Month: February 2014

So my meticulously planned schedule managed to get messed up which is why this is a day late and you’ll have to wait for my next video until next week.  So it goes.  In any case, today I’m going to finish up the republication of this series (with a couple of added sections).  And this piece if very long for which I apologize, when I originally wrote this I was forced into 6 parts for some reason.

In Training the Obese Beginner: Part 5, I made a case for the inclusion of both weight training and cardiovascular training for the obese beginner, despite having listed some initial limitations to both in earlier parts of the series.  I also gave a general overview of what I did in the first session with those clients.

Today I want to look specifically at how I approached that first day/weeks of training (again noting that there are obviously more ways to approach the situation than just this one). … Keep Reading

Ok, almost to the end.  Continuing from Training the Obese Beginner: Part 4 today I want to start start to bring together everything I’ve talked about in this series.  First I want to address why I think the inclusion of both weight training and cardiovascular/aerobic training of some sort is important for the obese beginner along with why I think both should be done from Day 1 of the training program.

Then, I’m going to describe how I personally approached the first workout with the obese (and usually the non-obese) beginner in terms of structure along with talking about some generalities of training.  I’ll finish up in Part 6 (next week) and talk about progressions in the weight room, on the cardio deck, etc.

Let me note up front that some of what I’m going to write simply represents what I did/found to work in this population when I was working as a personal trainer all those years ago; some of it will be more what I would do now were I still working with that population.… Keep Reading

In Training the Obese Beginner: Part 3 I basically summarized everything to date to conclude that the best approach to target all of the various issues going in this population on was a combination of progressive volume higher rep weight training (to deplete muscle glycogen) along with dietary modifications (both carbohydrate and/or calorie reductions).

This would ideally be combined with progressive amounts of cardio as fitness improves to both burn of fatty acids directly and start to retool mitochondria to overcome that defect.   Which is all well and good but doesn’t provide much in the way of practical guidance.

And, make no mistake, I’m going to talk about those very things in the last two parts of the series (again, remember this is all leading into a brand spanking new video at the end of this mess).  Today, I want to take a slightly different approach to the topic by looking at of how not to go about training the obese beginner.… Keep Reading

Ok, having discussed far too many tedious physiological details in Part 1 and Part 2, let’s go ahead and get into some of the actual details and practicalities of training the obese beginner.  Oh…wait, there’s one more.

Fat Loss vs. Improved Health

.Mainly throughout this series, I’ve focused on fat loss as the primary end-goal for the obese trainee but it’s worth noting that this is absolutely NOT the only (or even necessarily the primary/best) end goal when we talk about exercise and dietary modification.

Certainly it’s the one that most people are concerned about but that doesn’t mean that’s automatically correct.  Because there is also the whole health thing to consider.

Yes, yes, I know, “getting healthier” is not nearly as sexy a goal as “looking better naked” (perhaps literally) but that doesn’t make it any less important.  There are a lot of things that can make you look better naked that don’t necessarily make you healthier and there are things that make you healthier that don’t automatically make you look better naked.… Keep Reading

In Training the Obese Beginner: Part 1 I took little bit of a complex/technical look at some of the physiological “defects” that are often seen when obesity develops.   Continuing with that I want to look at a few more physiological issues including muscle mass, metabolic rate (mainly to bust a common myth) and the realities of exercise in the beginner/obese beginner population.

Increased Muscle Mass

Perhaps surprisingly, one of the consequences of developing obesity is that some proportion of the total weight gained is lean body mass (LBM).  Quite in fact, this may make up an average of 25% of the total weight gained.  So if someone gained 100 pounds, as much of that could be 25 pounds of LBM.   I’d note that the process is not unlimited.   At some point, obese individuals come up a maximum limit on LBM (similar to the one seen in natural lifters).  From that point on, weight gain is 100% body fat.… Keep Reading