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When To Increase Your Weights In The Gym
The Gym can be a very intimidating place.
And there are few things more intimidating than increasing the weights you lift.
Whenever I rack on a few extra KGs I still hear my Mum’s Voice:
“You be careful Adam!”
And I respond like my 14-year-old self with a “Yes Mother” in my own head.
Ask most people who haven’t spent a long time in the Gym, or working out, and they will tell you that a Gym is a dangerous place and that if you lift too heavy…you will hurt yourself.
Interestingly the most common person to be injured in a Gym is a 27-year-old male,:
“Patients' mean age was 27.6 years (range, 6-100 years); 82.3% were male”
And most of the time…they are trying to get the Pectoral Muscles and shoulders of a Greek God:
“The upper trunk (25.3%) and lower trunk (19.7%) were the most commonly injured body parts” [1]
And women, I’m not sure what you have been doing but…
“Females had a larger proportion of foot injuries” [1]
Actually, I found some footage that might explain this:
From 1990 to 2007, 25 335 weight training injuries were seen in US emergency departments, correlating to an estimated 970 801 injuries nationwide
That is four injuries a day that went to an Emergency Department - in the whole of the United States.
“The most common diagnosis was sprain/strain (46.1%). The most common mechanism of injury was weights dropping on the person (65.5%)” [1]
The Gym is a relatively safe space to exert yourself physically.
It's far safer than contact sport participation.
Don’t get me wrong, Social Sport and participation in a Group Sports Activity are very very important…so much so that after years of retirement, I have rejuvenated my career as a Football Referee here in Australia.
Yes. This is in Australia. I was promised sun and sand…its all lies…
Social Sport is very important for many aspects of your wellbeing - but mainly:
Community
Humility
Sense of Achievement
Enjoyable Exercise
Eye Hand Co-ordination
And I recommend everyone finds a sport they enjoy to participate in but you do get more injures on the field of play than you do on the Gym Floor.
This is mainly due to the duration of exercise and fatigue setting in.
However, the stigma around the Gym being dangerous, especially for non-gym goers is very real and very true.
The fact that the most common diagnoses in the Gym were sprains/strains leads me to believe one main thing that too many people are “upping the weights” far too quickly, or misunderstand how, why, and when to increase the weights they are lifting.
Thus leading to the 46% rate of strains and sprains.
So here we are.
Let me take you through when to increase your weights in the Gym, so it remains effective for your goals, sensible for you ability and above all lets you be in charge of the decisions you need to make when it comes to putting on 5 more kgs!
Table of Contents for “When To Increase Your Weights In The Gym”:
What are Sets and Reps? A Practical History Lesson
What Sets And Reps Should I Chose?
How much weight should I actually choose? And at what Intensity?
Progressive Overload
When To Increase Your Weights In The Gym
Bottom Line
To be able to explain and empower you to make strong and informed decisions about your weight training, I will need to first explain to you why we have different numbers for Sets and Reps. I’m a firm believer in understanding the systems in place, and why, so that when you make decisions on those systems you are making a much more informed decision.
I can’t simply tell you when to increase your weights in the gym, without first telling you the context behind the decisions that will determine the weights you chose in the first place.
If you want to know the Golden Rule for When To Increase Your Weights In The Gym - it is written at the bottom of this article. But I would encourage you to get the education and context you need to help you make a better decision when the time comes to lift heavier.
So here is your context:
What are Sets and Reps? A Practical History Lesson
Simply put:
A Set is one group of repetitions of a particular exercise you will perform, typically with rest after the set is completed and before you commence a new set.
A Rep is the number of repetitions of a single exercise you will do within a set.
So if you did 10 push-ups, in three separate non-stop goes with a rest time in between each block of push-ups, you have achieved 3 Sets of 10 Reps of a Push-Up.
The History of a Set
When I write my programs I play around with Reps more than I do with Sets.
I ask my online clients to typically perform 3 sets of each exercise or 5 sets of each exercise. But very rarely fewer than that.
The reason behind this is steeped in lots of Science that is very much agreed upon in the Fitness Industry.
In May 2015, a study was done on 48 men with no experience in Resistance Training and it split them into three Groups: 1 SET, 3 SETS, and 5 SETS.
Over 6 months the men trained 3x a week and the study found:
“that multiple sets would result in greater changes in strength and local muscular endurance than single-set training and that there would be a dose-response for these same measures were supported.” [2]
Concluding that multiple sets are more beneficial than singular sets in un-trained populations.
And as I am called The Gym Starter I suppose that is what I should educate you about.
This 2015 study also found that any number of sets was effective for Body Composition:
“The percentage of body fat was reduced significantly and FFM (fat-free mass) significantly increased in all training groups, with no significant difference between groups”
The whole 3 sets of 10 are quite an interesting story….
A physician 1948 called Thomas L. DeLorme prescribed 3 Sets of 10 Reps of resistance training to his injured patients to help with their rehabilitation, and he recorded his results. Once they were published, that was it.
3 sets of 10 Reps became “permanently etched into the collective subconscious of the fitness community.” [3]
So that is our default starting point thanks to Dr Tom with Sets.
The History of a Rep
You can play around with Reps a little more in a workout - which is fun.
Because different Rep ranges elicit a different response in the Muscle.
The lower the number of Reps you are working in, the heavier the weight you should try to lift.
Here are the Guidelines:
1-5 Reps = Power
Think of this range as “very heavy, very intense” just want to get strong AF. Lots of concentrated effort and it will tax your Central Nervous System a lot more.
