Article By: Johnny Fontana

If I told you that you could eat the exact same food you are eating now, but lose weight and develop a better body composition (body fat %) would you be into that idea? I think it would be really hard to find someone who would say no. I am not telling you to cut out certain foods or start counting your calories. I’m really not asking you to change your diet (the things you eat) at all, just to change when you eat them.

Western civilization (yes, that includes America) has developed some of the worst eating habits known to man. Sure, we typically eat food that is toxic to us, but that is not the point I am trying to make here. What we have done is arranged our eating habits in a way that sets us up for failure. We eat only a few meals per day, each packed with a large amount of food, and typically put off until later in the day. On top of that, we eat a ton of carbs at one time or a ton of fat at other times, which throws our bodies into a scramble.

This post will focus mostly on the bad foods that you eat and when to eat them. I don’t expect everyone to eat great foods all the time, but the trick is learning how to manage them. Here I will examine sugar intake and teach you how to properly eat sugar. Typically we are all-or-nothing-type people, eating loads of sugar at one time. This usually is around dinner or late-night snack time, which I shouldn’t have to tell you, is terrible for you.

All At Once

Nutrient timing is absolutely key to losing weight and getting a better body composition. Since we tend to have a problem with eating way too much sugar, I will use that as an example. Let’s say that you eat 50 grams of sugar throughout your day.  You can actually lose weight and lower your body fat by simply changing what time you eat that 50 grams. Let’s say you are currently eating 15 grams of sugar at lunch, 30 grams of sugar at dinner and 15 more grams for dessert or late snack. These large amounts of sugar later in the day will send your insulin through the roof, which is about the last thing in the world you want to do. On top of that, if your meal is comprised mostly of carbs, then you are in real trouble.

The Long Slow Burn

If you simply switch those 50 grams to 15 at breakfast, 10 for a late-morning snack, 10 at lunch, 10 for a late-afternoon snack and 5 at dinner, you will be in a much better position. By spreading out those 50 grams of sugar, you won’t be getting such an insulin spike. On top of that, by eating sugar earlier in the day, your body will have more time to burn it off.

Sugar & Insulin

I talk about insulin a lot, so if you are confused why I am bringing it up  read here to get a better understanding. By simply spacing out the sugar and putting it into more meals, you will be doing yourself justice. If you know that you are going to eat an entire Hershey’s bar today (not recommended), instead of eating it in one sitting break it up into multiple snacks. Eat a quarter with breakfast, a quarter with a snack, a quarter with lunch and a quarter with another snack.

Notice that I’m saying “with” in the last sentence. The food combinations that you eat will also play a big roll in your body’s ability to properly process the foods. I will get into this topic further in my next part of this series, so stay tuned.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

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The diet industry alone is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business. Hundreds of books and thousands of e-books are published each year, promising the answers to all your questions. They claim to have the diet that will change your life and get you to an ideal weight in no time. The major problem with many of these diets is that they are not sustainable. You cannot continue the diet they offer for an extended period of time, leaving you confused and helpless when you step away from it. If you think about it, the diet industry wants this to happen and is willing to pay big dollars to ensure that it does. Because if you found the perfect diet that was actually sustainable, you would eat less overall and never have to buy another diet book again. Since food publishers sell books and food companies sell “diet foods,” they cannot afford any miracle diet that changes people’s lives forever.

This in turn, is why people will lose weight, gain it back, lose it again and gain it back again, over and over and over. This vicious cycle continues time after time, until you just give up and learn to live with all that extra weight you’d rather shed. The funny thing is, the answer really is simple and right in front of you. We had the answer hundreds of years ago, but somewhere in the last 30 years we completely lost sight of it. The answer went from being simple to extremely complex, completely confusing a relatively simple topic along the way.  Here are a few, easy-to-follow rules for you to make for yourself.  If you stick to them, you’ll surely be on a better path and find yourself a whole lot less confused.

It’s Not a Diet

I hate saying the word diet, just because people associate it with a method of weight loss. In truth, Webster’s Dictionary describes a diet as, “the kinds of food that a person habitually eats.” You can see where we become so confused. If these “diets” that we go on are supposed to be short-term fixes and a proper diet is habitual, it is a bit of an oxymoron. The first thing you have to do is change the meaning of the word “diet” for you. It now needs to be a habitual way you eat that can be sustained from now until forever. The best diet is actually the furthest thing from what we think of as a traditional diet. The best diet is simply the way you eat.

