Check out Brian St. Pierre's Blog

To steal his description from his website, "Brian St. Pierre is a young and exciting new face in the industry. His ability to communicate with people of all ages, from a multitude of backgrounds, has allowed Brian to work with young student athletes, professional athletes, and working professionals alike." I follow his articles as well as some of the other top names in the fitness industry. In order to be the best fitness professional, networking and reading other's thought on varying subjects are vitally important. Please check out his blog here, read his article about Tracey Anderson that my buddy Chance Cianciola found and then read my response below.


I first want to explain my credentials to those who are unfamiliar with the strength and conditioning world... I have my masters of science degree in Exercise Physiology and am a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist. I have had numerous classes in anatomy, physiology, exercise physiology, biomechanics, laborartory and research methods dealing with studying the movement of the human body, and exercise testing and prescription methods.

Completing 80-100 consecutive repetitions is not only a contraindication to muscle and bone strength and health, but it is just dangerous. In order for the body to improve strength a person needs to complete 4-6 sets of six repetitions or less (the heavier weight that the client is able to use for these lower repetition sets improves bone density). To focus on hypertrophy (the growth of skeletal muscle) a client needs to perform 4-6 sets of 8-12 repetitions. An obvious and many times used question that is raised, mainly by females, is that they do not want to get big. Females, on average, naturally have about a tenth of the testosterone that males do so it is next to impossible for a woman to get noticeably bigger without an illegal ergogenic aid (steroids). Steroids would increase a woman’s hormone levels allowing her to put on size.

Another question that could be asked is how will I burn enough calories to lose weight if I am not doing 80-100 repetitions at a time? There are multiple answers:
1. You could superset opposing muscle groups. Do a set of 12 reps on dumbbell bench press and then immediately perform a unilateral back exercise, like a dumbbell row. Your chest and anterior deltoid are resting while your rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, and biceps are performing the row, and vise versa.
2. You could superset any exercise with a core exercise like a four-point plank or Russian twist. JUST DON’T DO CRUNCHES!
3. If you workout with a partner you are going to be resting anyway while they workout. Trust me, once you get away from doing the harmfully high repetition range you will realize that you can increase the weight you are accustomed to when you workout. The weight you picked for 100 reps of arm circles is going to be a lot different then the weight you can do for 12 reps on shoulder press.
4. Performing the 6 or less reps for increased strength or 8-12 reps for hypertrophy are functionally important. You will be able to put those boxes away in your closet without help, standing up from a chair will be easier, carrying your shopping bags after you get paid will be easier, carrying groceries into your home won’t be as exhausting, doing yard work won’t be as tiring, picking up and holding your child won’t be impossible, and the list could go on forever.

I have read several posts putting down BSP for his article. He is basing his comments on fact, her methods have no scientific background, basis, or structure. Too many personal trainers today make up their own system that has no research to support it. They just do it to get noticed… they want THEIR METHOD to make headlines, but they don’t believe that using proper and safe training protocols will be enough. These trainers make up their own system and almost all the time the clients either drop out or get injured. There is a difference between carving your own training niche by being a source of motivation, encouragement, and giving your clients workouts that have your own style attached and giving your clients uneducated, harmful workouts.

Pushing through the gym myths, jargon, and ignorance to get results

I workout at the University gym during the week and hit the up the local YMCA on the weekends for a change of pace and scenery. I try not to pay attention to every one's methods of exercise, but it is hard to not want to give tutorials to the patrons and even the staff at some of these places. Just this weekend I heard the following advice and observed the following things:

1. "you ain't never gonna get big wit out no set (that's right, "set") ups and push ups"
2. The guy saying the previous statement had a trashbag suit on that matched his son
3. A staff member," Ya see, your stomach muscles are never fully activated that's why so many people are so big"
4. Same staff member, "That's what I love about sprint'n, regular jogging doesn't use your lungs or get your heart a pump'n at all"
5. This guy was on a roll, "Ya need to just eat a buncha good ol' chicken breast to lose weight. I did it all last summer... chicken breast and water. I have put some weight back on, but it worked then."