(Intense being a word we will come back to later)
Recommended Rest Time Between Sets: 2mins
5-8 Reps = Strength
Think of this as granite strength. Not explosive power, but solid and stable, useful for sports performance.
Not as intense as Power, but still aware you have worked hard.
Recommended Rest Time Between Sets: 90secs
8-12 Reps = Hypertrophy
Your “Popping” muscles. This is the range you want to be in to grow your muscles and make them show.
This range increases Sarcoplasm in your muscle, which is responsible for 30% of the total makeup of your muscle.
This is why it helps make them look bigger.
If only it was as easy as eating a can of Spinach!
Recommended Rest Time Between Sets: 60-90secs
12-20 Reps = Muscular Endurance
This would be where you want to be if you are an Endurance Athlete. Training and building your muscular ability to train for an extended period of time.
If you are working on this aspect of your training, then you will be typically be lifting lighter weights, but for a longer period of time.
If you’re a runner, triathlete, or cyclist this is where you will want to be, as you will not only create more ability in the muscle, but it will also help your injury prevention.
Recommended Rest Time Between Sets: 60secs
The Bottom Line on Sets and Reps
Think of Sets and Reps as an intricate web that interacts with itself.
Just because you are doing 12 Reps of an Exercise as opposed to 8 doesn’t mean you aren’t getting stronger.
Or just because you only do 6 Reps of an Exercise, it doesn’t mean that muscle isn’t gaining the long-term ability for that movement.
Each Rep Rage is a guideline. A guideline that supports all of the others at the same time.
What Sets and Reps Should I Choose?
Like with most things, I like to keep it simple when constructing a workout and this can be overthought, over-philosophized, and over-complicated very quickly.
So this is how my brain figures it all out…whenever I am programming for one of my clients on my Strong and Confident Coaching Program
The guiding principle of my structure is Intensity.
I have to consider their Goals, Ability, and above all enjoyment.
Intensity guides everything.
I want my clients to be working most intensely when they have the most energy.
Intensity can be established in three ways in a workout:
More Sets
More Reps
More Weight
I will show you these looks in a workout, in a little bit. But first I will need to talk you through how to judge your Intensity - as that will tell you how and when you should increase your weights in the Gym.
But if you want a very quick answer to What Sets and Reps should I choose?
My best advice is this:
Pick an Exercise.
Pick something. Anything within the Rep ranges I have outlined previously for your goals: 3 Sets of 10 Reps. 4 Sets of 12 Reps. 5 Sets of 5 Reps.
Pick a weight - any weight you feel comfortable with - but err on the side of caution, to begin with.
Then execute. See how it feels. And amend from there.
The next time you come to do that exercise, try and do a little more.
You can do this by either - increasing your Reps, increasing your Sets, or increasing your Weight.
If you want to stay in a particular Rep range, for a particular reason - muscle growth, endurance, etc, then when you find your ability is exceeding the weight you have chosen, you can either increase the weight or increase the Sets.
Most people chose to increase their weight - because it’s simply more time-efficient.
How much weight should I actually choose? And at What Intensity?
When you are in the Gym, on your own, without an expert…it is surprising how good you will be at judging what weight to use.
You won’t always get it right.
Sometimes it will be too light, sometimes it will be too heavy.
And that’s ok…because you need to remember:
““When it comes to Fitness there is no right or wrong; just exploration””
Yes. I quoted myself.
Let’s move on…
Personal Trainers don’t automatically know what weights to choose for each client, we simply have the best guess….and amend from there based on the performance we see.
You too can only try something. And amend from there.
Once you have your starting point there is a guideline to let you know whether or not you are working hard enough throughout a given Set of movements.
Or the more accurate term for this is “Intensity”.
When it comes to resistance training you must apply a certain level of stress on the body in order to achieve the desired outcome. As in, its pretty pointless lifting 2kg Dumbells on a Bench Press if you aren’t working to the correct intensity.
A systematic review called ”Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods” on literature between 1996 and September 2019 which was published in 2019, concluded the following:
“Effective hypertrophy-oriented training should comprise a combination of mechanical tension and metabolic stress. In summary, foundations for individuals seeking to maximize muscle growth should be hypertrophy-oriented RT consisting of multiple sets (3−6) of six to 12 repetitions with short rest intervals (60 s) and moderate-intensity of effort (60−80% 1RM) with subsequent increases in training volume (12–28 sets/muscle/week)”
Now finding your One Rep Max (1RM) isn’t necessary to see results - and this study backs that up, as you need to be working to 60-80% of your 1RM.
How To Establish 60-80% Intensity
The guide you need to use to find this Intensity is called the RPE or Rate of Perceived Exertion Scale.
This is a subjective sliding scale from 1 to 10 which will determine whether or not you are working with enough Intensity in a Set to get the desired outcome.
When I write plans for those I work with Online I don’t tell them what weight to lift, I tell them what RPE to aim for - and let them decide for themselves whether or not the weight they have chosen, is creating a big enough stimulus on their body.
This is how we establish the weights you need to lift, without having a Personal Trainer there with you on the Strong and Confident Program.
