Barbell Training and Calisthenics

Something I've been thinking about lately is incorporating some calisthenics into my program. For those who are not familiar with it, calisthenics generally refers to a set of exercises that you can do using your body as the resistance rather than iron plates, dumbbells, bands or other such equipment.

Of course, at the end of the day, barbell training is best for getting stronger as you can theoretically continue to add weight to the bar indefinitely. With calisthenics, you have to rely on things like body position in order to get the leverage needed to increase the resistance. However, once you've mastered something like the one-armed pull-up, there is little you can do without adding weight in order to continue to make it harder. You can change the speed, I suppose, but you can't continue to add resistance.

Keep It Simple, Silly

 

Photo by John Pratt on Unsplash

When you think about a "functional training," what picture do you get in your mind? Perhaps this term makes you think about things like doing squats on a BOSU platform in order to work on your balance. For a specific sport, such as baseball, you might think of putting weighted rings on the bat and swinging the heavier bat so that, without the rings, the "normally weighted" bat is easier to swing. It seems like it makes a lot of sense.

How to avoid neck and back pain while working from home

 

Photo by Ron Sinda on Unsplash

When I was growing up, I was told...rather regularly...to sit up straight. Whether it was my parents, grand parents, teachers or whatever, my posture was just never a huge priority for me. Even when I was an adult and out on my own, this didn't really change much.

As I have continued to get older, I have started to realize that perhaps I should have done a better job listening to those admonishments. As it turns out, reality can be a somewhat painful teacher. 

Between slouching in my chair, keeping a wallet in my back pocket (even when I'm sitting), hunching my shoulders and all the other things I was told repeatedly not to do, it finally started catching up with me. Neck pain and low back pain have become a more regular part of my life.

Why should you be training?

Photo by Cédric Dhaenens on Unsplash 

When a person becomes a soldier, they begin training on the very first day. They are not just training arbitrarily. They are training for a purpose. That purpose is war. They spend their days training for war, learning weapons and tactics and doing all the preparation they can to ensure that they can win whenever they are called to fight.

What many people may not realize is that we are all at war. This, I suppose, is true in multiple different ways. Many of us have various wars we are fighting in our lives. But there is one war that is common to all of us. It is the war that we all fight, and we usually fight it alone. It is a war against time.

The fact is, we are getting older. Every moment of every day of every year, we get older. There is no way to go the other way and there is no pause button. There is an old saying that the time to start digging your well is before you get thirsty. Similarly, the time to prepare for war is before you have to engage in the battle. So what does all this have to do with training?

Since we are all going to get older, we all have certain expectations as to how this happens and what it will be like. Maybe you know someone who, as they got older, became more dependent upon other people do help them with simple things. Eventually, they couldn't even get dressed or bathe themselves without getting help from someone. It starts with a slowing down...walking slowly around the mall on a Saturday. Eventually, the walk slows further and becomes more of a shuffle. The shoulders get rounded and they start to stoop. Then they can't walk for very long because they get tired too quickly. In time, they don't even get out to the mall and just putter around the house. Next thing you know, they need help getting out of bed, putting on their shoes and walking up or down stairs.

I know. It's a fairly bleak picture. And I don't bring it up to demean anyone who is living like that. I feel genuinely sad about it because nobody ever told them. They weren't taught when they were younger how to prevent having to live like that. In some cases, it couldn't be helped. Maybe an injury or illness resulted in decreased independence and the need to rely on others to help with what used to be simple things.

For many, however, the problem stems from the fact that they were never trained. And if you don't get good training, when the battle is fought, you have far less chance of surviving, never mind winning. But you're here. You're reading this. Are you prepared? Are you training? 

The training I'm talking about isn't about "exercise." Exercise is something you do to get your heart-rate and body temperature up, breath heavy and sweat a lot. You exercise for an hour or so and leave the gym feeling satisfied that you've accomplished something. The problem is, you haven't trained for anything. There was no end-goal in mind apart from the experience itself. Training, however, means getting a long-term plan to fight the battle of the years so that you can be independent, strong, virile and self-reliant as you get older.

The next time you're out and about (I know...maybe that's a bit less likely right now), and you see someone who has become old and frail and weak, don't think less of them, but determine to not fall into the same trap. Resolve to train. Make a decision to reach out and find someone to help train you to prepare for this battle. The better prepared you are, the better your chances of fending off the enemy of time for longer and longer.

Let me know when you are ready. Let me know if you want to be prepared. I've been fighting that battle and have seen the progress. You can be ready to fight that battle, too. Just let me know when you're ready to start training.

What is the best time of day to train?

 Photo by Maks Styazhkin on Unsplash

There are multiple things to consider when you want to schedule your training. You have to know if you're going to have enough energy in the morning. You. have to know if you're going to be exhausted by the time you get out of work. You have to figure out if you have enough time over lunch to get a decent workout and still go back to the office after.

The simple answer to the question of what is the best time of day to train is, whatever time you can most consistently do so. For example, in my own life, I can be relatively certain that I could get more out of working out after work, before dinner. I would have more energy, wouldn't have to worry about waking people up by getting ready (or even actually training, as I have a home gym) and I will have had a couple of meals throughout the day.

I'm not a morning person. But I recognize that if I tried to work out at my ideal time, I might be able to work out once or twice a month because there would almost always be something else that needs to be done and I wouldn't have time to train. So, I train in the morning. It's not ideal. I don't like getting up that early. I don't like training without having eaten anything (again...don't want to wake everyone up and food prep makes noise that carries through my house like crazy!) 

Benefits of Exercise - Balance

Photo by Evan Clark Unsplash

An often overlooked benefit to strength training is balance. It is not surprising that we tend to lose muscle mass and bone density as we get older. We also now know that we can slow these processes down a bit by strength training. We also covered how being stronger and having higher bone density protected us from injury.

What seems pretty obvious, once you say it out loud, is that a better sense of balance protects us from injury as well. It does not take a great leap of logic to figure out that decreasing your risk of falling over is a good way to prevent injury. The question we want to address today is how strength training improves your sense of balance.

Benefits of Exercise - Muscle Mass

Photo by Aan Nizal Unsplash

Last week, we looked at how our bones will decrease in strength and density as we age. This week, we look at the other side of that coin; muscle loss. Once again, we will take a look at one of those $.50 words that are used to describe this process; sarcopenia. This word is literally translated as 'loss of muscle' which occurs over time as we age.

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), the average person loses 30-50% of their muscle mass between the ages of 40-80. They go on to claim that this process is exacerbated by a lack of activity, which makes sense as we delve into this.