After I died a little bit on the inside from watching the little kid with guy from statement number one doing half push ups with his feet against the wall I had to go to a different part of the gym. I am all for these people getting in the gym and sweating, I just want them to realize that there are more effective ways to get results.

I read some of the profiles of the workers and they don't have very many exercise science undergraduates and only one masters graduate at the facility. I am taking a mental note of the things that irk me about current gym processes or staffing problems that I observe to make my facility as idiot-proof as I can. I want to be able to educate my staff and make them have confidence in what they say is fact. I want to have my staff go through some power training sessions with me so they know how to properly execute a snatch, jump squat, and clean ... also I want to go through some essential lifts like deadlift, back squat, front squat, and incline dumbell press to make sure that my staff has at least an idea of proper form and body placement.

I have the university population to get my workers from... I will find as many kinesiology and health promotion students that want to work in this field as I can to staff my gym. All of this should help the problem.

DO YOU HAVE PROGRAMMING A.D.D.?

I was talking to a member of one of the gyms I work at and he is constantly changing his program. I usually recommend that people change their program every 4-6 weeks to avoid plateauing and prevent boredom. He varies his program too often. He want to be huge one week... then he wants to be lean... then he wants to get stronger... then he wants to just do arms one day.. and so on. I am sure that most of you know some one that can't stick to a program for longer than a week and a half.

You can have the best program written down and if you aren't consistent and don't really focus on the goal you set (weight loss, hypertrophy, strength) you aren't going to improve. Not giving the program you are doing a chance is similar to not having a program at all. Would you get directions off mapquest and then throw them out the window once you started driving to your destination?

Pick a goal. One specific goal and focus on it. You can vary the periodization of your program to have a hypertrophy phase, then strength building, then back to hypertrophy... or you can stick with the same rep and set numbers, just pick different exercises. Sticking with a goal doesn't mean you have to do the exact same workout. You are just doing the workouts for the same purpose.

New poll... results of the poll that just closed

The results of my last poll were that the viewers of this blog picked alternating upper and lower body weight lifting exercises throughout the week are most beneficial to them as they train, along with interval sprints coming in second. If you only have three days a week that you can come to the gym, you can complete a full body resistance training routine all three days. A word of caution though: pick specific goals. If you want to improve your running performance, lift your legs heavy one day and light (higher repetitions) the other two days and do three or four upper body weight lifting exercises. If leg strength and endurance are not critical factors in your fitness plan, alternate the focus of your workouts, more on upper body one day and the next lower body. By focusing on either lower or upper body I mean complete more sets and total exercises when you are the freshest, at the beginning of your workout.

If you are able to lift weights four or five days a week then your can split your routine up into fewere muscle groups per day, just as long as you don't train any muscle group with weights on back to back days. Your muscles need at least 48 hours of rest to repair themselves. You can vary routines any way you like, if you need any ideas, let me know.

The new poll I have up concerns weight loss goals for the new year. Please respond to my posts and vote on my poll when you get a chance!


take it easy

Horrible Marketing, don't be fooled

I am relatively new to blogging, but not fitness. After I set up this site I realize I could post some ads on the bottom row for fitness related sites, which most people interested in reading my blog could possibly want to check out.
So I clicked on one and started reading... and started laughing.

I clicked on "super strength in seconds" because I know that it takes a time commitment and effort to achieve true strength... I was curious to what this site had to say about gaining strength or muscular size in a short amount of time.
This site (www.strong-in-7-seconds.com) is claiming to have the secret to an ab workout and full body strength routine to give people abnormal strength...

First of all, if you scroll to the bottom to the youtube video, he says he is benching 352 pounds. He is on a smith machine, which is assisted lifting. The machine guides the bar, which is great for beginners or lifters wanting to keep very strict form, BUT the weight of the bar is considerably less than the free weight barbell of 45lbs.
Secondly, he also performs an isometric contraction, which is pushing against a force in which your muscle fibers do not lengthen or shorten. This is not a very effective way to train or build muscle mass. You muscles receive no benefit of moving through a full range of motion, nor do you get the personal benefit of being able to say "I benched/squatted so and so weight" and achieving an actual repetition.

Please watch out for fitness scams like this that are out there.