The RPE Scale looks like this:
Throughout a workout, you want to be working through the RPE Scale in this manner:
Warm Up = 1-2 RPE
Main Movement For The Day = 8-9 RPE
Rest Of Workout = 6-8 RPE
Optional Cardio-Metabolic Finisher = 8-9 RPE
In an actual Workout that I have written for my Client Tim it looks like this:
You will notice that as the workout progresses the Target RPE drops. This is to account for fatigue over a workout. If you can keep the Intensity high throughout then be my guest - but remember it’s always a balance between what is possible and what is optimal.
If what is optimal might hurt you - let’s not do that.
The Main Movement in a workout is the most important part of your workout as well - which is why it has the highest intensity attached to it. In workouts, I write this is always a multi-joint compound movement, and if all a client does in a workout is that one exercise, to the desired RPE, then that is still a successful workout.
And then the rest of the workout is there to support my client’s goals from their fitness.
When it comes to what Weight to actually choose…as you can see there is no one size fits all. Everybody is different, and everybody is different, which is why I would encourage you to use a subjective answer as opposed to an objective one.
When it comes to increasing your weights - and crucially when to increase your weights…we need to discuss one more principle before we bring it all together.
Progressive Overload
Now, we need to go back to Ancient Greece, to learn about a Wrestler called Milo or Croton. Milo was the most successful Wrestler of his day, having won the Ancient Olympic Games, 6 times over. Milo was a six-time wrestling champion at the Ancient Olympic Games in Greece. In 540 BC, he won the boys wrestling category and then proceeded to win the men's competition at the next five Olympic Games in a row. He also dominated the Pythian Games (7-time winner), Isthmian Games (10-time winner), and Nemean Games (9-time winner).
In the rare event that an athlete won not only the Olympic title but also all three other games in one cycle, they were awarded the title of Periodonikes, a grand slam winner. Milo won this grand slam five times. [5]
So how did Milo build such strength and athleticism? Well, it comes in the principle of Progressive Overload - the core and guiding principle of any method of self-development, including building strength.
As legend has it, a baby Calf was born near Milos's home when he was a boy.
Every single day Milo put the Calf on his back and walked him on his shoulders.
Milo did this every day for four years.
The calf grew into a four-year-old bull, and as the animal grew so did Milo of Croton.
This is the guiding principle of strength training - to create a Progressive Overload over time.
As you can imagine your body will adapt to the same stimulus quite quickly also known as a “plateau”, therefore you need to change the stimulus to encourage growth.
Progressive Overload can be created in a number of ways:
Increase the weights you lift in the Gym
Increase the number of Reps you do
Increase the number of Sets you do
Improve your Form through an exercise.
Slow down the Tempo of your Reps or increase “Time Under Tension”
Do more workouts (to a point)
A 2011 study decided to test Progressive Overload.
Researchers found progressive overload — gradually increasing the weight and number of repetitions of exercises — to be effective for increasing bicep strength and muscle growth in both men and women. [6]
Every time you address a bar or a dumbbell, you should give yourself a thought, a task, a mindful check-in, to try and work on one thing on the progressive overload list.
Increasing Weight is always the easiest one to go for, especially as a beginner, but it is quite common to get caught between weights. I.e: 10kgs is too light, and 12.5kgs is too heavy for your Rep Range.
And this is when awareness of Progressive Overload comes into its own - by focussing more on form or time under tension at the same weight one day you will be able to make that 12.5kgs move like a hot knife through butter.
Drawbacks of Progressive Overload
With everything in life, there is a point of diminishing returns.
This is evident in a form of training knowns as German Volume Training - upon which you are expected to do 10 Sets of 10 Reps of an Exercise.
This study in 2017, found that with such a High Load of Volume the actual gains being made after 5 Sets were non-existent. Participants were just wasting time in the Gym and working out for the sheer sake of working out.
The study also concluded, which backs up the study from before when I was discussing Sets and Reps, that:
“To maximize hypertrophic training effects, it is recommended that 4-6 sets per exercise be performed, as it seems gains will plateau beyond this set range and may even regress due to overtraining.” [7]
Ergo more is not always better in the Gym.
Therefore always try to work within the parameters of what we outlined above in terms of Sets and Reps.
With regards to trying to achieve the principle of Progressive Overload, if you go for too much…too quickly it could have negative repercussions, injury for example.
Do it slowly, steadily, and surely.
The only other thing to add here is that the stronger you get, the more slow progression will occur.
“For males, baseline strength capacity appears to be negatively associated with hypertrophy, and thus stronger males may be less likely to experience the same degree of hypertrophic adaptation over 12 weeks as compared to weaker males.” [7]
This is why being aware of all of the aspects that can create a progressive overload is important because when you find you are lifting the same weight week on week, it can get demoralizing. So having other ways and means to demonstrate and experience progress is a great way to keep motivated.
When To Actually Increase Your Weights In The Gym
Now that you know why we do what we do when it comes to the Gym floor, you should be able to establish when it is sensible and logical for you to increase your weights in the Gym.
There are a lot of myths around this as well.
One of the most common ones is that you should “confuse your muscles”.
This is in a word:
Firstly, your muscles don’t have brains - so how can you confuse them? Secondly, there is ZERO Science to back up the Muscle Confusion theory. Thirdly, it will move you away from consistency and our bodies need consistency to be able to adapt. The more you change the less likely you are to see results.
If you really want to confuse your muscles, do it by adding a greater stimulus in a movement that you have been working on - as in - increase the weights you are lifting.
The Golden Rule is coming up…as promised.