It’s Not Fat, It’s Worse

Somewhere in the last 30 years, America has developed this obsession with fat. The idea that fat makes us fat sparked this craze to cut the natural fat out of foods. In turn, the food industry started making up for the lost flavor by adding sugar to foods. Not your regular old table sugar mind you (which still isn’t recommended), but instead sugars like high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

Our food’s sugar content has skyrocketed dramatically, which has a lot of negative effects on the body. Sugar spikes blood-sugar levels, which in turn spikes insulin, causing the body to deliver nutrients we eat to the places we don’t want them to go. The sugar put in foods in order to reduce fat content actually gets stored in the body as fat in the long run. Basically, we’ve been fooled.

Make a rule for yourself that you will drastically reduce the amount of sugar you eat that does not come from fruits and vegetables. Doing this will automatically put you in a better position to lose weight.

Be Aware

Paying attention to how much sugar you eat comes down to you looking at a food label for how much is in each item. Just being aware of what is in the foods you are picking from the grocery store is a key step if you’re trying to start to lose weight. It’s heartening to know that the food industry is finally starting to make foods that are better for us, but they’re still putting them right next to foods that are terrible, so vigilence is key.

Simply looking at the nutritional facts of all the options of a specific type of food will make a huge difference. If you notice that one brand is 400 calories per serving and the other is 300, make the choice for the brand with 300 calories. I found some bagels the other day that have a very similar taste but are completely different. While one had over 50 carbs and nearly no fiber the other had only 19 cabs with 9 grams of fiber. The decision to go with the latter will make a huge difference in your ability to lose weight.

Please just compare the nutritional facts of the foods you are looking at.

Avoid Being Labeled

While I just told you to look at the labels of the foods you are buying, the best types of foods come with no labels at all. Making fresh fruits and vegetables your main food choices takes all the pressure off of you because just about every single time they are far supreme to any packaged foods. Think about it, the bonus of eating fruits and vegetables is that you can eat a lot more throughout the day than if you eat packaged foods. More nutrients, less calories doesn’t sound too bad to me.

Avoid The Hype

Food companies are equally as large (if not larger now) than any car company out there in terms of profits. They spend billions on research and basically know exactly where the trends are heading. Once we started to recognize as a whole that tans fat’s were no good for us, they stopped putting it in our food. Then they started making sure that we could easily see that their foods don’t have trans fats.

Even foods that never had trans fat in them were labeled “Trans Fat: 0″  to make sure that you could see they were a trans fat free product. The same is now happening with the likes of HFCS, Omega-3’s and fiber. Just about any food you see now has some form of nutritional reinforcement right on the label. While 20 years before we would never see on the front of the box that a cereal had fiber in it, now companies rush to show us how much it has.

When it comes down to it, many of these companies are doing this as a way to trick you into thinking their product is healthy. I recent heard that Golden Grams is going to begin an ad campaign claiming to be a cheap, healthy snack. Really? Sure  Golden Grams are cheap but how in the world are they healthy? The will likely claim that they have a few servings of whole grains.

If companies have to tell you that their food is good for you by flashing a graphic at you chances are it is not. Don’t buy into the food just because it say’s it has some Omeg-3’s or fiber in it.

Remember that your diet should not actually be a diet but more of a way of life. One of the worst things you can do is to actually go on a “diet.” Learn to make some simple adjustments and eat the foods that our grandparents were eating when they were younger. Just 30 years ago when obesity and diabetes was not much of a concern at all. Our bodies chemistry hasn’t changed at all, our food has. People weren’t worried about being on a diet or eating certain types of “low-carb” or “low-fat” diets, if they needed to lose weight they just ate less. Now with there being about 50,000 products in your average grocery store you need to start paying attention. If you know people who are in their 70’s and 80’s ask them what they ate when they were kids. I bet if you follow that diet you will be alright.

Last night a British restauranteur named Jamie Oliver gave a speech at the TED conference in Long Beach, Ca. If you haven’t heard of TED it is basically a conference held each year that brings world leaders together. Whether it be philanthropy, business, technology, science, design or entertainment all of the biggest names in each industry show up. Each year the people at TED give 3 people $100,000 and 18 minutes of stage time to present their idea for a big wish that they have. Jamie Oliver happened to be one of those three people last night. His speech was amazing.

