03.31.08
Women and Exercise
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| Photo by heavyweightgeek |
I’ve noticed that women usually hear the word “exercise” or “workout” and immediately jump to “losing weight.” We’ve been convinced that exercise is only good for changing the number on the scale.
Eat less, exercise more. It’s the mantra we’ve been taught. I’m too fat. It’s what we tell ourselves every day. So when we see a program like New Rules of Lifting for Women, we jump on board and expect weight loss to follow quickly.
And then… Weeks pass, and we look the same. The scale has gone up instead of down. We compare our “before” and “current” pictures, and we look the same. Even when other people tell us that there’s more definition in our abs/legs/face or that our butt looks higher, we don’t believe them. “Those pants” still don’t fit–or are even tighter!
I’m exercising, we think. Why am I not losing weight? We worry that the program isn’t working, that it’s another gimmick and we’ve been had. Sure, we can lift heavier weights than we thought; we’re sore in muscles we didn’t know we had; we have more energy than ever before. But still we long for hours of cardio and high reps with pink dumbbells; at least the scale moved in the “right” direction back then.
This isn’t just a physical transformation we’re going through. It’s a mental and a physiological one, as well. We must retrain our minds to focus on the goal and not current obstacles; we must learn patience and trust. We must learn that the standards we’re using to judge our progress may not be accurate. We must teach our bodies to adjust to the new demands on them; we must fuel our bodies for the activities we put them through. This is a metamorphosis.
What are we becoming?
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03.28.08
Creatine
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| Photo by headcase |
First, your body naturally produces Creatine. So whether you like it or not, you’re “on” creatine. Creatine is not an anabolic steroid & does not mess with your hormones. Yes, women can take it. I just throw that out at the beginning because I see so many people trash creatine while knowing nothing about it.
A Biology Lesson
Your muscles run on ATP (adenosine triphosphate), or, technically, on the energy change released by breaking one of those phosphate bonds. After an ATP has lost a phosphate, it becomes ADP (adenosine diphosphate); it now lacks a phosphate. In order to get that phosphate back, ADP has to wait in line for glycolysis/glycogenolysis to finish up and free up some phosphates & enzymatically add them back. While your ADP is waiting, your muscles are still trying to work. And they need ATP right now.
Here’s where creatine comes in to save the day: creatine exists in stable form as phosphocreatine. That’s right; it has a phosphate attached. Instead of waiting in line at the glycolysis counter, your ADP first swipes a phosphate from phosphocreatine and jumps right back in as ATP. The creatine molecule is then degraded and excreted. By the time ADP comes around again, glycolysis has a supply of phosphate ready to go.
The Supplement
Creatine is a legal supplement and is fairly cheap. Creatine is sold in several forms, but creatine monohydrate has been around the longest and is most studied, so you can’t go wrong with it. You could also eats lots of meat–because it’s animal muscle, meat contains creatine.
Your body can store creatine, to an extent. The point of “loading” (periods of taking progressively more creatine) is to get your muscles to store more phosphocreatine, similar to carb loading for marathoners. However, because of phosphocreatine’s structure, you’ll also store extra water. Most of the immediate weight gain associated with creatine supplementation comes from this water. (That means, if you’re taking creatine, the scale is pretty much worthless to measure progress. It also means drink more water.)
So why take creatine? As we pointed out in the biology section above, creatine helps recycle ATP in the initial few moments of a workout; this delays the moment when glycogen stores and glucose become the fuel source, which can extend the length of a workout. Creatine doesn’t confer greater strength and superpowers on those who take it. Rather, because you can use heavier loads and/or do more reps, you can tax the muscles more, resulting in greater hypertrophy (muscle growth).
When to take creatine? Actually, the best time to take it is probably after exercise, when your body’s creatine stores are exhausted. In addition, since your PWO shake contains carbs, it will also help the creatine to be shuttled to your muscles and absorbed.