I will now tell you EXACTLY when to increase your weights in the Gym
The Golden Rule is:
Increase your weights when in a Set you are no longer hitting “Target RPE”
By working towards your Target RPE you will be in the best position to strike a balance between the intensity required for growth (60-80% of 1RM) and your own personal ability.
Thus protecting you from Injury and still allowing Progressive Overload over time. RPE will take into account all the Progressive Overload factors, such as when you decrease or increase the tempo when you increase or decrease weight when you increase or decrease Sets and Reps your RPE should respond accordingly.
The human body can be a fickle system - especially when it comes to energy levels. RPE also allows for this. If you go to the Gym having slept well, fuelled well, and it’s early in the morning and you are full of beans.
You are likely to be able to produce more effort.
If you are sleep-deprived, tired, and just have no energy, you are likely to produce less effort.
RPE allows for these changes in your system and is more than likely still going to drive you to your goals as you will still be working to between a 60-80% intensity.
The Bottom Line
The answer to this question of when to increase weights in the gym comes down to balance.
You will always be balancing three main factors:
Your own physical ability
Your energy levels
Your likelihood to cause injury
Just walking up to a Barbell with an arbitrary number of KGs on it with no context or frame of reference as to whether you can actually do it, will likely not end well.
And this brings me to my last and final point on the topic.
Tracking your workouts is the key to your success.
You must track your workouts.
Without recording what you are doing then you will have no idea if you are actually making progress, or whether or not you are able to life the weight you want to set yourself.
Track the following data as a minimum:
Weight
Sets
Reps
RPE
If you write nothing else down - those four are the key to your success.
Then from there, when you see the Weight, Sets, and Reps staying the same - and the RPE coming down - you can increase your weights.
Or if you see the Weight, Sets, and Reps staying the same - and the RPE is increasing or not coming down - maybe take some weight off, and try to acquire the progressive overload in another way.
Time Under Tension
Higher Rep Scheme
More Sets
Add a workout into your week
The amount of weight you lift is your prerogative.
All I would ask is that you keep working hard, be consistent, and always try your hardest.
That deosn’t always mean lift more weight or always push yourself beyond belief.
Sometimes working your hardest can be just showing up.
Just remember to make sure every workout is effective to work to the Target RPE and adjust accordingly.
If you do that as each workout passes, you will begin to feel more and more like this:
Because really.
Thats the goal isn’t it.
Become Strong and Confident.
Be the Bad-Ass you were born to be.
Because you deserve to be.
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References:
Kerr ZY, Collins CL, Comstock RD. Epidemiology of weight training-related injuries presenting to United States emergency departments, 1990 to 2007. Am J Sports Med. 2010 Apr;38(4):765-71. doi: 10.1177/0363546509351560. Epub 2010 Feb 5. PMID: 20139328.
Radaelli, Regis1; Fleck, Steven J.2; Leite, Thalita3; Leite, Richard D.4; Pinto, Ronei S.1; Fernandes, Liliam3; Simão, Roberto3 Dose-Response of 1, 3, and 5 Sets of Resistance Exercise on Strength, Local Muscular Endurance, and Hypertrophy, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: May 2015 - Volume 29 - Issue 5 - p 1349-1358 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000000758
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/fulltext/2012/11000/Thomas_L__DeLorme_and_the_Science_of_Progressive.1.aspx
Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review of Advanced Resistance Training Techniques and Methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16244897
James Clear. 2021. How to Build Muscle: Strength Lessons from Milo of Croton. [online] Available at: <https://jamesclear.com/milo> [Accessed 27 June 2021].
Healthline. 2021. Progressive Overload: What It Is, Examples, and Tips. [online] Available at: <https://www.healthline.com/health/progressive-overload#benefits> [Accessed 28 June 2021].
Peterson, M. D., Pistilli, E., Haff, G. G., Hoffman, E. P., & Gordon, P. M. (2011). Progression of volume load and muscular adaptation during resistance exercise. European journal of applied physiology, 111(6), 1063–1071. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-010-1735-9
The most Important thing for Fat Loss? A Calorie Deficit or Resitance Training?
The most important thing for Fat Loss? A Calorie Deficit or Resistance Training?
This is a question I have battled with my whole career. As a Personal Trainer, I take money off of people to help them “achieve their goals”. To get them to “where they want to be” or whatever other “….” cliche we want to put in there.
And my conflict often comes from knowing that “Calories are King” when it comes to losing weight…so why do all Personal Trainers insist on lifting weights and exercising as much as they do?
“Eat less…move more”
Personally I detest the above quote…because it oversimplifies something that is just not that easy to figure out. It's a crass phrase that shames those who are struggling with their weight and doesn’t take into account the most important thing about them…their humanity. But this article will change that quote into:
“Eat less...vs…Move More”
and all that goes into that. It started with my client this morning, and we got into this discussion, which inspired me to sit down and write this for you.
So let's break it down, in this article, we will look at:
Why are calories so important for Fat Loss?
Why do we lift weights for Fat Loss?
What role does cardio play? And quick-fix low-calorie diets?
Conclusion
Why Are Calories so important for Fat Loss?
It doesn’t matter what way you spin it. It doesn’t matter how you look at it, and it doesn’t matter how many times your scream the word “Insulin” the facts are the facts. Are the facts.
The only way to lose weight is a Calorie Deficit [1, 2]. I know it's not what you want to hear. But if all things in your life stayed equal then nothing will change. If we then change one factor, that being the number of calories you eat, then you will start to see a difference on the scale. How big a difference will depend on the amount of a calorie deficit you implement.
