Despite suffering from some pain in my right shoulder I still managed to get to the gym today.
With my wife working I dropped Matea off to my moms for an hour. She loves to have her visit and with my Dad Fitness workouts only being an hour, 3 times a week it isn’t a big hassle.
My right shoulder has been acting up the last few days. I haven’t had any shoulder pain in a long time. I don’t remember doing anything specific. I just think it soon maybe time for a week off from the gym.
I usually try to take a recovery week off from the gym every 8-10 weeks just to give my mind and body a little rest from a couple months of hard training.
You can still do some light bodyweight workouts and stay active during your week off from weight training, just stay away from intense workouts.
I also find this a great time to try some different activities during my would-be workout time or even catch up on some reading as well as plan my next phase of Dad Fitness Workouts.
Today I started a new set of workouts and plan on doing them for the next 3 weeks if my shoulder don’t get any worse.
Day 1 is Max Effort Upper Body
Day 2 is Max Effort Lower Body
Day 3 is High Rep Day Upper Body
Here was my workout for today. I was able to do these exercises without much discomfort.
Max Effort Upper Body
Barbell Floor Press, 1 max set of 3-5 reps
Decline DB Press, 4 sets of 6-10 reps
Chest Supported Barbell Row, 4 sets of 10-15 reps
Bent Over Lateral Raise, 3 sets of 12-15 reps
Cable Crunch, 3 sets of 8-12 reps
Here is a fitting article for today’s post.
Get Some R&R- Rest and Recovery
By Sean Barker,CPT
It happens to us all every now and then, even the most passionate of trainers. We reach a point in our workout when we lack motivation to train, eat right and we feel tired or come down with the flu.
These are usually the symptoms of over training or lack of recovery. But it is not always solely based on “over training”. It’s usually a combination of a lot of things. This is mostly based on the “Training Triangle”. Training, Nutrition, Recovery.
You’re probably training too much, too often. Not getting enough of the proper nutrients your bodies needs to recover from hard training. Then recovery is short changed by the lack of the first two. Also, doing the same routine for a long period of time will make you mentally stale as well as physically. Most experts agree that you should change your workout routines after every 4-8 weeks. Then you should also take an entire week off from hard training every 8-10 weeks.
When this happens it’s time for change. Usually this means taking some time off from the gym. You will need more than a couple days; usually a week or two is needed. This will give your mind and body time away from the gym to regroup. After a week or two away you will be anxious to get back into the gym and hit it hard for another couple months. But, before you do you should change up your workout program. Whether it’s exercises, or the days of the week, this will keep you mentally fresh to attack your training.
So when your body starts to tell you it wants a break from your weightlifting workout, listen to it!
It’s the only body you will ever get…
Someone likes her R&RSean Barker, CPT
Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose Your Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com
Don’t watch the Super Bowl and avoid the foods that go with it!
That’s what I did yesterday mainly because I am not a big fan of football.
But for you guys who sat back to enjoy the game and consumed an extra 1200 calories (which is the average excess calories consumed during this day!) here is what you should do to get over that football food hangover.
“Forgetta bout’ it!”
One meal won’t make you fat. Even one day of downing beer and chicken wings won’t do it. You might feel bloated from all the salt and fat but that is only water weight which will go away in a day or so ONLY if you get back on track with your workouts and healthy eating right away.
Start the next day off with a healthy high protein breakfast and get in a high intensity workout of weight training and interval cardio that will help to jumpstart that metabolism and sweat out all the excess water you are holding from eating that Super Bowl full of artery clogging potato chips.
Most diet plans actually recommend a cheat day once a week to eat what you want without sabotaging your weight loss goals. I like to look at it as a “reward” meal opposed to cheating which sounds like you are doing something bad. This gives you a mental break from your weekly planned meals as well as there are some biological benefits to consuming excess calories every so often when you are following a weight loss plan. The excess calories convinces your body that you are not starving and it will continue to burn bodyfat as you return to your healthy eating patterns.
But you can only benefit from your reward meals if you follow a structured workout and diet plan 90% of the time. This is what makes The Dad Fitness System so effective for busy dads and how you can lose that beer belly while still enjoying some of your favorite foods without the guilt.
Whether it’s the Sunday football game with the guys or wing night at your local pub, enjoying a reward meal once a week while following your fat loss plan will keep you burning fat long after those other guys following those starvation diets give up before the next big game rolls around.
Sean Barker, CPT
Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com
My wife and I are getting ready to get away for the night and head down to the cabin with my parents and some friends.
My 3 short Dad Fitness Workouts are done for this week so I have the freedom to enjoy my weekend with my family.
I will be putting my snowmobile in the back of my truck and we will make the 45 minute drive down into the snowy northern wilderness of Labrador to enjoy the great outdoors.
I hope we get a clear night because you haven’t seen nothing until you seen the Northern Lights up here in Labrador on a cold, clear, winter night!
But before I go I have a new article for you.
Enjoy and have a great weekend!
7 Secrets to Better Workouts
by Sean Barker, CPT
If your workouts seem to be getting you nowhere, read on to get the 7 Secrets To Better Workouts.