Over the last 7 years, Jamie has been pushing for what he is calling a “Food Revolution” basically working to raise awareness for how fat we are becoming. He has done some tremendous work in Britain and has made a large impact in raising food awareness. Now he has made his way to America, where we have major problems and has a TV show on ABC which will air in March. His plan is to go to “The Unhealthiest Place In America” Huntington, West Virginia and change the way they eat, especially in schools. I am really excited for this show to come on because i think it will wake a lot of people up.

I urge everyone to go onto Jamie’s website and sign the food petition and pass a link on asking your friends to do the same. This issue is something that I care deeply about and hope that Jamie can help open peoples eyes. We have to start getting our health back in order or we will be in major trouble.

Sign Jamie’s Petition

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

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Article By: John Fontana

Walk into any major gym at around 6 p.m. on a weekday and it is tough to find an open piece of cardio equipment. The people hop on and follow the instructions listed on the machine in order to burn some fat. It’s nice isn’t it, the idea that you can cruise along in this “fat burning zone” for 30 minutes to an hour and achieve great results?

Article By: John Fontana

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Time is of the essence. Though it’s a term originally coined with regard to legal contracts, it should actually be considered each time you exercise. You likely place most of your focus on how many sets you perform, the reps in each set and the weights used doing those sets. Although those three variables hold a lot of importance, time should not be ignored. In fact, time is so important that it should play a roll in nearly every aspect of your workout. Too much time spent in a workout and you risk putting your body in an over trained state. Too much rest in between sets and it will take longer for you to shed the pounds you are trying to take off.

I think that time is one of the most overlooked aspects of exercise. It is important when considering reps, sets, rest, duration of a workout and rest in between days. No matter what goals you have set for yourself, time can either be a major aid in reaching them or a hindrance.

Time Under Tension

When it comes to repetitions, time goes hand in hand with your goal.  Within a rep, time is called “total time under tension” and refers to the amount of time it takes from your very first to very last rep within a set.

Time Per Set

The theory is that the amount of time you spend under tension will determine which training goal you accomplish. If you’re looking for absolute strength, you should spend between 3 and 20 seconds under tension. To put on some muscle size (hypertrophy) you should be under tension from 40-70 seconds. My guess is that you do not want to get super strong, nor do you want to look like a body builder, so avoid those times. Your range should be between 20-40 seconds per set (usually 8-12 reps) of a given exercise. This will help strengthen the muscle just enough, while not getting you too bulky.

Rest To Lose Weight

The amount of time you spend resting in between sets, compound sets (2 exercises grouped) or a circuit (3+ exercises grouped) is also a key element in reaching your fitness goals. Keeping the rest to a minimum is a key in order to burn more calories each workout. Lately, spinning has been regarded as one of the best ways to burn calories. This is because you are constantly fluctuating your heart rate up and down, while taking minimum rest.

The same should go with weight training. Your exercises should get your heart rate sky high and then you should only use as much rest as needed. If you are just starting out, this should be between 60-90 seconds.  If you are experienced it should be 30-60 seconds. The basic theory is that the least amount of rest you take the higher your average heart rate will be. High heart rate equals burned calories, burned calories equals weight loss.

Time Per Workout

If you follow the aforementioned advice, each exercise will take between 20-40 seconds and you will be resting a maximum of 90 seconds. Since your goal is to lose weight you should be performing compound sets or circuits. I would recommend about 3 circuits (9 exercises) per day, which will total 36 minutes from the first rep of your first circuit until the last rep of your last circuit. Factor in warm up; stretch and cool down time and you are right around an hour for your entire workout.

The Time Limit

Studies have shown that most people’s bodies begin to take a serious decline after an hour-and-a-half of continuous exercise. Following this 3-circuit workout will allow you time to get in all of your weight training for the day and a little extra cardio, all within that 90 minute range.

Consistently performing more than 90 minutes of continuous exercise will put your body at risk of being over trained. Overtraining is also known as a plateau and is a natural phenomenon that occurs within your body. The stress of the exercise will overwhelm your system and your body will begin to shut down. Progress will be put on hold and you will likely start to lose some of the progress that you made.