Sounds a little too good to be true. Just eat less…right? (eye roll)
To understand this a little better, and the importance of a Calorie Deficit you need to first understand what a Calorie is:
Calorie /ˈkaləri/noun
1. The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 gram of water through 1 °C (now usually defined as 4.1868 joules).
2. The energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1 °C, equal to one thousand small calories and often used to measure the energy value of foods.
So Calories relate to how hot they make water? Which is a very confusing way of looking at the definition. The part of the definition you need to focus on…in terms of your fat loss…is “the energy needed”.
A calorie, all a calorie is, is a unit of measurement, and it measures energy. The same way a mile measures distance, or a litre measure volume, a calorie measures energy.
Our bodies are like engines, and these engines use calories for fuel. If you overfilled your fuel tank at the Car Garage, it would spill over. If you overfill your body with calories…you gain bodyweight.
Therefore the opposite would be true if we reduced our calories. If you didn’t overfill the car at the garage, you would have less fuel in your car…and, therefore, wouldn’t gain as much body fat.
You would also be able to travel less far…which brings up a great point regarding how being in a calorie deficit can affect your ability to keep your NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis) up as your body will not want you to reduce your calories because our bodies always like the state they are in, as they feel safe in that place…whether or not it might cause health issues later down the line. This is also where the “starvation mode” myth comes into the argument, and yes, it is a myth. But these are all arguments for another day. What we can draw from this paragraph is that it all comes down to balance, and balance is the most important word in the English and Fitness vernacular.
How you balance your calories (fuel) is to reduce to a point, so you can still reach your destination, but don’t reduce so much you have to fill your tank up again.
Now we have a grasp on what a Calorie is, I hope you can see how important it is for your Fat Loss, and why it is the governing rule for Fat Loss.
Why do we lift weights for Fat Loss?
My client this morning that inspired this Article sums this point up so well, I wish I could get him to repeat the conversation we had.
Quite often in my career, I have had clients stay with me for a number of years, despite the fact they aren’t really losing weight. They love the feeling exercise gives them, they love the experience, despite not having the results.
Now three things play into this I believe…
Exercising regularly helps them try and stay in balance when they aren’t taking their food intake seriously enough to get the results they decide. As the saying goes…“You can’t out-train a bad diet”;
They realise that weight training is an investment for their future self;
I’m just tons of fun and they love being around me.
Of these three things, only one of them do we really need to explain. And that's number three.
I mean look at me — fun or what?
Ok.
Fine.
Its two. Number two is what you need to focus on.
Let’s go back to my client this morning. He stated “I am now 16 stone and its not where I want to be” he has trained with me for nearly a year and although he had success in the past…it has wained of late and he realised this. What I found most interesting about the conversation was his next statement: “I’ve weighed this before…but this time I am wearing it better”
And my brain screamed Ah-Ha!
Despite knowing all the theory, knowing all the information that other fitness professionals say and do, and how they all recommend weight training for Fat Loss…I think as professionals we never truly understand it until you see a client go through it.
Like always when a client is in a situation like this, I immediately help them see their successes, and this client has many successes:
Can Bench Press 45kg for 3 sets
No longer has big bouts of back pain
Can do 3 sets of 12 Push Ups with ease
Gets out of breath a lot less
Can run a mile in 9:27
Looks stronger
Has bigger biceps
Prefers his physique
And the last three points are the key here. The last three comments are what justify his comment “wearing it better”.
Some of his weight probably is muscle gain, but if he hadn’t spent a year with me lifting heavy weights week in and week out, working on the areas of his body he felt self-conscious about and doing the work each and every week then he wouldn’t feel as motivated as he is right now to get back ontop of his Fat Loss goals.
The sheer fact he has worked hard and managed to get his body into a place where he is happier with the way he looks, despite gaining a little extra weight recently is truly wonderful, and a testament to his work ethic in the gym. I look at weight training in the Fat Loss field of fitness as the following:
Lifting weights is an investment into your future self to protect yourself from body fat increases. It is not a short term fix to the problem.
Sure. Lifting Weights does burn calories and lots of them. Far more than cardiovascular training because it improves your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)and your Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) (how many calories you burn via organ function and respiration) and that is exactly what has happened to my client. He has gained weight a lot slower than he would have, had he not spent the last year working hard in the Gym.
Muscle uses a lot more calories to maintain than body fat. This is why someone who is very athletic can eat the same as someone who is overweight, and they still both lose body fat. The muscle is like a high-performance car that needs just as much fuel as an efficient vehicle with flat tyres. The energy is being utilised far better and for a better outcome.
Therefore if you want solid, future proof Fat Loss then you have to get in the Gym and lift weights…as well as be in a Calorie Deficit. Because of how difficult a Calorie Deficit can be to maintain over a sustained period of time, there will be moments where you slip into higher-calorie refeeds [3] and momentum calories [4], you need to build yourself an insurance policy — and lifting weights is that insurance policy.
Your BMR and RMR is the biggest piece of your Metabolism at 70%. Therefore increasing it will take time because a lot of it is out of our control — namely your Organ size and your height. The portion of our RMR that is under our control is our Muscle Mass and Body Fat Mass— and therefore we are looking for small increments in this field.
As we build a muscle we basically put more Fat Burning Factories known as Mitchondira into our body. Mitochondria are little cells that are known as the batteries of your muscles…and the space we have for them (the bigger the muscle) the more of them we develop. As always…let's refer to an Instagram Post:
Taken from @thegymstarter on Instagram
So think of your Weight Training and Resistance Training as your Pension Fund. Put away 6.25% of your wages every month for your pension when you reach 65 years old you will have a pretty good pot of money.