1. Start your engines
As your old high school gym teacher might have led you to believe, stretching before weight training is not the best way to warm-up. Recent reports show that static stretching before exercise can reduce muscle strength. Stretching relaxes your muscles, so why would you want to relax your muscles when you need to lift explosively during weight training? The proper warm-up for weight training should involve 5-10 minutes of Dynamic mobility movements. These drills help improve active range of motion and activate the nervous system. Exercise like bodyweight squats, pushups and lunges help to fire up the nervous system, increase blood flow and fluid to the surrounding joints in preparation for intense lifting. In addition, a couple acclimation sets of the first exercise in your workout will get you prepared to train with your maximal weights.
2. Train What You Don’t See
One of the most common complaints you hear from long time lifters is a chronic shoulder problem. This is mainly due to imbalances in their exercise selection where they perform more pressing exercises like bench presses than pulling exercise like bent over rows. You should be doing equal exercise volume in the horizontal push and pulls as well as the vertical push and pulls such as shoulder presses and chin-up variations. This will ensure proper balance for the muscles you don’t see in your back to prevent tight upper back muscles, which contribute to most shoulder problems. Including some old school traditional pushups in place of bench presses also allow your scapula muscles in your upper back to move freely enhancing shoulder health unlike any lying bench press movements. Pushups are referred to as a “close-chain” exercise because during these movements, your hands or feet are in a constant, fixed position (usually on the ground) during the exercise.
3. The New Cardio
High intensity interval training has been proven to be nine times more effective than steady-state cardio for burning fat. You don’t have to do cardio in the traditional form of what most people think. People were burning fat long before treadmills and stationary bikes with old-fashioned manual labor. You need to be doing high intensity exercise that revs up your metabolism each and every workout. You could run, sprint, swim, lift weights, do supersets with weights. Remember you don’t really burn much fat when you are actually exercising, except for a small amount of fatty acids that are in your bloodstream. It’s the calories your body burns during the other 23 hours of the day that count. With exercise and a clean diet you will put your body in a caloric deficit, which is still the ONLY proven way to melt off that unwanted fat.
4. Times Up
Standing around chatting about the news of the week for 5 minutes in between sets is not the most effective way to get a great workout. Keeping track and shortening your rest periods between exercises is an awesome away to burn calories and increase your conditioning. There is a BIG difference in “keeping track” of your time in your head and actually using your watch. Most people don’t realize how short a 60 second rest period is once they start watching the clock. Increasing training density by shortening or eliminating some rest periods in between sets is a great way to get a lot of workout volume done in a short amount of time. Keep your headphones on to avoid unwelcome distractions and keep your eye on your watch!
5. Be Cool
You started your workout off right with a dynamic warm-up, now its time to call it a day with a proper cool down. This is when you should be doing some old school Static stretching, which basically consists of stretching a muscle as far as your flexibility will allow and then holding that position for 10-15 seconds. Static stretching is of value primarily for preventing or correcting excessive muscle tension and establishing proper muscle length at the joints, both of which will improve movement efficiency. This type of stretching is best performed post-workout or several hours after the exercise session. Always easy into a stretch while gradually increasing the range of motion as your flexibility improves.
6. Spice it Up
Most training research shows that your body begins to adapt to a training program after 6 weeks. More specifically, you adapt to the rep range before everything else. Like the saying goes, “variety is the spice of life”. The same holds true for weight training. Ten reps might sound like a nice even number to aim for during each sets but that doesn’t mean it’s the most effective. For strength gains stick to the 1-3 rep range. For muscle growth work in the 4-6 rep range. For fat loss keep reps higher in the 10-12 rep range. Vary your workouts to prevent your body to adapting to the same training stress.
7. Failing To Plan
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”. This rings true with a proper workout program as well. All of these workout secrets should be part of a long-term training plan. Certified personal trainers spend years learning proper methods for kinetics and exercise design. So why do everyone think they can just slap together a bunch of exercises and think it’s going to get them the results they are after? Plan your workouts based on your goals. Are you looking to lose fat, build muscle or get stronger. It’s better to focus on one in each training phase. The most common method most gym rats might use wither they know it or not is Linear periodization. This is when the reps are decreased and the loads are increased over a period of time.
Recent training research has shown that a method of structuring your workouts called undulating periodization – has proven to be more effective in inducing maximum muscle gains when compared to traditional linear periodization models. Rotating from heavy (4-6 reps), to medium (8-10 reps) to light (12-15 reps) all in the same week will ensure your make steady progress and prevent that dreaded training plateau.
Sean Barker, CPT
Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com
Things are quiet in the house this weekend with my wife and baby daughter gone out of town to visit family.
So I headed to the gym bright and early on this Saturday morning.
Today was Workout B or lower body from the book Built For Show.
It was a high rep day of all 12 reps of front squats, step ups and abs.
Even though the weights were light, the short 45 sec rest periods were hardly enough time to catch my breath.
This was definitely a short and intense fat burning workout!
That’s it for today, gotta go get ready to pack for my business trip to Toronto.