As you see, time plays a crucial factor in exercise, especially when looking to lose weight. It should be accounted for just as much as the number of sets, reps or exercises you are doing. If you are having trouble cutting some pounds it may be a result of ignoring the clock. Figure out the amount of rest periods you need in between sets and attempt to lower them each week.  You will be surprised how much it changes things.

If you are still a bit unclear as to how to factor in rest with your workouts, you can sign up for a Shadow Fit personalized workout for free. Here will provide the exercise along with proper sets, reps, tempo and rest of each exercise. Just fill out the questionnaire and you will be on your way.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana

Article By: John Fontana

So your goal is to lose some weight and tighten that skin up around your muscles (a.k.a. tone up).  You know that diet is very important for this and that what you eat will ultimately make a major impact on the way you look and how much you weigh.  You also know there are thousands of diets out there and millions of articles written on weight loss, all typically telling you which foods to eat.  One person tells you to only eat cottage cheese, another to eliminate carbohydrates, the other to eliminate fats.  Your head is constantly spinning about what to do and I don’t blame you.

The truth is that nature gives us all these food groups for a reason.  We are supposed to eat fat, protein and carbohydrates every single day.  The percentage you should eat of each depends on your specific body chemistry. When you eat them should depend on a little hormone in our body called insulin.

Control Insulin, Control Your Body

When it comes to losing weight and obtaining a positive body composition (body fat %) your blood insulin level may be an important thing on which to get a handle.  Insulin is a hormone that is released into the blood and directs the carbohydrates, proteins and fats. The great thing about insulin is that it can bring the carbs and proteins to the muscles and promote lean muscle mass.  The terrible thing about insulin is that it can store those carbs as fat and promote a higher body fat %. Seeing how insulin doesn’t have a mind of its own and works off a chemical reaction, the food you eat combined with the time you eat it will determine how insulin reacts.

From time to time, we want our insulin levels to spike and if you can have high levels of insulin in the muscles then you are in a great position.  However, if you are in a chronic state of raised insulin levels throughout your body, you will likely end up developing diabetes.  Most people you see with diabetes are also overweight.  These obviously go hand in hand.

Time Insulin Releases

The best time to have spiked insulin levels is in the mornings and especially during and following your workouts.  This is because at these times, it’s easier for your body to utilize insulin toward building muscle instead of storing fat. In the morning, the insulin will direct your carbohydrates for energy use.  Before a workout, a spike in insulin can help store energy in your muscles, by way of glycogen.  After a workout the insulin spike will help deliver carbs and protein to the muscles, which will aid in recovery and in developing lean muscle mass.  Carbs are an important part of the equation because they ignite insulin and make it available to use in this positive manner.

What To Eat And When

An easy way to digest all of this information and put it to use is by following two rules.  The first is to only eat insulin-igniting foods in the morning, pre exercise or post exercise.  This way you will be able to use the insulin spike to your advantage.  The second rule is to do everything in your power to dodge these insulin-igniting foods at night.  A good rule of thumb is to eat carbohydrates in the morning and pre/post workout, but avoid them at night. If you prefer to exercise in the evening, get your carbohydrates in before your workout and use them sparingly after your workout.

Not All Carbs Are Equal

You may be wondering what foods cause a spike in insulin and which ones don’t.  All carbohydrates will cause a different hormonal response on the insulin in your body. Because of this, you should be concious about which the carbohydrates you eat and when you eat them.  Some carb-heavy foods that are traditionally eaten at dinner (such as potatoes) cause a major spike in insulin, while other foods that are rich in carbohydrates don’t have such a dramatic response.

Check out this chart to see the effects of certain carbs on the body. As you see, potatoes cause a higher spike in insulin than a Mars candy bar! The higher the number, the more you want to avoid those foods.
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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

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Article By: John Fontana

Some of the most popular New Years Resolutions are to lose weight, start a diet and get on an exercise routine, usually they all go hand in hand.  With Shadow Fit being a company focusing on providing personalized workouts, you might think we would be pushing the exercise part of it in your face.  We’re not.  The truth is, without your diet being in line, you are going to have a tough time accomplishing your resolution.  Exercise is a very integral part of it all, but the foods you put in your mouth each day will ultimately be responsible for your outcome.  Make sure you follow these few rules before you get started with that resolution.