NB: I’m not a financial advisor so that percentage could be way off
Exercise does burn calories mind you, and a good solid hour in the Gym lifting near maximal lifts and working hard on compound movements will maybe burn 220kcal approx. if you weigh 154lbs and are male [5].
Building on your Metabolism is a great way of insuring your body's ability to not gain fat in the future. But for the present, although you should get started straight away on lifting weights because the benefits are astoundingly worthwhile like:
Improved Joint Health
Improved Mental Health
Improved Social Health
Improved Confidence
Improved Physique (despite not losing weight necessarily)
It will not in and of itself help you lose bodyweight unless you use it as a tool to get into a Calorie Deficit. Each Gym session just helps you get into a Calorie Deficit for that day by about 200 calories…but the yield of that over time, and the way you change your body's composition will and can last you a lifetime…as long as you keep at it.
What role does cardio play? And quick-fix low-calorie diets?
Ahhh Cardio. My dear friend.
And quick fix low-calorie deficits my immortal MLM enemy.
Now knowing all that you know about Calories and Resistance Training, I am sure you are on board, except for one nagging question.
“How come Sally from over the road who runs a 5km every day is losing weight?”
And that is a great question, to which you know the answer: Sally is in a Calorie Deficit.
“So lets go running then?”
Not so fast. Literally. In terms of time spent exercising for calories burnt, yes Cardio, for the beginner is a great option as you do burn more calories by running for an hour rather than lifting weights. But it poses a few problems.
Your body adapts to exercise and the stress you put it under quite quickly. Therefore in order to keep up the level of exercise intensity, you will either have to go faster or for longer on your run. Whereas in the gym you can just add reps and plates…not miles and minutes. And if you are reading this…I’m sure having to add time to your already busy schedule isn’t going to be easy.
Added to that…you are doing very little to protect yourself from your future self. We all know an injured runner who gained weight after they could no longer keep it up..and that's because although the running was great for their Cardiovascular health they didn’t add enough muscle to their body to keep their body an efficient calorie-burning machine.
All the runner is doing is losing weight. Not adding muscle to their bodies, and therefore opening themselves up to injury, and hitting an unbreakable plateau.
Now don’t get me wrong…I LOVE CARDIO. I have run marathons, my best 5km is ~21mins and I am long-legged and cover the ground quickly (it would be even quicker if my ears didn’t flap in the wind so much) and you should totally add Cardio into your Fat Loss Exercise Regime. That doesn’t mean run 5kms if you don’t want to. A brisk walk each day is going to help you get into a Calorie Deficit via NEAT, and its going to help you keep your joints and your heart healthy. It should be part of what you do. But not the entirety of what you do.
And quick fix low-calorie diets?
If it's all about a Calorie Deficit...then it stands to reason you should just drink water and maybe the odd protein shake and reap the rewards. That is one way of getting into a Calorie Deficit yes. But again, it is fraught with issues.
This study from 2012 which looked into “Very low-calorie diets (VLCD) and sustained weight loss” reviewed all of the literature relating to VLCD, and stated the following:
Therefore, the pessimistic 1958 view of Stunkard and McLaren‐Hume ((1)), that most patients will not lose weight, is no longer true. However, their statement that most patients regain their lost weight is still true. Although there are difficulties in comparing studies because of large variations in the design and control of study variables, the overall picture is still very negative [6].
A VLCD will work. In the short term. Most patients will regain their weight. Yes, there will be few, very few that manage to overhaul their lives enough to make a VLCD stick forever…but I highly doubt you are in that category. Just think of the stressors you are under right now, family, work, loved ones etc…
Can you change enough of them…to make sure that this diet is sustainable enough? I highly doubt it, and nor should you have to.
To Conclude…
The answer is, and always will be a Calorie Deficit is most important for you to lose weight.
Exercising not only helps you lose weight in the present moment, although it might not be as much as you first thought, it can also help you maintain your weight loss over much much longer period of time and protect you when your Calorie Deficit does, and believe me it will, go arry.
Exercise also helps you keep an improved physique if you do gain weight again, and it allows you to feel a bit happier about yourself at the higher weight you have become.
And by doing so… you will never have to consider a VLCD, that won’t work anyway, ever again.
Please remember….it takes time. I have spoken quite casually about time in this article, but you need to think in terms of 12–18 months. Not 6–8 weeks.
And thats it. A Calorie Deficit is still the King of Fat Loss, by me, Adam Berry
Did you find this useful?
You can Join The Fitness Collective which is my Membership Group. In there I give Monthly Updates, Live Q and A’s, I provide you with new workouts each and every month, and write guidance on your fitness journey.