But before I go I will leave you with the what I like to call the
The Dad Fitness Top 10 Tips to Change Your Body
If you just followed these 10 tips on a consistent basis, you can transform your body to tip-top shape.
1. Perform cardiovascular/aerobic exercise 3-5 times a week
(To get a lean physique you need to be doing some cardiovascular exercise, shorts intervals work best to increase your metabolism and burn fat)
2. Exercise at a high intensity
(If you can read a magazine while your doing cardio, you are not working hard enough! Imagine how fast you would run if you were being chased by a bear, thats how fast you should run.)
3. Perform weight-training 3 times a week
(Every 2nd day works great for weight training to allow for rest and recovery)
4. Exercise for 30-60 minutes per session
(The shorter your workouts are the more compound movements you should be doing. Supersets are also great to get a good workout done in a short amount of time)
5. Keep it real! Eat natural foods, avoid processed foods
(If it comes in a box or package don’t eat it. Even if it says healthy on the package its still not great for you. Real healthy foods don’t need to have those labels, ever see an apple with low fat marked on it? Just think if a caveman had access to it you can eat it. ex. meats, berries, nuts, fruits and vegetables
6. Don’t skip breakfast
(It’s called break-fast for a reason. Its breaking the fast your body undergoes during sleep. Start the day off right with a good breakfast.)
7. Eat 3 nutrient dense meals and two small snacks each day
(Most people don’t even eat 3 meals a day. Start working on 3 meals first, then add two snacks in between the morning meals and afternoon meals.)
8. Eat at least 3-4 servings of fruits and vegetables each day
(Again most people don’t eat this much, so make this your minimum, you can’t eat enough fruits and veggies)
9. Drink at least 1 liter of water each day
(Have a glass of water with every meal and snack, as well as first in the morning and last at night)
10. Organize your time (exercise, work, family, friends,)
(Organize and prioritize your workout, work and family obligations to achieve those goals you have written down. You did write them down right?)
Sean Barker, CPT
Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com
The Weight Training Triangle
-The Secret to Building Maximum Muscle
by Sean Barker,CPT
=============================================
The process of building muscle is pretty simple. It’s so simple actually; that people have a hard time believing how they can train less and grow more.
Find out the secret to building maximum muscle in minimum time.
I like to refer to the whole process of building muscle as the Training Triangle. It is basically the 24 hour a day process that your body will be undergoing when you begin weight training. It has three components, Training, Nutrition, and Recovery, each one no more important than the other. If one of these is not given 100%, the Training Triangle begins to crumble.
Weight Training is about stimulating muscle growth, plain and simple. It only provides the stimulus for your muscles to grow. Muscles DO NOT grow when you are in the gym. The other two corners of the Training Triangle take care of that. Weight Training exercise provides overload to the muscles, breaking down the muscle tissue on a microscopic level. It responds when subjected to levels of exercise beyond what it is accustomed to in order for an adaptation process to occur. The human body then attempts to adapt to this stimulus by getting stronger and growing more muscle tissue. This is where the next corner of the Triangle takes over.
Nutrition is the next vital step in the Training Triangle. Through eating the proper foods you supply your body with the nutrients it needs for energy replenishment, cell growth and repair, as well as the basic metabolic functions your body undergoes on a daily basis. Back in 400 B.C., Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine and medicine be your food.” Today, good nutrition is more important than ever. At least four of the 10 leading causes of death in the U.S.–heart disease, cancer, stroke and diabetes–are directly related to way we eat. Focus on eating lean proteins such as chicken, beef, pork and fish. Get lots of of fiber and antioxidants through fruits, veggies and 100% whole grains. Consume healthy omega 3 fats daily such as olive oil, flaxseed oil and fish oil. The key components to good nutrition and living a healthy lifestyle are balance, variety and moderation.
Recovery is probably the most neglected step in the Training Triangle. It is a fantastic feeling to be motivated and have a gung-ho attitude when beginning a weight training program, but some control and moderation must be included with that eagerness in order to see results. Remember the story of the tortuous and the hare? The lesson was that slow and steady, wins the race. Society has conditioned us to think more is better. But, in terms of weight training and building muscle, training too often can bring any gains to a screeching halt, as well as increase chance of injury and adrenal burnout. Rest and recovery is essential for maximum muscle growth. During recovery we build muscle in response to the stimulus we created while training. If you fail to take adequate recovery time into consideration, you will be greatly limiting your results.
The Training Triangle is the foundation of any successful weight-training program. Understanding each element and its importance, will directly dictate the results you will achieve.
…As for me, it looks like I am finally kicking this cold to the curb and had a great workout today.
Today I continued with my buddy Nate Green’s Built For Show workouts.
I am rotating through upper body and lower body workouts found in his “Fall Season” workouts.
Workout A- Upper Body
Workout B- Lower Body
I felt strong and focused today in the gym as I pumped out rows, db bench presses, chinups, shoulder presses and some abs work.
Sean Barker, CPT
Learn the “The Truth On Fat Loss, How To Finally Lose That Beer Belly” in this FREE report from Sean Barker at www.dadfitness.com
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