Get Sustainable

This first rule to live by really has two different definitions.  The first is to go for foods that are sustainable for you.  If you currently have a diet that consists of nothing for breakfast, McDonalds for lunch and take out for dinner don’t expect to be able to get all health freak on us over night. You have to realize what is a sustainable diet for you and start with that.  Ask yourself “can I really eat like this everyday” if the answer is no than start to rethink it.

The second part of that is to go with as many sustainable foods as you can throughout the day.  These are natural, organic products that aren’t processed or modified. If you shoot for sustainable foods, you will likely be cutting calories drastically and be getting healthier. Remember that just being thin and skinny doesn’t mean you are necessarily healthy. But being very healthy likely has a positive side effect of being lean.

Cut The Fat

Don’t take this the wrong way, because I am a huge proponent of healthy fats.  What I mean is to cut out all the unnecessary foods you eat throughout the day.  Usually this has a lot to do with extra calorie drinks, condiments and dressings.  If you find yourself eating just because you are bored than this is likely on of the “cut the fat” times.

Cut It In Half

Whatever your eating right now, I want you to cut it in half.  Not to say that I want you to cut your entire days food in half, but start to cut meals in half. Start to cut your meals (especially dinner) in half and eat portion now and then a portion a few hours later. We for some reason decide that we need to eat these huge meals and consistently end up overeating. If you separate you meals this is less likely to happen because you will realize that you’re not quite as hungry as you thought.  Also, this will keep your body working to digest the food and will ultimately speed up your metabolism.

Don’t Eat, Snack

This tip is really just about changing your mindset than anything else.  Start to think that you will only eat snacks throughout the day. By going into each meal with a “snack mindset” you again will avoid the chance of overeating.  You will also be eating more times throughout the day, which will help boost your metabolism.

Know Yourself

Write down a list of the foods that you love frequently and frequently crave.  Realize that those foods are not necessarily your enemy but need to be controlled.  If you are a chocolate freak, you can’t expect yourself to cut out all chocolate.  If I thought that I could eliminate peanut butter from my diet I would be mistaken because I am in love with it.  Recognize those foods and instead of cutting them out completely, make them a reward.  If you have had a few great days of diet and exercise, indulge with a little of your favorite treat. Staying in a positive mindset will ultimately determine whether you succeed or fail at your New Years Resolution

Creating that list of your favorite foods will also help you cut out some foods that are no good for you.  If you realized that you eat a lot of gummy bears each week but mainly do so out of boredom, it will be easier to let those go.  Also, pay attention to the amount of carbs your eat compared to fats.  A key to losing weight is learning to limit the consumption of one of those categories.  Don’t try to cut the carbs out if you love bread, pasta and cereal it will never happen.  If that’s the case, look to lower your fat consumption a little instead and you will be able to reduce calories without getting cravings.  Being able to eat your favorite foods will help you keep your mind.

I know that none of this information was ground breaking new stuff that you have never heard but it works. Losing weight is not about joining some crazy diet; it is about making long lasting sustainable changes. If you follow each of these rules, I guarantee you will cut out a few hundred calories per day.  Those calories will add up and eventually equal a few thousand calories and then a few pounds.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

or Tweet me @johnnyfontana on Twitter

Article By: John Fontana

It seems to be a cultural phenomenon for those dieting to decide not eating is the key to success. People cry that they eat pretty healthy foods but just can’t understand why they wont lose weight. They claim that they only eat one or two meals a day and yet nothing is happening. The issue is not necessarily what you eat, but rather it is when you eat that matters.

If you ask these people what the two meals per day are, the response is typically lunch and dinner. When they say lunch they don’t mean noon, lunch usually lands around 3 or 4 and dinner around 7 or 8. This is where you will be running into a major issue. Nutrient timing is essential when you are attempting to lose weight or even maintain the weight you are at.

The first thing you have to think about is your metabolism. Compare your metabolism to an open fire. If you throw a bundle of logs on a fire it will likely have a huge spark and large flame for a few minutes than it will settle down. Within a few hours, if you don’t throw logs back on it the fire will die out. Your metabolism is very similar, only with food instead of logs. The appropriate thing to do is to throw a log or two on, wait about two hours and throw another log on. Continuously loading your fire back up will never cause a huge flame and always keep a nice steady burn. Your digestive system will be constantly working and able to handle what you are throwing at it, instead of being asleep and then overwhelmed by the amount of food.

