Split Squat Technique
Today I want to cover proper and improper exercise technique for the split squat. I’ll go ahead and note up front that everything I’m going to discuss would apply to the myriad lunging variations as well. The only difference is the added component of movement (forwards, backwards, alternating or whatever).
A Primer on Dietary Carbohydrates – Part 2
In a Primer on Dietary Carbohydrates – Part 1, I took a brief look at what carbohydrates are and listed the three primary categories of dietary carbohydrates which are monosaccharides, oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. As well, I looked in some detail at the monosaccharides (simple sugars) which are glucose (dextrose), fructose and galactose.
A Primer on Dietary Carbohydrates – Part 1
Having previously done a fairly detailed Primer on Dietary Fats, I wanted to do something similar on the topic of carbohydrates (in the future I’ll do one for protein as well). In this article, I’m not going to look at many of the debates surrounding the issues of carbohydrate intake (in terms of body weight, body fat, or health), you can read Carbohydrate and Fat Conteroversies Part 1 and Carbohdyrate and Fat Controversies Part 2 for somewhat of an examination of that. Rather, I just want to focus on some basic definitions and concepts since there tends to be a lot of general confusion over the topic of carbohydrates.
Ketogenic Diets: High-fat or High-Protein – Q&A
I’m familiar with the “true” ketogenic diet of 90% fat which historically is a medical diet used to assist in controlling seizure prone individuals, but it has the added advantage of being a fantastic way to shed weight while keeping the brain fed. In your RAPID FAT LOSS diet, you say it’s basically a ketogenic diet but without the dietary fat – why? If I were to choose between the 2 ketogenic diets, why choose 90-95% PROTEIN over 90-95% FAT????
Beginning Weight Training Part 4
And with that I want to jump straight into examples of three different beginner programs. The first is the Starting Strength program as developed by Mark Rippetoe (and reproduced here in full with his permission). The second is a beginner program as outlined by my mentor, it would represent another standard approach to a barbell based routine based around the big compound movements.
Finally, and primarily to offend the barbell purists, I’m going to reproduce the basic machine-based program that I used with the majority of my beginners. Again,keep in mind that those folks were almost universally folks seeking general fitness and health and I usually only had 3 workouts to get them roughly competent in the weight room. In different contexts, I taught different movements.
Beginning Weight Training Part 3
I had originally wanted to wrap up today but, as usual, I’m running long and I’ll have to do a fourth part on Friday where I look at some specific programs. Today, I want to look at some issues related to loading parameters for beginners including intensity, volume, frequency and exercise selection. Quite a bit of research has actually looked at these topics in beginners (I’m unaware of much on exercise selection) and that goes a long way towards guiding the development of proper beginner programs.
Beginning Weight Training Part 2
Today I want to continue by looking at what the specific goals of beginner training are, that is what specific adaptations and things are trying to be accomplished when setting up a beginning routine in the weight room. As I’ll come back to when I finish up next Tuesday in Part 3, the goals desired, along with some science I’m going to bore you with go a long way towards helping to design a good basic beginning program.
Beginning Weight Training Part 1
For the most part, articles and information about beginner’s training isn’t terribly popular. This is because, with literally no exception I have ever run into in nearly 20 years of doing this, everybody thinks that they are more advanced than they are. It’s simply human nature, nobody wants to think of themselves as a beginner or noob. In the world of training and dieting the consequence of this is that folks tend to jump into advanced training or diet interpretations long before they are either needed or useful or they have developed the necessary fundamentals.
