of the majority of people, then I’d have to say that even Michael Jordan is overrated! So, if one of your favorite exercises gets tossed in the overrated category, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should never perform that exercise again, and/or call me mean names. It just means that in my opinion, this particular exercise is way overused by the majority of trainees, often times at the expense of an exercise that could be a much better option.
Bulgarian Split Squats
Out of the hundreds of clients that I have trained over the years, I believe I’ve had 2, maybe 3 of them say; “We have bulgarian split squats today? Yes!” This is an exercise that is generally NOT a crowd pleaser. Why? Because they are hard. Yeah, but they are very effective. Most of us don’t spend enough time performing unilateral (one leg at a time) exercises. And bulgarian split squats are a must, if you are looking for big-bang-for-your-buck exercises. To perform them, keep your chest high, abs tight, and the weight on the heel of the down (working) leg. Do not add weight until you are able to get nice and deep (hip down to knee height) on each rep. The glutes come more into play the deeper you get. If you want a nice round, firm booty, work on getting low! Perform all reps on one leg, before switching legs. It will look something like this…
Again, not enough people are using this movement in their training, and it is as very effective exercise. Soooo …
Underrated!
Tricep Kickbacks
The tricep kickback – an exercise that I see people performing in the gym all the time. And usually, it is a female using the 3-pound pink dumbbells. To top if off, if I was to ask her; “what are your goals?” She would probably respond; “to lose fat.” Well, with such a little movement, and with such light weight, the tricep kickback is NOT going to burn a whole lot of calories. Would I ever be ok with someone using this exercise? Acutally, yes. If you have put at least a couple of years into training and have gotten a lot bigger and stronger, then go ahead and throw in some kickbacks every once in awhile. But if you are fairly new to training, and/or have a main goal of fat loss, do yourself a favor and ditch the tricep kickback.
Definitely goes in the overrated category.
Going forward, make sure to include bulgarian split squats in your training! And ask yourself; “with my experience and my goals, are tricep kickbacks a good choice for me?” Only you can answer that, but make sure to keep my above comments in mind when making your decision. Best of luck in accomplishing your goals!
Make Your Cardio Sessions a Competition
April 21, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
Raise your hand if you look forward to cardio. My hand is down. Raise your hand if you are competitive. My hand is up. Actually, my hand is WAY up in the air. The idea of competing always gets my blood flowin’. I don’t care whether it is a board game, basketball, or, “I’ll give you $5 if you can name 7 movies with Denzel Washington in them in 15 seconds or less. GO!” Now that is fun, I look forward to anything that involves competition. As a matter of fact, the majority of my day involves some kind of competition… when I drive to the gym; “over/under on how many minutes it will take me to get there?” Of course, being the model-citizen that I am, I make sure to follow the rules of the road in my attempt to “win.” Carson and I play this game quite often; “Carson, over/under on when your mom will get home?” And through experience, here is how I set the line; whatever I think the normal time would be that she would be walking through the door, I multiply times 3. So, if she is coming home from the grocery store and 15 minutes sounds about right, I set the over/under at 45 minutes. Women! What? I love y’all, but you take a long time to do schtuff.
I could go on and on with examples of things that I do throughout the day that make me not-so-normal, but I think you get the point. Back to competitive cardio…
My Day At The Field
On Sunday I decided to suck it up and head to a local field to get some conditioning work in. It is a beautiful “field turf” field with lines all over the place. My goal was to find two lines that looked like it would take me about 15-20 seconds to run. So I went with two yellow lines and gave it a try. I told myself to run at about 85% intensity on set 1, and from there I just timed how long it took me to get from one yellow line to the next. 100% would be like I was running from a hungry grizzly bear.
So, this first sprint was fast, but not quite all-out. It ended up to be a 17-second sprint. I estimate it was about 300 meters .*** I then rested twice as long on every set. So, 34 seconds of rest (a 2:1 rest:work ratio). My goal was to see how many sets I could get in before hitting the 18-second mark on any sprint. I ended up getting 8 sets at 17 seconds or less, with set #9 taking me 18 seconds. I then called it a day. And I’ll tell you what, I’m actually looking forward to my next cardio session. Not because I enjoy cardio, but because can’t wait to attempt to beat my numbers.
Bottom line, there are ways to make cardio “fun.” Making your cardio sessions a competition is the best way to make sure that you, 1) actually get your cardio in, and 2) encourage you to make progress with each session, getting you one step closer to your goals. So, get that notebook out, record your results and try to beat your numbers each and every time!
***More like 150 meters.
New Service…
March 24, 2010 by danny · Leave a Comment
Beach Season Is Right Around The Corner!
I want to make everyone aware of the new service I just added. I’m calling it , “The Cook Training Program.” One of the reasons I started this website, was to be able to help as many people as possible reach their health and physique goals. I designed The Cook Training Program with the intention of reaching the masses. It is very affordable for just about anyone.
You choose your main goal. With beach season right around the corner, maybe you are looking to lean out a bit. If so, go with the fat loss program.
If you are one of the “lucky ones,” and are already lean, maybe you are looking to add a little size. If that is the case, go with the muscle gaining program.
To get all of the details, check out this link.