Your metabolism is extremely important when considering the breaking down and digestion of food, but insulin levels are equally important. Going back to the fire analogy, the big flame that occurs right when you throw the bundle of logs on is the same as a blood sugar spike in your body. A major blood sugar spike is something that you are trying to avoid if you are in a starving position, which you will be if you haven’t eaten all day.

Insulin is what carries carbohydrates, fat and protein through the blood stream. A large spike in blood sugar spikes the insulin making it carry these nutrients faster than normal. This becomes a big issue when it has nowhere good to take the nutrients. If the carbohydrates can’t be used as energy they will be stored as fat. The people that don’t eat all day are not only slowing their metabolism way down, but also making themselves susceptible to a huge insulin spike. The issue here is that even if you are eating fewer calories a day, the calories aren’t being used properly and are being stored as fat. If your goal is to lose weight, it is also probably to “tone up” as well. By allowing these insulin spikes to happen, you are putting yourself in a bad position that will inhibit your ability to “tone”.

The lesson here is to time your meals out a little bit better. In an optimal world you would eat more meals but if you refuse to eat more than two meals make it breakfast and in between lunch and dinnertime. This will be the best timing you can pick with the two meals and will allow your metabolism and insulin to operate a little better. Breakfast is a necessity because not only do you jump-start the metabolism but also in the case of an insulin spike, your body will be able to handle it better. It is likely that you are more active and busy during the morning and afternoon hours as opposed to nighttime. Since that’s the case it is better to have the insulin spike during your most active hours, because your nutrients will be used as energy in the muscles. Obviously you should eat more throughout the day and eat smaller meals as you go. The reason people have told you a million times to eat 5-6 small meals a day is because it’s true.

Start to focus more on when you are eating and not necessarily what you are eating. This is by no means a pass to eat bad food, but it is better for you to eat a little worse food multiple times a day (in smaller meals) than to eat it twice. The ultimate goal should be at least four meals. Instead of thinking of them as meals, start to think of them as snacks. A meal usually seems like a big production with a lot of food and can be overwhelming. If you think that you need to eat 4-6 snacks a day instead of meals it might be easier on you mentally. This might sound funny but the little tricks we play on our minds sometimes make all the difference.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

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Article By: John Fontana

I am always amazed when I see people who are trying to lose weight doing bicep curls or leg extensions.  I am proud of the fact that they are in the gym and working hard to achieve their goals but they are wasting time.  How long do you think it would take me to write this article if I was using the old fashioned method of ink feather pen?  The same concept applies with doing certain exercises to accomplish your weight loss goals.  If you are trying to lose some pounds and your workouts frequently consists of bicep curls, tricep extensions, leg extensions and leg curls, please pay attention to what I say next.

When it comes down to it, even avid exercisers normally only weight train for a few hours a week.  Even if you workout an hour a day, five days per week you are still only exercising 3% of the time.  With so little time spent working out, why not maximize each workout by using the best possible exercises?

Multi-joint exercises are much more efficient and effective than any single joint exercise. In case you are confused, a multi-joint exercise is any exercise that requires more than one joint to move in order to complete repetition.  For example a lunge requires that your hip and knee joints both move, so it is considered multi-joint.  Typically, the more joints that you can get involved means using more muscles.  When you utilize more muscles during a workout this means you will burn more calories. When you perform an exercise your body needs energy in order to power your muscles, similar to the way a car needs gas to drive.  Think of multi-joint exercises like a big gas guzzling truck and a single joint exercise like a hybrid.  In this case you want the gas guzzling multi-joint exercises because they require much more energy; therefore they burn many more calories.

A good way to get out of the habit of thinking single joint is to think of movement patterns instead of muscle groups.  For example, if you were to squat to pick something up off the ground and then reach up and place it on a shelf above your head, you would be moving in a vertical movement pattern.  To perform a similar movement in a gym using single joint thinking, you would need to perform four separate exercises.   Or you can perform a squat to curl to press and knock it all out in one exercise.  This will not only save you time in the gym but also make you a much more efficient exerciser.  By using our muscle groups together as opposed to separate we are making a greater mind-body connection. Eventually this connection will lead to you being able to do more difficult exercises, which means burning more calories.