To find out more about The Fitness Collective you can click here: The Fitness Collective
Please share this with your friends and anyone else you may know who is worried about training in a gym, and feel free to follow me using the links below…
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And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam
___________________________________________________
References:
2020. [online] Available at: <https://www.nature.com/articles/ncpendmet05https://www.nature.com/articles/ncpendmet055454> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
Publishing, H., 2020. Heart Beat: A Weight Loss. [online] Harvard Health. Available at: <https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletter_article/Heart-Beat-A-weight-loss-secret-Calories-matter> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
Syatt Fitness. 2020. Creating An Effective Fat Loss Program. [online] Available at: <https://www.syattfitness.com/fat-loss/back-to-the-basics-creating-an-effective-fat-loss-program/> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
Syatt, J., 2018. Fat Loss To Maintenance (How To Transfer). [podcast] The Jordan Syatt Mini Podcast. Available at: <https://anchor.fm/jordan-syatt/episodes/Fat-Loss-to-Maintenance-How-to-Transfer-e1httu> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
Choosemyplate.gov. 2020. How Many Calories Does Physical Activity Use (Burn)? | Choosemyplate. [online] Available at: <https://www.choosemyplate.gov/resources/physical-activity-calories-burn> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
Wiley Online Library. 2012. Very‐Low‐Calorie Diets And Sustained Weight Loss. [online] Available at: <https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1038/oby.2001.134> [Accessed 17 April 2020].
How To Do A Push-Up and Why It Took Me 15 Years To Be Able To Perform One
How To Do A Push-Up and Why It Took Me 15 Years To Be Able To Perform One
The Push Up is a very hard exercise to execute…and only after 15 years of hard work on the movement have I actually managed to achieve it. This article is going to explain how you can practice and progress your push-up but also I want to delve into why we the Push Up is one of those exercises that make us feel so useless when we cannot perform it.
Also…before we get into it…Push Up or Press Up? I’m going to use the term Push Up for this article for two reasons. 1. My Grammar App prefers it. 2. It is a Pushing Movement of the body. Press would indicate speed…and my Push-Ups are not fast. At all.
15 Years….seriously?
I kid you not. I remember when I was an Air Cadet at the tender age of 15 and one of my punishments, yes punishments, for something like not having shiny enough shoes, would be to go out into a dark cold English Winters Night with an NCO and I would have to do 10 Push-Ups.
Now I am a very tall, very skinny, floppy eared human, and so the ability to do a Push Up was not something that would ever come naturally to me.
Nor is the cold dark environment of someone shouting at me likely to motivate me to succeed at this punishment. In truth, we were bordering on abuse, but it was cloaked in Military Discipline…so its alright…right?
Because of how long my levers (arms and legs) are, it naturally makes a movement like a Push Up a lot harder.
It comes down to Three Things, as the brilliant blog Art of Tall States,
Distance Travelled: The longer your limbs the more work you have to do to move your body through a range of motion. For every inch your arms are longer than someone of a shorter height you have to travel an inch further to execute a push-up. When you increase the distance you need to travel, you increase the amount of work you need to do!
Leverage: Push-Ups are a second class lever. Your Centre of Gravity hovers around your hips. Your arms do all of the moving. Gravity is pulling your body down at the Hips. Consequently, you need a certain amount of abdominal strength to complete a push-up, to keep your hips from sagging*. The taller you are, the longer your body and the further your hands and feet are from your hips. The further your base of support moves from the centre, your hips, the greater the amount of force that pulls the hips down.
*a point that will become very clear in the latter part of this article.
3. Muscle To Weight Ratio: Generally the taller you are the more weight you have to carry (more dense and bigger bones, longer legs). As you get taller, your organs and bones get larger and heavier, but you still build muscle at about the same rate as everyone else (regardless of height). So, if you are lean (like most tall people), you require a certain amount of strength to be able to execute a push-up correctly.
It’s usually a lack of strength coupled with distance travelled and leverage that makes push-ups harder if you are tall.
So unbeknown to myself at the time, as well as Lance Corporal Craig, a very short yappy thing…the kind of person that loved to exploit the tiny amount of power he had over anyone…I was at a significant disadvantage from the outset. But this didn’t stop the ridicule, the failure and the outright sense of uselessness I had from not being able to do a Push-Up.
It was a mental scar that was well and truly ingrained deep within me. It all linked to the bullying I would receive on a daily basis at school combined with the usual worries that a teenager would have about the world.
I was scarred from ever having to do a Push-Up.
Fast forward a few years, I’m now in the Gym. Having pretty much-avoided Push-Ups since I was an Air Cadet. I got through Drama School, travelled the world filming, played Soldiers in Films, I even Refereed in the FA Cup…but always managed to sidestep the P…U.
Until I started training Clients…I would have to joke about my inability to not demonstrate one correctly…and I would silently hear the other trainers mock me. Laugh at me…in my head they would say things like:
“Call yourself a PT and you can’t do a Push-Up????”
Well yeah. I did. I have many misgivings…and not being able to do a Push Up is (or was) one of them. Of course, this was all in my head but it still felt very real.
Then I decided to take my Strength Training seriously, I hit the Bench Press, The Overhead Press, The Pull-Up, The Barbell Row, I worked my Upper Body over and over twice a week (Legs was the other workout of the week) and I have done this now for 3 years until the other day I was in the gym with my fiancee and I was just hammering out a Push Up. Didn’t even think of it. It never felt smoother, it never felt more controlled…it did still make my face go red. But I was doing it. I then asked my fiancee to record it…onto Instagram Stories (follow me @thegymstarter) and I uploaded the video. It got a lovely response from lots of lovely people.
And I realised after 15 years my journey was complete.
Why was it so hard for me?
My mental block when it came to it.
The scars I had from my early exposure to the exercise, whether that was at school in P.E class or as an Air Cadet, it clearly made me put up a lot of walls in my mind whenever I was asked to execute a Push-Up.
