Gravity Fx Fitness

Is the typical bodybuilding diet wrong for the average person? Can this practice of eating frequent meals actually encourage you to store fat?

Do you need protein supplements to build muscle and get lean?  In order to optimize your hormones for burning fat and increasing your overall health, I encourage you to listen to this awesome podcast with kettle bell expert Mike Mahler and Dr. Perry Nickleston.

Mahler had a near death experience with severe pneumonia which caused him to search for answers, especially since he thought he was eating right and exercising properly, yet nearly died from a severe infection.

He is a tremendously strong and well built individual, yet he is also a vegan and consumes far less protein than many people recommend.  Another top trainer that is a vegan is coach Jon Hinds of the Monkeybar Gym.

These guys are big yet lean, which is the kind of look that most any drug-free athlete would take in a heartbeat.  Mahler discusses stress reduction and not just managing your stress levels.  He also discusses cortisol and the idea of eating “real foods” and various spices to reduce inflammation in the body.

I’m no expert in diet and nutrition, that’s for sure.  Luckily, I have found people like this to listen to – people who aren’t in some science lab and have never worked out much, but people who are involved in intense workouts – the kind that can elevate your fat burning hormones.

Mahler also addresses detox diets and energy drinks.  If you have heard of the common practice of taking in large amounts of carbohydrates with some protein immediately after your workout, you might think twice.  He recommends waiting half an hour to an hour and not taking in all those carbs, unless you’ve been running a marathon.

In the past I’ve taken various protein drinks and sometimes used creatine monohydrate, also.  While I had some decent muscle size I also was bloated and sometimes gassy, which is not always a good sign.  I’ve seen this in other guys too and sometimes more emphasis is placed on the supplemental items than on eating high quality foods.

I highly recommend that you listen to this informative audio interview which may explain why you aren’t making progress with your exercise program.  Hormone optimization is definitely the way to go for losing weight and being healthy.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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Density training is a way to increase your fat burning potential while building lean muscle tissue.

Resistance training is important for elevating your metabolism.  When you build lean muscle tissue, you end up with a faster metabolism, as you now have more muscle tissue that burns more calories.

When you first start lifting weights, you quickly increase the amount of weight you can use and/or the number of reps you are capable of.

This is due to your nervous system learning how to move the weights more efficiently – your muscle coordination increases quickly, for a while…..over time, the strength gains slow down and you sometimes struggle to lift more weight.

Typically, you either increase the amount of weight (load) and/or the amount of sets and reps.  For example, if you lift a 100 lb. weight for 2 sets of 10 repetitions, you can increase the amount of work you do, by doing 3 or 4 sets of 10 with the same load (weight).

With density training, you would seek to do more work in a set period of time.  Say it takes you 10 minutes to lift the 100 lbs. for 4 sets of 10 reps (40 total reps).

If you now do 45 reps in the same time period (10 min.), your muscles did more work.  More work = more gains/better benefits.  Density training will have you choose two opposing exercises for a set period of time – usually 15 to 20 minutes.

You might do a pushing movement paired with a pulling movement, like a bench press with a seated row, or a leg movement paired with a shoulder exercise.  Pick a weight that you can do 10 reps maximum and do only 5 reps of the first movement before doing the alternative exercise.

At first, the rest periods will be short, then getting slightly longer as you start to get fatigued.  By doing less reps, you avoid getting fatigued early, allowing you to do a lot of total reps in the 15 or 20 minute period.

Keep track of how many reps you do and try to beat that number with each training session.  Over time, you would increase the weight a small amount.  This type of system allows you to set a new PR (personal record) each time out, so you have a goal to beat with every training session.

Besides providing plenty of motivation, this allows you to avoid hitting a plateau as often as the traditional method that most people use.  Obviously, this will lead to greater results.  By choosing exercises that involve compound movements (multi-joint), you end up working a lot of muscle fibers in each workout.

Generally speaking, the more muscle fibers worked, the greater the number of calories burned.  So if looking to build overall muscle and/or burn more fat, you would minimize the number of isolation exercises.

You could use three 15 minute sessions per workout or two 20 minute periods per workout, usually resting about 5 minutes in between.  This system is called EDT (Escalating Density Training) and was developed by coach Charles Staley.

With this method you don’t need to do much, if any cardio to burn fat, but be prepared - you will be working harder than normal and may have a little more soreness!

I am going back to using this system for a while to try and increase my strength and lose some fat at the same time.  Staley’s  clients have seen some great progress with this method.  I’ll keep you updated on my own progress over the coming weeks.

Get moving!

Brian Morgan

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