The truth is that you cannot “tone” a muscle group until you have removed most of the fat that surrounds it. The bicep curls won’t make your biceps more toned if they are wrapped in fat, no matter how many repetitions or sets you do.  First think about losing the weight you want to lose then get picky and start to work on certain areas that need more work.  Get all your muscles involved with bigger movements and multiple joints.

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I encourage any questions or comments, please:

Leave a response at the bottom of the article,

E-mail me personally at jfontana@shadowfit.com

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I have a feeling the title of this article may attract the wrong people and turn off the people it’s aimed towards.  I really am aiming this article at both males and females.  Although it will seem like solely males in the beginning, I will explain how it translates to females later.  When I say fluids or fibers I am not talking about liquid and the stuff that helps you digest (at least not in this post).  Fluids or fibers is referring to muscles, specifically towards muscle size.

There are a lot of guys who walk around looking like they could lift a small car over their heads and run with it.  Truth be told, most of them are not that strong and can barely run in the first place.  On the other hand, there are plenty of guys out there who don’t look to be that strong, but they are the ones who can lift that car and throw it (okay maybe a little exaggeration there).

A perfect example of this is the difference between bodybuilders and powerlifters.  While most bodybuilders look to be the stronger of the two, powerlifters will be able to out lift a body builder any day.  What is the reasoning behind this?  They have achieved different types of hypertrophy.  Hypertrophy is defined as muscle growth and translates to larger size.  Believe it or not there are two different ways for your muscles to grow.  One way is to put fluid into the muscles (the easy way out) the other is to actually increase the size of the muscle fibers.

Fluid Hypertrophy

When you lift, there is an accumulation of blood plasma in the muscles. This increase of fluid leads towards the “pump” that many people talk about.  While it is good to reach this fluid hypertrophy or pump during a workout, it can translate into the type hypertrophy you don’t necessarily want.  By consistently doing very high rep and lower weight workout this fluid hypertrophy will stick and you will deceitfully have more muscle mass.  The mass will be full of the blood plasma and after a few weeks of not lifting weights you will shrink down pretty fast. On top of that, you will have to keep up with those high volume workouts in order to keep the size. It’s almost like you have a permanent pump going for the duration that you are actively lifting weights.

Fiber Hypertrophy

Fiber growth is the type of hypertrophy that you should be looking for if you are really trying to make sustainable changes.  Fibrous hypertrophy is a result in actual muscle fiber growth. This growth can be attributed to many different things but when it comes down to it your muscles are actually growing more fibers and enlarging.  This is achieved by lifting challenging weights that you cannot do for 20 reps.  The rep range here should be anywhere from 5-15 but rarely higher than that. Rather then high reps you should be looking for higher sets.  It is also widely accepted that hypertrophy is a result of being under tension for 40-70 seconds. This means that each set should last that long in order to ensure growth.  Because of the growth in the fibers, you can take a month off of training and won’t necessarily lose size.  Although it may take a little longer to achieve the size you want, it will be much easier to maintain this size.

For Women

Ladies, I know that you may not be wanting size at all.  Most of my female clients come in asking to tighten up certain areas of the body and say they don’t want to get “too bulky”.  If you are doing high reps 15-20 of exercises, you will likely be moving more towards that fluid hypertrophy.  This will give you a puffy look and not really tighten you up at all.  Working for fiber hypertrophy will be the way to go. Do more weight for less reps and you will be getting strong.  Strong is what you want. Strength does not necessarily translate into external size, just because you are getting stronger doesn’t mean your getting bigger.  Your muscles will get stronger which will lead to tightening. It will also take much longer to get bulky and will allow you time to spot it before you look like a bodybuilder.  In fact that was a little sarcastic, you really shouldn’t have to worry about that at all.

Conclusion

Its easy..lift more weight, do less reps.  In my mind its much better to be “sneaky strong” compared to looking huge and getting out lifted by someone who is 170 pounds and skinny looking.  Unless you are a bodybuilder or just want to get quickly yolked looking, for a Hawaii vacation; fiber size is the way to go.  Hopefully this will change the way you look at weight lifting a little bit.  More sets, less reps!