Resources
- Creatine for Women
- Skwigg on Creatine (note: Betagen = brand of creatine)
- Supplement Watch: Creatine
- Creatine Article
03.26.08
What are you eating?
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| Photo by PPDIGITAL |
There’s a new show on TLC called I Can Make You Thin. The host, Paul McKenna, is a motivational & lifestyle coach (near as I can tell) who gives you a few changes to make at a time that keep you from overeating. (Here’s a funny: the banner on the TLC page says “This show is for entertainment purposes only.”)
I only caught bits of the program over the weekend, but one social experiment they did caught my attention. They wanted to test the effect of distraction (e.g., watching television) on eating. So they left out some popcorn until it got stale and then took it out on the street for people to taste-test; everyone said it was disgusting and stale. Then they took that same popcorn into a movie theater and gave it away as theater popcorn. (Didn’t say whether people paid for it.) At the end of the movie, they asked patrons about the popcorn. Most had eaten almost all of the stale popcorn and said it was fine!
So those people ate stale popcorn during a movie and didn’t notice that it tasted bad. What else might you be missing if you eat while trying to do something else?
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03.25.08
NROLFW, 2A4
Last “A” workout of Stage 2!
- FSPP: (1×10xOH, 1×10x20lb FS, 1×10x40lb BS) 1×9x40lb; 1×4x30lb, 1×5x30lb, 1×5x30*
- BS/1×5x30 PP
- Step Ups: 2×10x10-lb DB
- DB 1-pt Row: 2×10x10-lb DB
- Static Lunge: 2×10x10-lb DB
- Pushups: 2×10
- Plank: 2×60s
- Crunch (Swiss Ball)**: 2×10x10lbs
*Ugh. Nearly dropped the weight on my head a few times. My arms where so tired! (They were sore all through the night, too; gave me fits trying to sleep.) Finally just did regular squats supersetted with overhead presses.
**I don’t think I’ve been doing the Woodchop/Swiss Ball version correctly. But I keep forgetting to look up how to do it. So I just substituted Crunches.
This workout goes away until Stage 4, when it comes back with more sets (!). At least I get a little break from it. Maybe that will give my head time to clear up and get things right.
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03.24.08
Deadlift Resources
What I’ve been reading to fix my deadlifts:
- How To Deadlift with Proper Technique
- Mastering the Deadlift: Part II
- Mastering the Deadlift: Part III (DL variations)
- The Deadlift (posts #11 & #12)
- Long Analysis (Mark Rippetoe)
Most of these also have images and links to videos.
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03.21.08
Changing my mind
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| Photo by LollyKnit |
I started doing New Rules of Lifting For Women earlier this year because I wanted to:
- get in shape
- have a routine
At the time, I didn’t put too much thought into it. Here was a new program right when I wanted to start and the background, nutrition, and workout information seemed good, so I thought I’d use it for a few months and then go on. I’d cut my calories, lose body fat, and get muscle definition. Yippee. This is what a women thinks when she hears “exercise”, even if it’s presented as a strength-training workout.
However, the longer I’m in this program, the more I’m realizing that this isn’t just about getting in shape. It’s not about looking good in a bikini or tank top anymore. It’s about the lifts. Squats, Deadlifts, Bulgarian Split Squats, those blasted Cuban snatches, thrusters, HIIT: these things that frighten my body but that fascinate my mind.
What am I capable of? How much more can I lift? This isn’t like other sports I’ve played. The competition is much more with yourself because the training is the competition. Every day under the bar is game day. Every day is different. Every day, something can be measurably improved. I get better and stronger because I choose to add more weight.