Combine that with my physiology. But I’m not making excuses. I wasn't strong enough. Plain and simple. I could run a Marathon…but I couldn’t do a single push up. I had to build muscle…which is something that has always been hard for me… and that led to a long journey in being able to do the Push-Up.
Why is it so hard for anyone?
One of the most common things I hear from clients when asking them to do a Push Up is “Why can’t I do a Push-Up? I’m so weak it's ridiculous”
It's not ridiculous at all. In the world, there is a very common misconception that a Push Up is something we all should be able to do. We think of them as basic, simple movements that everyone in the world can do except for us.
Let's look at how heavy a Push Up is:
When in the Up Position of a Push Up you are lifting 69% of your body weight.
Therefore if you weigh 75kg you are lifting 51.75kg.
When in the Down Position of a Push Up you are lifting 75.04% of your body weight.
Therefore if you weigh 75kg you are lifting 56.28kg.
That's a heavy weight.
If you have attempted a Push-Up and felt like a failure…ask yourself this:
“Can I do a 55kg Bench Press?”
“A 55kg Overhead Press?”
“ Can I do a 55kg anything in the Gym?”
If the answer is no to just one of these questions then you are not a failure because you cannot do a Push-Up.
You are quite simply very normal.
How Do You Improve Your Push Up?
In order to develop your ability with any exercise that you are struggling with you can regress the exercise to try and make it more manageable for you to execute.
With a Push Up there are two regular regressions.
The 3/4 or Kneeling Push Up :
Or the Incline Push Up:
Of the two I favour an Incline a lot lot more. The Incline Push Up demands that you engage your Core Muscles* a lot more than the Kneeling Push Up.
*I told you I would come back to it
By getting used to the movement pattern with your Core Muscles engaged you are going to find the transition of from Incline to Flat a lot easier.
The other part of a Push Up that gets wildly ignored is the arm and head position in the lower part of the movement.
Many people believe that a Push Up goes straight up and down.
This misconception leads you to overuse of your arm and shoulder muscles and underuses your Chest Muscles.
We want to get the Chest engaged as much as possible in this movement pattern so that you can progress it with a much larger muscle group engaged…hopefully making the whole thing easier.
In order to do this we need two things to occur:
You need to lower your body tracking to the shape of a quarter circle. This way your head and chest will finish in the lower position further forward than the starting position, and your hands should then end up next to your nipples on your chest.
2. If you get point 1 correct then that should allow your arms to form the much needed Arrow Position which will help you with the Push Up also. Many people allow their arms to head into the “T” position, which compromises the shoulder joint, combined with putting too much strain upon muscles which are too small for you to be able to lift 74.04% of your Bodyweight. Seriously, try doing a Tricep Extension with 50kg….(I was joking. Please do not attempt this idea).
If you want to build up your ability to be able to execute a Push Up I would suggest throwing in practice to your upper body day. Remember:
Practice Makes Permanent
A good Upper Body Workout to get towards a Push Up would be:
Barbell Bench Press | 3 Sets | RPE = 8–9
Incline Bench Press | 3 Sets | RPE = 7–8
Overhead Press | 3 Sets | RPE = 6–7
Super Set of Lateral Raise | Front Raise | 3 Sets | RPE= 6–7
Inverted Row | 3 Sets | RPE = 7
Paloff Press | 3 Sets | RPE = 7
Plank | 3 Sets | RPE = 7
Push Up Variation | 3 Sets | RPE = 6–7
To Conclude…
The Push Up is far harder than the world has told you, and your misgivings in being able to complete it are fully understandable.
Stop thinking that using regression is a sign of failure. It's not. Its a sign of knowledge and understanding of what it takes to reach your goal. Its a sign of rejecting what popular opinion is, and making sure that you are working on your own track, for your own goals, in your own way.
It took me 15 years to be able to write this article for you, with authority. That’s a long time.
I can’t say doing a Push Up was ever an “active” goal of mine, and I do think if I was able to shake off my negative experiences with the exercise quicker then I would have shortened this time frame. But I avoided it.
I avoided it because it reminded me of my weaknesses. But the only person that lost out was me.
You may have some mental blocks when it comes to your Health and Fitness, and you may need more help than just this article.
But work on your goals. Because you have a lot to gain from them. Yes they will take a long time to accomplish, but if you can open up your time frames and understand that the art of building muscle and losing weight takes a long long time.
The more you can engage with that…the easier it all becomes.
If you have any questions…please put them below or reach out to me on adam@thegymstarter.com
Tall, A., 2020. Are Push-Ups Harder For Tall People? — The Art Of Tall. [online] The Art of Tall. Available at: <http://artoftall.com/are-push-ups-harder-for-tall-people/> [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Cooperinstitute.org. 2020. How Much Weight Is Really Lifted During A Push-Up? — Cooper Institute. [online] Available at: <https://www.cooperinstitute.org/2011/03/how-much-weight-is-really-lifted-during-a-push-up/> [Accessed 30 March 2020].
Did you find this useful?
You can Join The Fitness Collective which is my Membership Group. In there I give Monthly Updates, Live Q and A’s, I provide you with new workouts each and every month, and write guidance on your fintess journey.
To find out more about The Fitness Collective you can click here: The Fitness Collective
Please share this with your friends and anyone else you may know who is worried about training in a gym, and feel free to follow me using the links below…
And if you want to get updates on when I publish new articles, publish new podcasts or anything else then please remember to sign up below
And above all remember this…for as long as you are trying your best no one can ask for more from you.
Coach Adam