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03.20.08
NROLFW, Stage 2, A3
- Front Squat/Push Press: (1×10xOH, 1×10x20lbs (FS), 1×10x40lbs (BS)) 2×10x40lbs
- Step Ups: 2×10x10-lb DBs
- DB 1-pt Rows: 2×10x10-lb DBs
- Static Lunge: 2×10x10-lb DBs
- Pushups: 2×10
- Plank: 2×60s
- Woodchop (Swiss Ball): 2×10x10lbs
That FSPP is fun and hard. By rep 6 of the second set, I’m having to work hard to not drop the weight on my head 
I was reading through the workouts in New Rules of Lifting for Women last night to see if the FSPP came back again (it does, in Stage 4). And I noticed that I’m doing my intervals incorrectly and that I’m doing the harder version of the woodchop. Doh.
I’ve been running my intervals at the fastest that I can and so have only gotten 1 or 2 sprints in. I’m supposed to start them slowish and work up to sprinting by the last interval. *headdesk* Well, that’s what I get for trying to think after workout B.
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03.19.08
My Brother’s Chicken
(No, not “My Brother Is Chicken.” The chicken my brother makes. The only recipe he knows.)
Ingredients:
- unthawed chicken
- dijon mustard
- bread crumbs
Directions:
- Cut chicken into ~3 oz pieces. Put chicken pieces in a zippered plastic bag.
- Add dijon mustard to bag. Let sit in refrigerator for several hours to marinate.
- Preheat oven to 350ยบ C. Pour bread crumbs on a plate. Coat chicken in bread crumbs.
- Cook chicken for ~45 min.
Notes:
- I personally dislike the taste of dijon mustard, so I use honey mustard when I make this. Use whatever you like.
- Yield/etc. depends on how much chicken you use. My brother’s original recipe is “as much chicken as is on sale” and “a bottle of mustard.”
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03.17.08
Ego Lifting
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| Photo by Rick Audet |
My younger brother lifts and has lifted for about 4 years now. He usually doesn’t want to talk to me about what he does in the gym, but he was feeling talkative this weekend so I asked him about his workout. He’s usually at the gym for a few hours, several days a week. What does he do there?
He does a body-building type split. For legs, he said, he does calf raises, leg presses, leg extensions, and lunges. I asked him about squats and deadlifts. “No,” he said, “they hurt my back.” He does know they’re good, so props for that, but he says he injured his back about a year ago doing 250-lb Bent-Over Rows and now does nothing that might involve the possibility that his back would bend. (In other words, whatever he did hurt a lot and he doesn’t want to repeat it.)
I asked about dropping the weight down and retraining his back to stay out of the lift, which is what I had to do with my squats and DLs. “No,” he said, “I won’t do anything that means I have to drop the weights.” Not even if it’s a better exercise than the ones you’re doing?
“No, I lift for ego. I want people to look over and see the amount of weight I’m using and be impressed. I don’t really care what exercises I have to do, but I will only do exercises where I can use several hundred pounds.”
And, yes, my brother has little stick legs despite his “several hundred pounds” on those leg machines. And, yes, he does want to be bigger.
I wonder how many other guys lift like this. (I’m guessing a lot.) Only do exercises that let them use massive weights, even if the actual strength and size gains are minimal. Pump out a grunting flat bench-press but never do pushups. Do lunges until their forearms are screaming but never try a raised lunge, reverse lunge, Bulgarian Split Squat, or step up. Refuse to try a new exercise because they can’t use the same weight as an exercise they think is similar.
Lifting for your ego? Around other guys sweating it out in the gym? You want to train just like them and look just like them (and they’re not all that impressive)? And yet you think this will somehow make them all want to talk to you and ask you your “secret” (but you train the same way they do)…
What about being “that guy” who does all the crazy lifts in the corner, getting stronger and bigger by the week, that guy who everyone copies as soon as he leaves (and then they realize that silly-looking lift is hard but works everything hard)…
My brother said I wouldn’t understand because I’m a girl and so it’s okay for me to use lighter weights. Trust me, kid, girls have egos, too, when it comes to weights. I hated having to admit to dropping my squat and DL weights because my form stunk–and I train alone in my basement! But when I’m up to squatting and DL’ing my body weight and more, then I’ll have some ego in my lifting…
